Sonnier v. Dupin

416 So. 2d 1371
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 2, 1982
Docket82-87
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 416 So. 2d 1371 (Sonnier v. Dupin) 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
Sonnier v. Dupin, 416 So. 2d 1371 (La. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

416 So.2d 1371 (1982)

Terry SONNIER, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Melvin DUPIN, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 82-87.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

July 2, 1982.

*1372 Rogers & St. Romain, Lake Charles, for plaintiff-appellant; Jack Rogers and John M. Crochet, Lake Charles, of counsel.

Hall, Lestage & Lestage, David R. Lestage, DeRidder, Durrett, Hardin, Hunter, Dameron & Fritchie, Emile Rolfs, III, Cassandra Simms, Baton Rouge, for defendants-appellees.

Before FORET, STOKER and DOUCET, JJ.

STOKER, Judge.

This is a personal injury action growing out of a diving accident. Plaintiff-appellant Terry Sonnier dove from the bank of Bundicks Creek in Beauregard Parish, Louisiana, and injured himself when he struck a shallow bottom. His injuries have left him paralyzed and a quadriplegic. The plaintiff was a minor at the time this suit was filed and was substituted as a plaintiff when he became of age. The defendants-appellees are certain deputies and employees of the Sheriff's Department of Calcasieu Parish and the State of Louisiana as their alleged employer and as owner of the premises where the accident occurred.

FACTS

At the time of the accident Terry Sonnier was sixteen years old and was a member of an Explorer Post, a unit in the Explorer program of the Boy Scouts, sponsored by the Sheriff's Department of Calcasieu Parish (Sheriff's Department). The Sheriff's Department also sponsored an organization of Junior Deputies, boys and girls younger than the Explorers. The Sheriff's Department projected an outing for the Junior Deputies at Bundicks Creek in Beauregard Parish, and members of the department agreed that the Explorers could also attend. As a condition of their going on the outing, Explorers had to help handle the younger group, the Junior Deputies. Deputy Dupin advised the group that a section of the creek in shallow water would be roped off, and the swimmers should remain within the roped-off area. Additionally, the group was told not to run and jump into the water because an accident occurred in a previous year's outing when a girl stepped on broken glass. Deputy Dupin and Deputy Kenneth W. Potts, assisted by some of the Explorers, tied a rope across one end of the creek and then "walked the creek" toward a deeper end. A rope was to be tied in the deeper water which was relatively shallow. The purpose of the walking procedure was to discover deep holes, objects, debris, bottles and other foreign matter, if any, in the roped-off area which might cause injury to a swimmer.

Deputy Dupin tried to fix the second limit of the swimming area by tieing one end of the rope at one bank and moving to the other bank, but the rope was too short. He sent for additional rope. While Dupin was in the water waiting for the additional rope, plaintiff's accident occurred.

Approximately nine Explorers made the outing. Some of them, including plaintiff Terry Sonnier, had moved a short distance beyond the roped-off area. They had begun diving from the creek bank about one foot above the water level. It is disputed whether Deputy Dupin was aware of the actions of the Explorers. All insisted that they had been given permission to go outside the roped-off area. Deputy Dupin denies having given the Explorers permission. In addition, he testified that he was unaware of their presence beyond the rope. Dupin was standing in the water with the *1373 rope behind him. By this time the Junior Deputies had apparently "buddied up" and had entered the water and were splashing about. Deputy Dupin stated that any diving noise the Explorers made was not heard or was not distinguishable from the noise created by the Junior Deputies.

The water in which the Explorers were diving was shallow. The evidence is that the depth was between three and four feet, or at most five feet. Each of the Explorers made at least one dive or jump into the water. Some stated they made four or five dives. Terry Sonnier himself had made two dives and was injured on his second dive. It is apparent that except for Terry's unfortunate dive, all the dives must have been shallow ones or were made straight out from the bank so that the divers either did not penetrate deeply or they hit the top of the water. What Terry did on his second dive is not clear. Terry remembers little of the event. He dove and then did not come up above the water surface. When Terry did not surface, his older brother Joe and one or more other Explorers went in and brought him up, got him out of the water and sat him up on the bank. Deputy Dupin was alerted at this point and all the adults came to the place where Terry was located on a ledge of the creek bank. A cot belonging to one of the adults was brought, and Dupin and Potts placed Terry on the cot. The ledge of the bank was about one foot above the creek level. The creek bank then sloped upwards perhaps seven or eight feet above the ledge, as shown by a picture introduced into evidence. Terry was carried up this embankment of the cot in a level position.

The deputies contacted the Beauregard Parish Sheriff's Department and requested that an ambulance pick up Terry Sonnier. When it was determined that it would take some forty-five minutes for the ambulance to arrive from DeRidder, Terry, while remaining on the cot, was placed inside a van belonging to one of the adults. The owner drove toward DeRidder to meet the ambulance half way in order to save time.

When brought out of the water, Terry Sonnier apparently had no feeling in his extremities. As stated above, he is a quadriplegic as a result of his injuries.

PLEADINGS AND PARTIES

This suit was first asserted by Terry Sonnier's mother individually and on behalf of Terry as a minor. Initially, she named as defendants the Sheriff of Calcasieu Parish, The Calcasieu Parish Police Jury and Deputy Sheriff Melvin Dupin along with insurers.[1] Terry Sonnier was later substituted as an additional plaintiff in his own right when he became eighteen years old. His mother, Shirley LeDee, remained in the case as a claimant for Terry's medical expenses incurred during his minority.[2] Subsequently, other Deputy Sheriffs were named as additional defendants. These were Frank Adams, Gene Morgan, Ray Jordan and Kenneth Potts. Also by amendment, the State of Louisiana was named as a defendant with allegations that the State was guilty of negligent acts "through its agents and employees who operate, control and maintain the Bundicks Lake area, as well as the Deputy Sheriff [sic] for which the State is responsible ...". The State is charged with negligence generally consisting of inadequate supervision of the area, failing to have "medical help and facilities available," failure to provide life guards, failure to designate various swimming areas as safe or unsafe and not adequately warning the public of the known dangers in the swimming area or of those which could be reasonably anticipated.

*1374 The allegations of negligence as to the officials and employees of the Sheriff's Department, Deputy Dupin in particular, are extensive. Acts of negligence leading up to the diving accident and failure to properly handle Terry Sonnier after injury in view of his particular injury are alleged. Plaintiffs also invoked the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. The specific acts of negligence charged against Deputy Dupin and the other members of the Sheriff's Department cover charges such as inadequate and improper supervision, including failure to provide enough life guards with proper training to handle the number of youths swimming.

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Bluebook (online)
416 So. 2d 1371, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sonnier-v-dupin-lactapp-1982.