Smith v. Hoye

115 So. 2d 651, 1959 La. App. LEXIS 1015
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 30, 1959
DocketNo. 9099
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 115 So. 2d 651 (Smith v. Hoye) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Hoye, 115 So. 2d 651, 1959 La. App. LEXIS 1015 (La. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

GLADNEY, Judge.

In this damage suit personal injuries were sustained by Mrs. Jane Hamner Smith and her minor daughter, Catherine, in a vehicular collision occurring in the intersection of Thornhill and Evangeline Streets in Shreveport, Louisiana. The claimants are Mrs. Smith, petitioning on account of her injuries, and her husband, Robert Mc-Nair Smith, who seeks reimbursement of community expenses incurred, and who also appears to recover damages for personal injuries to the minor, Catherine Smith. Made defendants are Mary Ruth Hoye and her liability insurer, the St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. After a trial a jury verdict awarded Robert McNair Smith $1,160 for property damage and medical expenses, and $40 for his daughter, Catherine. The demands of Mrs. Smith were denied. From the resulting decree all parties have appealed.

The principal issue presented on the appeal pertains to the negligence of both drivers, and particularly as to whether either was maintaining a proper lookout upon entering the intersection. The soundness of the awards as made, is seriously argued.

During the afternoon of April 15, 1958, a dry, clear day, Mrs. Jane Hamner Smith, accompanied by her daughter Catherine, fifteen years of age, was driving west on Evangeline Street approaching Thorn-hill at about the same time Mary Ruth Hoye was driving north along Thornhill nearing its intersection with Evangeline. Neither of the two vehicles was proceeding at a speed in excess of fifteen to twenty miles per hour. A collision between the two automobiles occurred about the center of the intersection, the Smith car being [653]*653struck near the middle of its left side by the right front of the other vehicle.

The intersection is one not controlled by a signal light and is without stop signs; nor is it affected by a city traffic ordinance. It is, therefore, governed by the State Highway Regulatory Act, LSA-R.S. 32:237, subd. A, which accords the right-of-way to the vehicle approaching the intersection 'from the right.

Evangeline and Thornhill Streets are each surfaced to a width of twenty-four feet. Evangeline is a level, paved street, whereas Thornhill is blacktopped and bumpy. A board fence approximately three feet high or more, edges the two streets at the southeast corner of the intersection. The boards of the fence are six inches to eight inches wide, are affixed horizontally and spaced about eight inches .apart. Photographs of the southeast corner of the intersection disclose several bushes and trees growing in this corner between Thornhill and Evangeline Streets. To further obstruct the vision of a motorist approaching the intersection from the south on Thornhill, at the time of the accident an automobile was parked close to the southeast corner of the intersection on the south side of Evangeline Street.

A Shreveport police officer, K. J. DeLy-■ser, who investigated the accident immediately after its occurrence, positioned the point of impact between the two vehicles •close to the center of the intersection, with the Smith car being somewhat more advanced therein than the vehicle of Miss Hoye.

There were no eye witnesses to the accident, other than the occupants of the two cars. These were Mrs. Smith and her minor daughter, Catherine, and Miss Hoye, who was accompanied by a child of ten years of age, Judy Outz, who did not testify. Mrs. Smith testified that she did not reduce her speed and she first saw the Hoye vehicle when she was entering the intersection. Miss Hoye testified she considerably reduced the speed of her automobile as she came to the intersection and then proceeded forward, but did not notice the approach of the Smith car until it entered the intersection. The foregoing facts are not disputed and clearly show neither motorist observed the approach of the other until it was impossible for either to alter or stop the course of her vehicle and avoid the collision. Immediately following the impact Miss Hoye admitted fault to Mrs. Smith, which statements she acknowledged on the witness stand, but then testified that after reconsidering the matter she did not feel she was more at fault than was Mrs. Smith. Damage to the Hoye car was negligible, but the Smith vehicle was damaged, incurring a bill of $218.37 for restoration to its previous condition.

Counsel for the defendants do not seriously assert Miss Hoye was free from negligence, but they strongly maintain that Mrs. Smith was contributorily negligent in failing to maintain a proper lookout and in not yielding to Miss Hoye, who, it is averred, had pre-empted the intersection. The position so taken is not a sound one. Mrs. Smith’s observation of traffic approaching from her left on Thornhill was obscured by the parked automobile, the board fence and shrubbery, all of which, we think, prevented her from seeing across the southeast corner of the intersection. The corner is one we commonly refer to as a “blind corner” and for this reason the Hoye vehicle could not be seen until it actually nosed into the intersection.

We find Mrs. Smith did not fail in her duty to maintain a proper lookout, a duty which implies that one who operates a motor vehicle must keep a sharp lookout ahead to discover the presence of those who might be in danger. When the foregoing circumstances prevail a duty resolves upon the motorist approaching from the left to yield. The implication from the statute LSA-R.S. 32:237, subd. A, is [654]*654that a motorist exercising ordinary care in driving on a superior street should not be held to the same standard or degree of care and vigilance as if no such expression of the legislative intent existed. He has the right to assume, it has been repeatedly held, that unless danger can be reasonably anticipated or is otherwise imminent, the law relating to this rule of the road is understood and will be observed, and he is not required to search in anticipation of other motorists who may, in violation thereof, enter an intersection from an inferior street without being relatively certain that it is safe. to do so. Gutierrez v. Columbia Casualty Company, La.App.1958, 100 So.2d 537, 539. In Gautreaux v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Company, La.App.1955, 83 So.2d 667, 669, it was said:

“In the everyday world, ordinarily prudent motorists on the main thoroughfare do not slow before each corner and attempt to peer down the sidestreets, but instead concentrate most of their attention on the path ahead, relying on their legal ‘right of way’. Legislative provisions for right of way are to facilitate the passage of traffic in this congested twentieth century world. If to accomplish this purpose, and in realization that even observing the path ahead may tax the ordinary motorists’ powers of sustained observation, the legislature has relieved the motorist on the right of way street of a duty ordinarily to slow before each intersection (and, consequently, of a duty to take his attention from the path ahead by darting glances each way down the intersecting streets), appellate courts should not supply artificial standards in an unrealistic attempt to allocate damages after an accident has occurred.”

As above noted, the impact between the two vehicles occurred close to the center of the intersection, thus indicating both motorists entered the intersection almost simultaneously. Mrs. Smith, however, entered the intersection slightly ahead of Miss Hoye, as evidenced by the fact that the Smith car was struck on its left side by the front of the Hoye vehicle.

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Bluebook (online)
115 So. 2d 651, 1959 La. App. LEXIS 1015, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-hoye-lactapp-1959.