White v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance

326 So. 2d 596, 1976 La. App. LEXIS 4760
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 4, 1976
DocketNo. 5255
StatusPublished

This text of 326 So. 2d 596 (White v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance) 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
White v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, 326 So. 2d 596, 1976 La. App. LEXIS 4760 (La. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

CUTRER, Judge.

Plaintiffs, Donald W. White, individually and as administrator of the estates of his three minor children, Shannon White, Donald W. White, Jr. and Billy White, and Lonell B. White, his wife, claim damages for personal injuries and automobile damages sustained as the result of a vehicular [598]*598collision allegedly caused by the negligence of defendant’s insured. The defendant, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, filed an answer, reconventional demand against plaintiffs and a third party demand against the City of Eunice. Following a trial on the merits, the trial judge rendered a judgment dismissing the recon-ventional and third party demands of defendant. In addition, he dismissed the demands of Mr. White, individually, and Mrs. White on a finding of contributory negligence. The judgment awarded damages to Mr. White on behalf of two of the three minor children. We affirm the judgment with respect to the awards to Mr. White as administrator and reverse and render judgment with respect to the claims of Mr. White, individually, and Mrs. White. The defendant has neither appealed nor answered the appeal so the dismissal of the reconventional and third party demands are not before us.

The collision which is the subject of this suit took place about 3:15 P. M. on August 1, 1972, in Eunice at the intersection of Nile Street and Moosa Boulevard. Lonell B. White, one of the plaintiffs, was driving her husband’s 1970 Mercury sedan in a westerly direction on Nile Street crossing its intersection with Moosa Boulevard. She had almost completed the crossing maneuver when her car was struck in the right side by the left front of a 1965 Ford owned by Louis E. Norris, insured by State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and being driven by the owner’s 16 year old daughter, Mary K. Norris. The White vehicle was crossing the intersection at a 45 degree angle from northeast to southwest. The Norris vehicle was traveling south on Moosa. There is a stop sign facing east on Nile Street directing all traffic approaching Moosa on Nile from the east to stop. After stopping at that point and then entering the intersection vehicles crossing Moosa Boulevard have the right-of-way to traverse the western, or southbound, half of Moosa due to the existence of a yield sign facing southbound traffic on Moosa.

The record indicates that Mrs. White was proceeding west on Nile Street and came to a complete stop when she came to the stop sign at the intersection of Nile and Moosa Boulevard. Then she proceeded to cross the boulevard at a speed of 10 miles per hour. She had traversed the northbound lanes of Moosa and had almost completed traversing the southbound lanes of the boulevard when her vehicle was struck by the Norris vehicle, a distance of 103 feet from the stop sign to the point of impact. According to the testimony of Mrs. White, she was not concerned with traffic coming from the north on Moosa because the curve in the intersection required her to watch for oncoming traffic and because she was aware that she had the right-of-way to traverse the southbound lanes of the boulevard.

The testimony of Miss Norris indicates that she and a friend had been at Moosa Memorial Hospital just prior to the accident and that they were leaving the hospital parking area and proceeding south on Moosa Boulevard when the accident occurred. Miss Norris stated that she had traveled through the same intersection on earlier occasions but was unaware of the yield sign located at the intersection which required her to yield the right-of-way to vehicles in the intersection moving from east to west on Nile Street. In addition, she stated that cars were parked on the neutral ground between the northbound and southbound lanes of Moosa Boulevard just to the north of the intersection and that the position of these vehicles blocked her view to the east, the direction from which Mrs. White was coming at the time of the accident. She was traveling about twenty-five miles per hour just prior to the collision and she stated in her testimony that she did not slow her vehicle as she approached the intersection, even though her view of the area to the east was [599]*599blocked by the parked cars.1 Her driving experience was somewhat limited in that she had been licensed to drive for slightly more than fourteen months.

The testimony of Melinda Ryder, the passenger in defendant’s vehicle, is of little assistance in connection with the determination of liability. According to her testimony, she was looking through her purse at the time of the accident. She looked up only a fraction of a second before the collision to see the plaintiff’s vehicle in the intersection. Her testimony also indicated that vehicles were parked in the neutral ground of the boulevard. But she was not able to state whether the positioning of those vehicles blocked the view of the area from which Mrs. White was traveling.

Willard Matt, a member of the Eunice Police Department at the time of the accident, investigated the accident. He stated at trial that it had been raining the afternoon of the accident but that it was not raining when the accident occurred. The road surface was asphalt and it was still wet when he arrived on the scene a short time after the accident. The White vehicle was located in the ditch on the southwest corner of Nile Street. He made no estimate of speed for either vehicle but relied on the statements of the drivers, that plaintiff was traveling ten miles per hour and defendant was traveling twenty-five miles per hour. No skid marks were visible on the road surface. He testified that the speed limit for both vehicles was twenty-five miles per hour.

In his written reasons for judgment the trial judge found that Miss Norris was negligent. We find that the record fully supports this conclusion. She was required by the yield sign to yield the right-of-way to all vehicles in the intersection. It is impossible for Miss Norris to have reached the intersection prior to Mrs. White when she was traveling more than twice the speed of the White vehicle and •hit that vehicle when it had almost completely traversed the intersection. In addition, Miss Norris was negligent in failing to slow her vehicle before entering the intersection when her vision was blocked, according to her own testimony, in such a way as to prevent her from seeing vehicles moving from east to west across the intersection on Nile Street. However, the trial judge also concluded that Mrs. White was contributorily negligent in failing to see the Norris vehicle traveling south on Moosa Boulevard. We cannot agree with this conclusion.

A certified copy of an ordinance of the City of Eunice was introduced into evidence by plaintiffs which provides, in part, as follows:

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“SECTION 1: That the intersection of Moosa Blvd. and Nile Street within the corporate limits of the City of Eunice is designated a dangerous intersection and that southbound traffic on Moosa Blvd. will henceforth yield to traffic in the intersection.
“SECTION 2: That all vehicles approaching said intersection from Nile Street will come to a complete halt before entering the intersection, but that all vehicles going south on Moosa Blvd. shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles having first entered said intersection.”
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In effect, this ordinance gives “favored street” status to vehicles in the position of the White, vehicle in the present case.

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Richard v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Ins. Co.
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161 So. 2d 750 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1964)

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Bluebook (online)
326 So. 2d 596, 1976 La. App. LEXIS 4760, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-state-farm-mutual-automobile-insurance-lactapp-1976.