West v. Hilton Hotels Corp.

714 So. 2d 179, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 1208, 1998 WL 257008
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 13, 1998
DocketNo. 97-CA-2842
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 714 So. 2d 179 (West v. Hilton Hotels Corp.) 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
West v. Hilton Hotels Corp., 714 So. 2d 179, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 1208, 1998 WL 257008 (La. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

liKLEES, Judge.

The sole issue presented for our review is whether the trial court erred in dismissing defendants’ reeonventional demands on plaintiffs’ exception of no cause of action. For the reasons stated herein, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiffs, Deborah West and Eric Lee West, filed the present suit for damages on July 6, 1994, naming as defendants the Hilton Hotels Corporation, Downtown Parking Services, Inc, and New Orleans Paddle-wheels, Inc., as a result of injuries sustained by Ms. West in the Hilton parking garage on July 2, 1994. Plaintiffs subsequently amended the petition to name as defendants Hilton New Orleans Corporation, Queen of New Orleans at the Hilton Joint Venture and International Rivercenter Partnership. By a second amended petition, plaintiffs named as defendant Scottsdale Insurance Company as insurer of the Hilton.1

Defendants, Hilton Hotels, International Rivercenter and Scottsdale Insurance Company, filed reeonventional demands against Erie West alleging that Mr. West’s negligence caused or contributed to his wife’s injuries. Eric West filed an exception of no cause of action to the reeonventional demands, which was denied by the trial court. A panel of this Court initially denied plaintiffs application for writs, but the matter was remanded by the Supreme Court for reconsideration. Following the remand, this Court issued an opinion reversing the trial court’s denial of plaintiffs exception of no cause of action and remanding the 12matter to the trial court to allow defendants to amend the reeonventional demand to state a cause of action. West v. Hilton Hotels Corporation, et al, 96-0684 (La.App.11/20/96), 684 So.2d 518. In that opinion, this Court accurately stated the facts as follows:

[181]*181According to the petition submitted with this application, Deborah West and her husband, Eric West, parked their car in the New Orleans Hilton Riverside Hotel garage on July 2, 1994, then boarded the Hilton’s Queen of New Orleans casino boat. While at the casino, Ms. West allegedly became “obviously intoxicated as a result of the free liquor pushed on her by employees of the casino.” The Wests left the casino and, after stopping at a club in the hotel, returned to the parking garage.
When the Wests were unable to find their car, a Hilton employee offered to assist in the search and invited Ms. West to board the golf car he was driving. Despite her allegedly obvious intoxication, Ms. West was not provided any protection against falling from the open vehicle, nor was she given any warnings of any danger. Ms. West felt the driver was speeding and asked him to slow down, but “[h]e suddenly and without warning whipped the cart around a curve at a high rate of speed, violently throwing Ms. West completely from the cart.” Ms. West suffered severe injuries from this accident.
In their petition, the Wests assert that Hilton Hotels Corporation and other related entities are hable for their employee’s negligent operation of an unsafe vehicle, for his failure to warn of the dangers of the open cart, for failing to properly train their employees, and for “[ojther acts and omissions to be shown at trial.”
Hilton Hotels Corporation and International Rivercenter Partnership, ... answered, denying liability. They subsequently filed a reconventional demand against Erie West, praying for judgment “for [his] comparative fault, contribution, indemnity and reasonable damages.” In support of their claims, the defendants allege that in the hours before his wife’s accident, Mr. West “was negligently inattentive to his wife’s ... steadily progressing state of intoxication and due to his apathy, indifference and lack of caring for his wife’s well being allowed her to become intoxicated ... which in turn caused her accident.” It is thus asserted that Mr. West’s “breach of the duty of care he owed to his wife” renders him liable, in whole or in part, for the injuries suffered by Ms. West.

| gAfter this recitation of the facts, the Court applied the standard of review for an exception of no cause of action, and concluded that defendants’ allegations in the recon-ventional demand were insufficient to impose legal fault on Eric West for the voluntary intoxication of his wife. Thus, the Court reversed the trial court’s denial of plaintiffs exception and remanded the case to the trial court to allow defendants to allege additional facts to state a cause of action.

In its original reconventional demand filed on January 26,1996 which was considered by this Court in our previous decision, defendants Hilton Hotels Corporation and International Rivercenter Partnership alleged that Mr. West’s inattentiveness to his wife’s progressive intoxication and his encouragement and tacit approval of her intoxication was a contributing factor of Mrs. West’s accident. The record indicates that defendants twice amended their reconventional demand to allege additional facts. On August 22, 1996, defendants filed an amended reconventional demand to include allegations that Mr. West was negligent in faffing to warn the driver of the golf cart of his wife’s intoxicated condition. On March 81, 1997, defendants filed a second supplemental and amending recon-ventional demand, adding the following paragraphs to its demand against Eric West:

I.
In addition to the allegations previously set forth in Defendants’ Reconventional Demands against Eric West (which are incorporated herein as if copied in exten-so) defendants further allege that Eric West breached his duty of care to his wife, Deborah West, in faffing to warn his wife against riding in an open golf cart, under circumstances in which Eric West knew that his wife was in an intoxicated state. Eric West further breached his duty of care to his wife in allowing her to get into a golf cart on the date of this accident when he knew that she was intoxicated, and further breached the duty of care he [182]*182owed to his wife m failing to buckle her seat belt in the golf cart once she was in it.

14Pefendant, Scottsdale Insurance Company, filed a' separate reconventional demand against Eric West, alleging that Eric West was responsible for all damages to Deborah West or, in the alternative, that defendant was entitled to a reduction of damages based on the following allegations:

Eric Lee West breached a duty of care that he owed his spouse through his lack of concern for her, lack of attentiveness to her, and total disregard for her health and safety on the date of this incident. Eric Lee West did not, at any time, try to prevent or even suggest that his wife not consume alcohol and become intoxicated.

By judgment dated July 14, 1997, the trial court granted plaintiffs exception of no cause of action and dismissed defendants’ re-conventional demands. Defendants Hilton Hotels Corporation, Scottsdale Insurance Company and International Rivercenter Partnership now appeal from this judgment.

DISCUSSION

The function of an exception of no cause of action is to test the legal sufficiency of the petition by determining whether the law affords a remedy on the facts alleged in the pleading. Everything on Wheels Subaru, Inc. v. Subaru South, Inc., 616 So.2d 1234, 1284 (La.1993). No evidence may be introduced to support or controvert the objection that the petition fails to state a cause of action. La. Code Civ.

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Bluebook (online)
714 So. 2d 179, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 1208, 1998 WL 257008, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-v-hilton-hotels-corp-lactapp-1998.