U-Drive-It-Car Co. v. Texas Pipe Line Co.

129 So. 565, 14 La. App. 524, 1930 La. App. LEXIS 258
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 5, 1930
DocketNo. 3686
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 129 So. 565 (U-Drive-It-Car Co. v. Texas Pipe Line Co.) 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
U-Drive-It-Car Co. v. Texas Pipe Line Co., 129 So. 565, 14 La. App. 524, 1930 La. App. LEXIS 258 (La. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

DREW, J.

Plaintiff sued the Texas Pipe Line Company, Inc., for $226.36 for damages to plaintiff’s car. Plaintiff leased its car to W. H. Powell for his personal use at a stipulated price per hour, and while Powell was driving said car, returning from a dance he had attended, and at an early hour of the morning, it collided with a truck owned by the defendant, which was parked on a paved street in the city of Shreveport, in violation of the traffic ordinance of the city of Shreveport and caused plaintiff damages to its car.

It is alleged that no lights were burning on said truck.

[525]*525Defendant admits that the truck was owned hy it and that it was parked as alleged by plaintiff and that no lights were burning on said truck* It denies all other-allegations of plaintiff’s petition, and alleges that the truck was parked by one T. A. Porter, one of its employees, but he was not acting in the scope of his employment at the time he parked the said truck; that he parked the said truck on the street for his own convenience and' after working hours. Further alleges that the accident occurred entirely by reason of the gross carelessness, recklessness, inattention, and negligence of said W. H. Powell, and that neither defendant nor T. A. Porter was in any way responsible therefor. Further alleges that the acts of negligence of Powell constitute the sole, immediate, direct, and proximate cause of the accident, and in the alternative, pleaded contributory negligence on part of said Powell as a bar to recovery.

On these issues, the case was tried, and the lower court rendered judgment in favor of defendant, rejecting the demands of plaintiff. From this judgment, the plaintiff has appealed.

The first question raised by the defendant is the most serious one in the cafe; that is, was the negligence of the defendant employee, Porter, in parking the truck in violation of a city ordinance, at the time it was parked, such an act of the employee as will make the defendant liable in damages?

It is admitted that Porter was employed as driver of the truck by the defendant and that the truck was the property of the defendant. Porter testified that his hours of work were from 7 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon and that he parked the car in front of his house about 10 o’clock, we presume that night; he does not state what he had been doing with the truck between the hours of 5 and 10, nor does be state that he ceased work at 5 that day. The record is void of any testimony in regard to what his work consisted of, other than driving the truck. He testified that the defendant authorized him to keep the truck at his home at night for the reason that it was too far to go to get the truck in the morning, and that he had kept the truck at his home every night he had worked for the defendant, with the exception of the times he was not at home, and that he had parked it in the street, as he did this night, on several other nights. That is the full extent of the testimony regarding the employment of Porter, the driver, and in regard to his duties. It is not shown that his duties did not require him to keep the truck in his custody and, to the contrary, his testimony indicates that it was necessary and for the interest of defendant that he did keep the truck in his possession and custody at night. It goes without saying that if Porter’s duties required him to maintain custody and control of the trudk at night, he had to store or park it somewhere, and he should have parked it off the street.

When the plaintiff proved that the truck was the property of defendant and that Porter, the driver, and one- who parked it in the street, was an employee of defendant, it had made out a prima facie ease, and it was incumbent upon the defendant to show that Porter was not acting within the scope of his employment at the time and when he parked the truck on the street in violation of a city ordinance. The defendant has signally failed to offer any proof on this point, and the only testimony in regard thereto is that given by Porter himself, which indicates that he was acting in the scope of his employment and in furtherance of the defendant’s business, and we are forced to hold that the defendant is [526]*526liable for the acts of negligence of the employee, Porter.

The testimony shows that the driver of plaintiff’s car was returning from a dance some time between 1 and 3 o’clock in the morning and ran into the truck, damaging 'the car of plaintiff. It is contended by defendant that the driver of plaintiff’s car should have seen the truck and had sufficient room to pass same, if he had been keeping the proper lookout; that the truck could be seen nearly two hundred feet, without lights on the car and by the street lights alone; and that the negligence and carelessness of the said driver were the proximate causes of the accident and at least contributed to the accident. Be that as 'it may, it is unnecessary in this case to pass upon the rights as between the defendant and the driver of plaintiff’s car, for the negligence of the driver of plaintiff’s car cannot be imputed to the plain'tiff. It suffices to say that defendant was negligent in parking the truck on a paved street in the city of Shreveport, without lights, in violation of a city ordinance, and whether that negligence alone caused the accident or only contributed towards the accident is immaterial. If defendant and the driver of plaintiff’s car both contributed to the accident or the accident was caused by their joint negligence, then both would be liable to plaintiff. It is sufficient for this case to say that the acts of negligence of the defendant contributed to the accident, and it is liable therefor.

Defendant contends that the contributory -negligence of Powell, the driver of plaintiff’s car, was in any event imputable to plaintiff, preventing his recovery. This contention is rested upon the theory that because of the relationship between Powell and plaintiff with reference to the automobile, though it be only that of bailor and bailee, plaintiff cannot recover for the injury to the automobile because Powell’s contributory negligence would prevent his recovery for injury to the automobile. There was a time when the decisions of the courts seemed to support this view of the law, but in recent years the weight of authority, we think, is decidedly to the contrary.

It is admitted that Powell was at the time of the injury to the automobile driving it for his own pleasure and not in the course of any employment with plaintiff. It is therefore plain that the relation then existing between him and plaintiff with reference to the automobile was merely that of bailor and bailee. 6 Corpus Juris, 1101; 3 R. C. L. 72.

“The negligence of a bailee using another’s automobile for his own pleasure is not imputable to the owner, so as to prevent the latter’s holding another liable for negligently injuring the car.” N. C. Lloyd v. Northern Pac. Ry. Co., 107 Wash. 57, 181 P. 29, 31, 6 A. L. R. 307.

The above-cited decision reviews the jurisprudence of many jurisdictions and the reason therein is sound:

“In Gibson v. Bessemer & L. E. R. Co, 226 Pa. 198, 75 A. 194, 27 L. R. A. (N. S.) 689, 18 Ann. Cas. 535, there was involved the hiring of a horse from a livery stable keeper and the killing of the horse by the railroad company while being driven by the bailee. The railroad company resisted the claim of damage made by the owner for the killing of the horse upon the ground of the bailee’s contributory negligence in driving upon the track.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
129 So. 565, 14 La. App. 524, 1930 La. App. LEXIS 258, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/u-drive-it-car-co-v-texas-pipe-line-co-lactapp-1930.