Temple v. State ex rel. Department of Transportation & Development

858 So. 2d 569, 2002 La.App. 1 Cir. 1977, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 1934
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 27, 2003
DocketNo. 2002 CA 1977
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 858 So. 2d 569 (Temple v. State ex rel. Department of Transportation & Development) 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
Temple v. State ex rel. Department of Transportation & Development, 858 So. 2d 569, 2002 La.App. 1 Cir. 1977, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 1934 (La. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

J^FITZSIMMONS, J.

Plaintiff, Wayne Richard Temple, filed a claim for damages against defendant, State of Louisiana, Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD). The petition alleged that DOTD was liable for the death of Mr. Temple’s wife of one month, Anna Marie Temple. The jury awarded Mr. Temple $75,000.00 for his wrongful death claim, but allocated 85% of the fault to Mrs. Temple and 15% to DOTD. The trial court granted Mr. Temple’s motion for additur, increased the award for wrongful death to $200,000.00, and alternatively granted a new trial on the issue of damages. DOTD rejected the additur, [573]*573thereby subjecting itself to the new trial. See La. C.C.P. art. 1814. After the new trial, the jury awarded Mr. Temple $100,000.00. Subsequently, the trial court granted Mr. Temple’s motion for a Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict (JNOV), and raised the award to $250,000.00. Both parties appealed.

Plaintiff assigned the following errors to the judgment:

1. The trial court erred in instructing the jury that the plaintiff was presumed at fault for leaving the roadway, thus erroneously shifting the burden of proof.

2. The trial court erred in allowing the police officer to testify that he smelled alcohol “despite that same [cjourt’s earlier (and correct) ruling disallowing evidence of alleged intoxication based on a finding that there was no competent evidence that Anna Marie Temple was intoxicated at the time of her accident.”

3. The trial court erred by failing to find DOTD 100% at fault.

4. Alternatively, if the testimony about the odor of alcohol was admissible, the jury erred in allocating the majority of the fault to Anna Marie Temple.

DOTD assigned the following errors:

1. The jury erred in finding that DOTD was at fault when none of the alleged defects in the roadway was shown to have caused the accident.

|s2. The trial court improperly allowed a jury instruction and evidence about design guidelines formulated after O’Neal Lane was originally constructed.

3. The trial court improperly raised the award of damages.

After a thorough review of the record, we reverse the increase in damages by the trial court and reinstate the original jury verdict. The remainder of the judgment is affirmed.

FACTS OF THE ACCIDENT

Construction began on O’Neal Lane in 1957. It is unclear from the record at what times the lane was a actually a state road, but, at the time of the accident, the roadway was a state road and was being re-surfaced. Mrs. Temple lived in the area of O’Neal Lane for about fifteen years. The day before the accident, she drove the same route that she used the night of the accident, and was aware of the re-surfacing. On February 12, 1998, Mrs. Temple was killed in a one vehicle accident at approximately 1:30 a.m. As Mrs. Temple approached a curve in O’Neal Lane, her car left the roadway. After leaving the roadway, the car continued in a straight line over a driveway, bottomed out on the side of a driveway culvert and the dirt above it, impacted several mailboxes and some bushes, grazed a utility pole, and hit a steel guy line or cable attached to a telephone pole. Finally, the car came to rest upside down wrapped in the steel cable. Mrs. Temple, who was not wearing her seatbelt, was ejected from the car. No evidence of skidding or braking was found. The record contains no evidence that Mrs. Temple attempted to return to the roadway. No other accidents or collisions had occurred at the same point on O’Neal Lane.

JURY INSTRUCTIONS

The pertinent jury instructions given by the trial judge are as follows:

[DOTD’s] duty to provide a reasonably safe highway does not require DOTD to take every conceivable measure to prevent injuries. DOTD does not have a duty to bring old highways up to current safety | standards, unless the highway has undergone major reconstruction. Nevertheless, DOTD has a duty to correct conditions existing on [574]*574old highways that are unreasonably dangerous, and modern AASHTO standards may be considered by you in determining whether the roadway was unreasonably dangerous.
You must also determine whether the state has proven that the conduct of Anna Marie Temple contributed to the plaintiffs injuries. Louisiana law states that the recovery of an injured person must be allocated between any persons who may have contributed to that injury.
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In this case, the standard applicable to Anna Marie Temple’s conduct is that she exercise a degree of care which we might reasonably expect a person to exercise for her own safety and protection. The state has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that Anna Marie Temple failed to conform to that standard and by that failure, caused her own injuries, either in whole or in part. If the state convinces you of that, then you must take into account the degree of fault attributable to Anna Marie Temple in returning your verdict. The greater the deviation made by a person from this standard, the greater you should make her degree of fault. I will give you some questions to answer on your verdict sheet that will assist you in this determination.
A presumption of negligence arises when a driver leaves her own lane of traffic. In order to rebut that presumption, plaintiff has the burden of proving that the driver was not guilty of any dereliction, however slight.
There is no presumption of negligence when a driver consumes alcohol prior to an accident. In order to establish the negligence of a driver who may have consumed alcohol prior to the accident, the state must show that the alcohol consumption was a legal cause of the accident.
Louisiana law provides that you divide the total responsibility of damages among those who were at fault. You should do this by assigning percentages which will [total] 100%. You are free to assign whatever percentage you deem to be appropriate and you should do so by answering the questions which will be provided to you on the special verdict sheet.

Presumption of Negligence

The plaintiffs primary concern is that the presumption of negligence instruction improperly shifted the burden of proof. Plaintiff, Mr. Temple, argues that the application of the presumption required him to prove “by clear and convincing” evidence that Mrs. Temple was not negligent.

| BThe plaintiff has the burden to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that DOTD caused the accident and the attendant injuries and damages. See Payne v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 99-2737, 99-2738, p. 3 (La.App. 1 Cir. 12/22/00), 775 So.2d 683, 685. A presumption “shifts the burden of production or persuasion to the [defendant], who can then attempt to overcome the presumption.” Black’s Law Dictionary 1203 (7th ed.1999). In Ferrell v. Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., 94-1252, p. 6 (La.2/20/95), 650 So.2d 742, 746, the supreme court reiterated a Louisiana jurisprudential rule that, “in exceptional cases a presumption of negligence arises when a defendant motorist leaves his own traffic lane and strikes another vehicle.

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Bluebook (online)
858 So. 2d 569, 2002 La.App. 1 Cir. 1977, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 1934, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/temple-v-state-ex-rel-department-of-transportation-development-lactapp-2003.