Vastola v. Insurance Co. of North America

204 So. 2d 605, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 4826
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 4, 1967
DocketNo. 2779
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 204 So. 2d 605 (Vastola v. Insurance Co. of North America) 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
Vastola v. Insurance Co. of North America, 204 So. 2d 605, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 4826 (La. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

REGAN, Judge.

The plaintiff, Vincent J. Vastóla, as administrator of the estate of his minor son, Vincent A. Vastóla, filed this suit against the defendant, Insurance Company of North America, endeavoring to recover the sum of $11,076.06, representing damages to property and for personal injuries which he asserts were incurred by his son as the result of the negligence of the defendant’s insured, George Morris, in the operation of his motor vehicle. Subsequently, the plaintiff amended this petition to explain therein that he was entitled to recover individually for the damage to the motor bike on which his son was riding when the accident occurred, and for the sums expended for his son’s medical treatment and for the replacement of his eye glasses.

The defendant answered and denied the accusations of negligence pleaded by the plaintiff. In addition thereto, it tentatively asserted that the proximate cause of the accident was the negligence of the plaintiff’s son in operating his motor bike.

From a judgment of the lower court in favor of the plaintiff individually in the amount of $245.08, and in favor of the plaintiff as administrator of the estate of his minor son in the amount of $1,750.00, the defendant has prosecuted this appeal.

The record discloses that on June 19, 1964, the plaintiff’s son, Vincent A. Vastó-la, was operating a motor bike in a northerly direction or toward the lake in Hickory Avenue in Harahan, Louisiana. Hickory Avenue runs in a north-south direction, contains two lanes separated by a white medial line, and accommodates two-way traffic.

When the plaintiff’s son approached the intersection of Hickory Avenue and Sauve Road, which runs perpendicular to Hickory Avenue, he noticed that the road was blocked approximately one quarter mile ahead by a train and that traffic had accumulated from the railroad crossing back to approximately the intersection of Sauve Road. There were no other intersecting streets between the railroad crossing and , Sauve Road.

Instead of stopping behind the line of traffic, the plaintiff’s son drove on the left side of the line of vehicles in the direction of the railroad crossing. While the defendant insists that the plaintiff’s son was operating his vehicle on the white line separating the two roadways, the evidence is [607]*607quite nebulous as to whether he was directly on the line, to the left of the line, or slightly to the right of the line.

In any event, simultaneously, a pickup truck owned by the defendant’s insured, Underwater Services, Inc., and driven by George Morris, was endeavoring to exit from a parking lot located on the right side of Hickory Avenue. In order to facilitate this exit, a truck owned by the Louisiana Department of Highways had backed up in the line of parked traffic so as to create an opening for the pickup truck to pass between them and enter the southbound roadway. When the pickup truck was about to enter the southbound roadway, the plaintiff approached on his motor bike, and of course the two vehicles collided in about the center of Hickory Avenue. It is conceded by counsel for both litigants that because of the presence of the Department of Highways’ truck, which possessed a can-' vas covered body, neither driver was able to observe the other except for a split second before the collision.

The plaintiff’s son testified that he was driving approximately 20 miles per hour when the collision occurred, and the driver of the truck asserted that he was “creeping” through the opening which we have described above.

The initial question posed for our consideration by the defendant is whether the operator of the pickup truck was guilty of negligence in driving between the northbound traffic which, as we have said, was stopped, because of the train, in Hickory Avenue.

The record clearly reveals that the defendant’s insured could not see beyond the Department of Highways’ truck to his left, and also all traffic behind that truck was obliterated from his field of vision thereby.

The negligence of the defendant’s insured is, in our opinion, established by virtue of the rationale emanating from R.S. 32:124, which reads:

“The driver of a vehicle about to enter or cross a highway from a private road, driveway, alley or building, shall stop such vehicle immediately prior to driving onto a sidewalk or onto the sidewalk area extending across any alleyway or driveway, and shall yield the right of way to any pedestrian as may be necessary to avoid collision, and shall yield the right of way to all approaching vehicles so close as to constitute an immediate hazard.”

In the case of Scruggs v. V. Frank Lynn Co.,1 the organ for the court reasoned that a driver of a truck emerging from a narrow, blind alley into a busy street was engaged in a dangerous maneuver which required all the care, caution and prudence that the driver was capable of exercising. The court added that he should have entered the street slowly and stopped in a position where he could clearly see in both directions. He omitted to exercise the care required of him under these circumstances and his failure to do so was gross negligence and, of course, the proximate cause of the accident.

The facts of this case disclose that the defendant’s insured was unable to see whether any traffic was emanating from the direction in which he was endeavoring to turn; therefore, he should not have moved until he was able to definitely ascertain the location of oncoming traffic.

The defendant alternatively argues that the plaintiff’s son was guilty of contributory negligence in passing along the side of the stopped vehicles.

The defendant predicates his argument as to the negligence of the plaintiff’s son on the analogy of cases concerned with the rights and obligations of motorists when one approaches from a less favored [608]*608thoroughfare while several lanes of traffic are stopped on the favored thoroughfare.2

The cases cited by the defendant, however, are not analogous to the facts hereof. This is pointed out clearly, as noted in the trial judge’s reasons for judgment, because there were no intersecting streets between the railroad crossing and Sauve Road, so that the plaintiff’s son was not obligated to anticipate the entry of vehicles from an intersecting street into his pathway.3

The defendant insists that the question of negligence per se on the part of the plaintiff’s son is also involved by virtue of the facts hereof. He contends that the son was guilty of negligence per se in violating R.S. 32:76, which prohibits driving on the left side of the highway when approaching within 100 feet of a railroad crossing. However, the record discloses that the plaintiff was struck at a point 50 or 60 feet before the location of the yellow line which prohibits passing; therefore, he was not violating the rationale of this statute when the accident occurred.

The defendant also argues that the plaintiff’s son violated R.S. 32:73, which provides that a vehicle overtaking another vehicle moving in the same direction shall pass to the left thereof at a safe distance, and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken vehicle. This statute is not applicable to the facts hereof; it simply regulates the duties of a passing vehicle vis-a-vis the vehicle being overtaken.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
204 So. 2d 605, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 4826, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vastola-v-insurance-co-of-north-america-lactapp-1967.