Vosbein v. Arras

149 So. 2d 727, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1322
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 4, 1963
DocketNo. 911
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 149 So. 2d 727 (Vosbein v. Arras) 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
Vosbein v. Arras, 149 So. 2d 727, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1322 (La. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

CHASEZ, Judge.

This is an action in tort instituted by Anthony Vosbein for damages to his automobile, medical expenses for injuries to his wife and loss of income from his wife’s business and by his wife, Effie Vosbein, for personal injuries, arising out of an accident which occurred on the Airline Highway in Jefferson Parish on January 15, 1959.

The accident occurred when a car driven by Frederick P. Arras struck the rear of plaintiffs’ car which had been parked on the Airline Highway for approximately ten minutes. Only Mrs. Vosbein was in the car at the time.

Although Mr. Arras was driving his personal automobile there was no dispute that he was engaged in the course and scope of his employment. The suit was brought by plaintiffs against Mr. Frederick P. Arras, his automobile liability insurer (Audubon Insurance Company), Colonial Sugars Company, and their liability insurer (Sun Insurance Company of New York).

After the trial on the merits, judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiffs. It was stipulated that the maximum liability of Audubon Insurance Company was $5,000.00 for injuries to one person in one accident, and $5,000.00 for property damage, and that no judgment could be rendered against the employer or its insurer until the policy limits of Audubon Insurance Company had been exhausted. The total judgment in [729]*729favor of Mr. Anthony Vosbein, exclusive of property damage, was $1,191.04 and that in favor of Mrs. Vosbein was $4,000.00. Accordingly, $5,000.00 was assessed to Audubon Insurance Company and $191.04 was assessed to Colonial Sugars Company and Sun Insurance Company. There is also a judgment in favor of Mr. Vosbein against Frederick P. Arras and Audubon Insurance Company in the amount of $643.76 for damage to his automobile.

Mrs. Vosbein appealed from this judgment for an increase for her personal injuries to $16,000.00. Neither the plaintiff Anthony Vosbein nor any of the defendants appealed from the judgment in favor of Anthony Vosbein. Defendants answered Mrs. Vosbein’s appeal and now contend that their answer also puts at issue on this appeal the judgment in favor of Mr. Vosbein.

Defendants’ counsel relies upon Stevens v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, 242 La. 1006, 141 So.2d 346, as sustaining defendants’ rights to prosecute an appeal against Anthony Vosbein merely by answering the appeal of Mrs. Effie Vosbein. In the cited case the Supreme Court had before it for review a ruling of the Court of Appeal, 133 So.2d 1, that an application for rehearing by one defendant was sufficient to allow the court to grant an unlimited rehearing as to all parties litigant. The lower court had decreed solidary liability as to all defendants and all of them appealed to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal reversed the judgment of the trial court as to all the defendants except the one who applied for the rehearing. The Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Court of Appeal on the ground that the application of the one defendant urging that he was guilty of no negligence and, alternatively, that there be judgment in solido against all the defendants was sufficient to allow the court to consider the entire case on rehearing as the defendant applying for the rehearing had an interest in seeking to have reinstated the judgment of the trial court decreeing all the defendants solidarily liable. This case is inapposite to the case at bar; none of the parties perfected an appeal from the judgment in favor of Mr. Vosbein.

The other two cases cited by defendants, Vidrine v. Simoneaux, La.App., 145 So.2d 400, and Sam v. Deville Gin, Inc., La.App., 143 So.2d 838, likewise are inapposite. In both those cases the appeal by one defendant was considered sufficient to allow the court to consider the claim of the plaintiff against another defendant against whom the suit had been dismissed. The basis for this decision was the fact that the appealing defendant was aggrieved by the dismissal of the suit against the other defendant and he should not be deprived of his right of appeal because neither the plaintiff nor the other defendant appealed. In the instant suit, defendants were not deprived of their right of appeal because of Mr. Anthony Vosbein’s failure to appeal, but because of their own omission to perfect an appeal. The judgment of the trial court in favor of Mr. Anthony Vosbein is final.

This suit arose out of an accident which occurred at approximately 1:50 p. m., on January 15, 1959, on the Airline Highway near the intersection of Ridgeway Drive in Jefferson Parish. At the time of the accident the weather was clear and the sun shining. The Airline Highway at the point of the accident is an eight lane thoroughfare, divided by a neutral ground, providing four lanes for traffic flowing in each direction.

About ten minutes prior to the accident Mr. Vosbein, a Deputy Sheriff in Jefferson Parish, in response to a summons for help, had stopped his car some forty feet beyond the signal light located at the intersection of Airline Highway and Ridgeway Drive. His wife was sitting in the car when it was struck from behind by the car driven by Mr. Arras. Plaintiffs claim that their car was parked partially on the highway with the left wheels on the roadway and the right wheels beyond the curbing. Mr. Arras and his daughter, a passenger in the car, both testified that the Vosbein car was stopped [730]*730entirely on the Highway in the extreme right traffic lane.

Mr. Vosbein testified that he observed the Arras car from a distance of seventy-five feet, that this car ran the red light at the Ridgeway Drive intersection and, without applying his brakes, Mr. Arras ran into the rear of the parked car, knocking it approximately twenty feet even though the emergency and parking brakes were on. On the other hand, both Mr. Arras and his daughter testified that they had stopped for tire signal light, that there were two cars ahead of them as they proceeded across the intersection on the green light at twenty miles per hour in the extreme right lane. They further stated that the two cars ahead veered to the adjoining left lane resulting in their being confronted by plaintiffs’ parked car which they struck in the rear. At the time the second car pulled out into the left lane, Mr. Arras admitted that his car was only seven to ten feet behind it.

The trial court held that the negligence of Mr. Vosbein in parking his car on the highway was neither the primary nor contributing efficient cause of the accident but that the primary and sole cause was the negligence of Mr. Arras in failing to act as a reasonable and prudent man under the circumstances.

Defendants here contend that Mr. Arras was not guilty of negligence and, in the alternative, that Mr. Vosbein was contribu-torily negligent in parking his automobile on the paved portion of the highway in violation of LSA-R.S. 32:241; thus barring any recovery by him. They further contend that Mrs. Vosbein was guilty of contributory negligence by remaining in the párked automobile.

In view of our conclusion that the judgment in favor of Mr. Vosbein is final, the determination of his negligence is not at issue before us as negligence by him could not be imputed to Mrs. Vosbein. The contention that Mrs. Vosbein was guilty of negligence by remaining in her husband’s car is without merit. As the record shows, the parking of the Vosbein car was unexpected, she did not know how to drive and she did not know how long her husband would be absent. Under the circumstances, her action in remaining in the car was that of a reasonable person.

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Bluebook (online)
149 So. 2d 727, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1322, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vosbein-v-arras-lactapp-1963.