Spiegal v. Fireman's Fund Insurance Co.

680 So. 2d 690, 92 La.App. 4 Cir. 2116, 1996 La. App. LEXIS 1479
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided July 31, 1996·No. No. 92-CA-2116·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinions

ON REMAND FROM THE SUPREME COURT

liMURRAY, Judge.

This case is before us on remand from the Supreme Court. Plaintiff, Edward Ferrell, was injured on August 12, 1985, when his Toyota1 hit an unmarked police car that was stopped in the left lane of traffic, and was then hit by a Cadillac driven by Antoine Paudice. The police car, operated by Officer Reid Noble, was parked in the left hand lane of traffic behind a Chevrolet, driven by Kim-mie Cranford, who had stopped to offer assistance to Ms. Patrice Brown, the driver of a Mazda that had spun out of control, struck the left hand guard rail and come to rest facing traffic in either the left-hand lane of traffic or on the shoulder.2

|2The Supreme Court set forth the history of this litigation in its opinion:

... Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell sued the drivers and insurers of the other five vehicles. Paudice sued the drivers and insurers of the others, including Ferrell, one of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit.
Prior to trial, the Ferrells settled their claims against Paudice, Noble, and the City of New Orleans. There remained for trial their claims against Brown and her insurer, Fireman’s Fund, and against Cranford and his insurer, Liberty Mutual, and Enterprise Leasing who leased the car to Cranford. At the conclusion of trial, the jury found that Brown and Cranford were not negligent, that Noble was negligent and was a proximate cause of the accident, that Ferrell was negligent but was not a proximate cause of the accident, and that Paudice was negligent and a proximate cause of the accident. The jury apportioned fault as follows: 0% to Brown and Cranford; 20% to Noble; 30% to the phantom; 30% to Ferrell; and 20% to Paudice.

Ferrell at pp. 2-3, 650 So.2d at 744-745.

This Court affirmed the jury’s decision. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and affirmed the judgment as to the finding that Mr. Cranford was not at fault. It, however, reversed the judgment with regard to the finding that Ms. Brown was not at fault. It also found that the trial court had committed a legal error by entering judgment on the jury’s inconsistent responses to interrogatories as to Mr. Ferrell, in contravention of La.Code of Civ.Proc.Ann. art. 1813(E). The Supreme Court found that this legal error may have interdicted the fact-finding process and remanded the ease to this court for a de novo review to determine if Edward Ferrell was guilty of any negligence that was a legal or proximate cause of the accident and, if so, assign the proper percentage of fault to him. After doing so this court is to recalculate the [693]*693respective percentages of fault of Patrice Brown, the phantom driver, Officer Noble, and Mr. Paudice, and, if appropriate, calculate damages.

JsTHE TESTIMONY:

Patrice Brown testified that she was on her way from New Orleans to Slidell at approximately 6:30 p.m. on August 12, 1985, travelling east on Interstate 10 in the center lane of traffic, when her car began to drift to the left, and would not respond to her efforts to steer it back into the center lane. The car hit the concrete median on the left, did a 180 degree turn, and came to rest in the “safety lane” facing west. A portion of the car may have projected into the left lane of traffic, but she was certain that it came to rest close to the guardrail. She had had a similar experience some months before, and her car had only recently been repaired. She was very angry that it was damaged again. She got out of the car, and determined that the only damage was to the left front end. She believed that the car was driveable, but made no effort to move it.3 She testified that the car directly behind her stopped immediately after her car came to rest. The man driving that car and a lady, who apparently stopped her car on the shoulder farther ahead, came to where Ms. Brown was. Approximately thirty seconds later a white car stopped behind the first car and a lady dressed in full police uniform got out. This police officer came to where Ms. Brown and the two other drivers were standing. Ms. Brown testified that the group talked for thirty to forty seconds when the police officer told her to run, grabbed her shirt and pulled her east on 1-10 until she heard several crashes.

Kimmie Cranford testified that traffic was moderate in terms of what he is used to at that time of day. He had just driven out of a thunderstorm into light rain, and was travel-ling at 50-55 miles per hour. The traffic around him was moving at 60-65 miles per hour. Near the crest of the Read Road overpass he saw |4Ms. Brown’s red Mazda begin to drift to the left. He was driving in the left lane, as was the Mazda when he first noticed it. The Mazda drifted into the area to the left of the lane where its left front bumper hit the guard rail concrete abutment, bounced off the guard rail, spun in a counterclockwise direction, and came to a stop facing oncoming traffic astride the dividing line between the left lane and the center lane, extending approximately three feet into the center lane, blocking both lanes of traffic. Mr. Cranford stopped his car in the left lane, approximately 150 feet behind the Mazda. He set his parking brake, turned on his emergency flashers, checked traffic behind him, got out of his car and ran to the Mazda to see if anyone was injured. He determined that the driver was alright. With the help of another motorist, he got Ms. Brown out of her car and onto the side of the road, away from the center lane of traffic. He then pushed her car from the center lane into the left lane. He was trying to talk to Ms. Brown when Reid Noble’s police ear pulled to a stop behind his car. Officer Noble turned on her emergency flashers, got out of her car, and approached Mr. Cranford, Ms. Brown and the other lady. She inquired what happened, and was given a brief explanation. She then used a hand-held radio to report the accident. Mr. Cranford estimated that he was on the scene about four to five minutes before the police officer arrived. He called Officer Noble’s attention to the danger of their position, and suggested that they get away from the cars. They began running away from his car, and had almost reached the Mazda when the police car was hit by Mr. Ferrell’s Toyota. Mr. Cranford did not see the impact, but he heard the crash and looked up to see his car sliding towards him. It stopped about twenty feet from where they were standing on a narrow strip between the left lane and the guardrail. The Toyota was hit by Mr. Paudiee’s red Cadillac, but Mr. Cranford did not see that collision freither. He ran toward the Cadillac, but when he determined that the driver appeared to be conscious he decided to stay by the Toyota because Mr. Ferrell’s condition seemed uncertain.

Reid Noble, an off-duty New Orleans police officer, testified that she had just gotten off duty when she saw a car stopped in the [694]*694left hand lane of 1-10 on the “upstroke” of the overpass over Read Boulevard. She came to a stop approximately fifteen feet behind this car, and discovered that there was a car in front of it facing the wrong way, against traffic, diagonally across the left hand lane. She put on her hazard lights, put her car in park, and walked forward to check on injuries. While doing so she called the dispatcher to advise that she was getting out on a possible wreck.

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Spiegal v. Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., 680 So. 2d 690, 92 La.App. 4 Cir. 2116, 1996 La. App. LEXIS 1479 (La. Ct. App. 1996).

680 So. 2d 690 (Spiegal v. Fireman's Fund Insurance Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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