Todaro v. City of Shreveport

170 So. 356
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 30, 1936
DocketNo. 5205. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 170 So. 356 (Todaro v. City of Shreveport) 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
Todaro v. City of Shreveport, 170 So. 356 (La. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

HAMITER, Judge.

Injuries sustained by plaintiff, Victor H. Todaro, caused his instituting this suit against the State Fair of Louisiana (hereafter referred to as "Fair”), a Louisiana corporation with its domicile in Shreveport, and the city of Shreveport (herein known as “City”).

The Fair conveyed unto the City, in the year 1910, a certain tract of land located in Caddo parish, with all buildings and improvements thereon, which it had owned and operated as a fairgrounds. A stipulation embodied in the act of transfer was that the described property was to be held “in perpetuity by the said City of Shreveport for a public park and for Fair Ground purposes; the said State Fair of Louisiana hereby retaining the use of and full control of the said property in its entirety for thirty (30) days in each year for the State Fair, and to retain and have full control of the Club House, race track and infield at all times during the life and existence of the State Fair of Louisiana.”

During the years 1933 and 1934, the federal government, through an agency known as the Civil Works Administration (hereafter referred to as CWA), was carrying on a program of relieving unemployment throughout the United States. Under the plan, states, cities, and other political subdivisions were encouraged to and did make application for assistance in constructing permanent improvements. If and when the' respective application was accepted and the proposed improvements approved, the CWA furnished the necessary labor and some materials, and the applicant provided the remaining required materials. As the Fair was desirous of improving the property in question, and not being itself eligible to apply for CWA aid, it persuaded and induced the City, during the month of December, 1933, to sponsor a project embracing the contemplated improvements and to submit the necessary application therefor. CWA approval of the proposal was later obtained and the work thereunder was commenced. The project contained numerous improvement items, including the demolishing and salvaging of the old Machinery Building which was then located on the fairgrounds.

On the morning of February 28, 1934, the construction crew of the Southwestern Gas & Electric Company, Incorporated, was dispatched to the fairgrounds, pursuant to a request, with the view and purpose of removing a guy wire that was attached at one end to an electric light pole belonging to that company, and at the other end, to the front portion of the Machinery Building, which was then undergoing the process of demolition. This crew consisted of plaintiff and four other workmen. The truck conveying them arrived at the fairgrounds at approximately 8:15 o’clock and was parked across the street from and almost in front of the building in question. Plaintiff, who was the truck driver and also a helper, and a negro workman, Ed Brooks, descended from the vehicle and walked to the front entrance of the building, the negro carrying a ladder which he had removed from the truck. While standing on the sidewalk, plaintiff was crushed and severely injured by the falling of an overhanging shed or canopy, constructed of heavy materials, which was a part of the building and was located immediately above the point of entrance of the guy wire.

Various acts of negligence are charged to the defendants in this suit for damages. In their answers, defendants denied all negligence and that they were in any manner responsible for the injuries sustained; and urged several special defenses, including contributory negligence on plaintiff’s part, which was pleaded in the alternative.

The Southwestern Gas & Electric Company,' Incorporated, plaintiff’s employer, intervened in the suit and prayed for judgment against all parties litigant, decreeing that it be paid by preference and priority, out of any judgment that plaintiff might recover, all medical expenses paid, and all compensation payments made and to be made on account of the accident and injury.

A jury trial resulted in a verdict in plaintiff’s favor for $50,000, and in favor of in-tervenor as prayed for.' Thereafter motions for a new trial, filed by both defendants, were argued and submitted. On plaintiff’s counsel entering a remittitur for $25,000, the motions were overruled.

Judgment was thereafter signed condemning defendants, in solido, to pay to plaintiff the sum of $25,000, with legal interest from judicial demand and all costs,'and ordering that intervener be paid, by preference and priority, the sum of $250 as. medical and *359 hospital expenses, and the sum of $1,121.25 as compensation paid to plaintiff up to and including May 29, 1935, with legal interest on said amounts from February 2, 1935, until paid, and whatever additional compensation payments intervener has paid or is liable and obligated to pay plaintiff in the future.

After the rendition of the judgment, the Fair was placed in receivership. The appointed and qualified receiver was made a1 party to the suit, and both defendants appealed from the judgment.

The record in this case may be correctly described as one of voluminous proportion, for it contains in excess of 1,000 pages, exclusive of counsel’s briefs. Besides the prodigious bulkiness of the record, our difficulties are enhanced by the fact that 849 pages of it provide the recorded‘testimony of an array of witnesses which is conflicting beyond description, particularly on matters that are very essential to a decision of this cause. By reason of all of this, we will not be permitted to furnish in this opinion a liberal discussion of the oral- evidence, but must content ourselves principally with reciting the facts relating to each particular issue as we find them, and to apply the law according to our appreciation of it.

It is seriously urged and argued by one of the defendants that plaintiff was a licensee on the property when injured, and not an invitee; and that there can be no recovery by him for the reason that a licensee takes the premises as he finds them and the only duty the owner owes is to refrain from actively and wantonly injuring him. According to our view of the case, the premise of this contention is not well founded. In the first place, Todaro was injured while standing on a sidewalk which was available to all pedestrians. This was located immediately in front of the Machinery Building, and adjacent and parallel thereto was a public street open at all times to various kinds of vehicular traffic. The Machinery Building, sidewalk, and street were situated on the fairgrounds property and all belonged to the city of Shreveport. In the second place, the evidence is convincing that plaintiff and his co-workers were sent to the location by their employer for the purpose of removing the guy wire which was attached to the Machinery Building, as requested by the superintendent of the men who were undertaking the demolition of such building. The removal of such a wire in many instances, if not conducted skillfully by those deft in that kind of work, results in harmful consequences to persons and property, and for that reason the owner of the wires insists that its skilled employees be permitted to do the necessary work. Possessing knowledge of the dangerousness of the situation and of the owner’s policy, the superintendent made the removal request and the crew appeared in response thereto. In the case of Myers v. Gulf Public Service Corporation, 15 La.App. 589, 132 So. 416, 421, it was said:

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Bluebook (online)
170 So. 356, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/todaro-v-city-of-shreveport-lactapp-1936.