Wilkinson v. National Surety Corp.

154 So. 2d 485, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1766
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 3, 1963
DocketNo. 5894
StatusPublished

This text of 154 So. 2d 485 (Wilkinson v. National Surety 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
Wilkinson v. National Surety Corp., 154 So. 2d 485, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1766 (La. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

ELLIS, Judge.

The plaintiffs filed this suit for damages arising out of an accident which took place on November 25, 1957 at the intersection of East Brookstown Drive and Choctaw Drive in the City of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. East Brookstown Drive extends generally in a northerly and southerly direction, and Choctaw Drive extends generally in an easterly and westerly direction and is approximately 22 feet in width. In the general vicinity of the accident, there is a railroad track which runs parallel to Choctaw about 30 feet south of Choctaw Drive. East Brookstown Drive crosses the railroad track. There is a stop sign facing north bound traffic on East Brookstown Drive approximately 18 feet north of the railroad track and about 12 feet south of the intersection.

On the date of the accident, the northern portion of East Brookstown, that is, the portion of the road which extended north from Choctaw Drive, was gravel. South of Choctaw Drive, East Brookstown Drive was blacktopped. Since the accident and before the date of the trial, East Brooks-town Drive was blacktopped north of the accident scene, also. The accident oc[486]*486curred at about 4:35 P.M. and the plaintiff was driving north along East Brooks-town Drive in her 1957 Ford automobile with her daughter and granddaughter. The defendant’s insured, a Barber Brothers employee named Wiley Rist, was driving a 1949 Stake body truck in a westerly direction on Choctaw Drive. The speed limit on Choctaw Drive was stipulated to be 40 M.P.H. The investigating officers established that the accident occurred on the north side of Choctaw Drive at a point on the northeast corner of the intersection approximately 16 feet ■ across Choctaw Drive, 4 feet west of the east parallel line of East Brookstown Drive, 6 feet south of the north parallel line of Choctaw Drive, and 16 feet north of the south parallel line of Choctaw Drive.

The impact occurred when the panel truck with a heavy duty "cattle type” front bumper struck the rear portion of the Wilkinson automobile starting at a point at or near the front of the back door and extending back to the rear of the car. After the accident the truck traveled in more or less a southwest direction 16 feet from the point of collision, leaving no visible skid-marks. The Wilkinson vehicle spun around and was facing in a southerly direction, some 44 feet from the point of impact. Although the car spun in a semi-circular pattern, the officers measured in a straight line from the point of impact to where the car came to rest. According to the testimony, plaintiff’s daughter, a Mrs. Pennington, and her child were thrown out in the soft mud near the intersection. The record does not reflect whether or not either one of these guest passengers was injured. Six excellent photographs depicting the area in question were introduced into evidence, and the pictures show that a railroad spur crossed Choctaw Drive just east of the intersection approximately 40 feet from the intersection, at approximately a 45 degree angle. There is an East Baton Rouge Parish Maintenance and Material Warehouse near Choctaw Drive extending some 60 to 70 yards along the northeast portion of the intersection in question.

After a trial on the merits, judgment was rendered in favor of the defendant dismissing plaintiffs’ suit with written reasons assigned. From this judgment, the plaintiffs have timely filed a devolutive appeal to this court.

Plaintiffs have urged the Lower Court committed certain errors, as follows, to-wit:

“Specification of Errors
“I. The trial court erred in failing to find Wiley Rust guilty of negligence proximately causing the accident.
“II. The trial court erred in holding that plaintiff did not preempt the intersection and was contribu-torily negligent.
“HI. The trial court erred in failing to grant judgment for plaintiffs and award damages.”

Plaintiffs’ counsel argues first that the driver of the defendant’s truck failed to keep a proper lookout and did not maintain proper control over his vehicle. They contend that a motorist has a duty to look ahead and observe which never ceases and his failure to see what he should have seen by exercising due care does not absolve him from liability to those injured as a result of his non-observance. Hernandez v. Hood, La.App., 1 Cir., 125 So. 2d 71 (1960); Maher v. New Orleans Linen Supply Company, La.App.Ore., 41 So.2d 101 (1949); McCandless v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company, 239 La. 983, 120 So.2d 501 (1960). Although this rule of law is correctly set forth, as well as the cases cited by the plaintiffs, the facts in those cases are widely divergent from those in the case at bar, and the primary question involved in the case at bar is whether the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence. In the case of Hernandez v. Hood, supra, the plaintiff was [487]*487injured when his car was forced against the guard rail of a bridge due to the movement of the defendant’s car to the left as plaintiff was in the process of overtaking it. In the case of Maher v. New Orleans Linen Supply Company, supra, the plaintiff was a pedestrian and was walking forward across a street and in attempting to avoid being struck by one automobile, stepped back into the path of the defendant’s car. In McCandless v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company, supra, the plaintiff’s seven year old son, Robert McCandless, was riding a bicycle and the driver of the defendant’s vehicle turned to his left in a southerly direction into North 45th Street in the City of Baton Rouge. In doing so he failed to make the turn into the proper lane of traffic and the truck struck the plaintiff’s son who was attempting to cross North 45th Street from west to east.

None of the facts in these cases cited by counsel for plaintiffs are similar in any aspects to those in the case at bar, and because of their inapplicability, they would not be proper authority upon which to base a judgment in favor of the plaintiff in this case.

Plaintiffs argue that the driver of the defendant’s truck was traveling at an excessive rate of speed and “it has frequently been held that an impact, accompanied by a great amount of force such as revealed by the collision of defendant’s truck with the slow moving Ford belonging to plaintiffs, indicates excessive speed, Baranco v. Cotten, La.App., 1 Cir., 98 So.2d 260, 262 (1957); State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. v. Gouldin, La.App., 1 Cir., 121 So.2d 365 (1960); Wilson v. Williams, La. App., 1 Cir., 82 So.2d 71 (1955); State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, La.App., 2 Cir., 90 So.2d 534 (1956).”

These cases cited by the plaintiffs do take into account the tremendous force of the impact of the automobiles as a factor in finding that one of the parties in in-tersectional collisions was guilty of excessive speed. However, there were other factors to be taken into consideration, besides the mere fact that the force of the collision was very great. We also point out that in most of the cases cited by plaintiff, the speed limits on the respective streets were approximately 20 M.P.H. each, while in the case at bar we are presented with defendant’s driver proceeding along the right of way street by virtue of a stop sign in an area where the speed limit was 40 M.P.H.

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Related

Keith v. Royal Indemnity Company
90 So. 2d 534 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1956)
McCandless v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co.
120 So. 2d 501 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1960)
State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. v. Gouldin
121 So. 2d 365 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1960)
Wilson v. Williams
82 So. 2d 71 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1955)
Baranco v. Cotten
98 So. 2d 260 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1957)
Maher v. New Orleans Linen Supply Co.
41 So. 2d 101 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1949)
Hernandez v. Hood
125 So. 2d 71 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1960)

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Bluebook (online)
154 So. 2d 485, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilkinson-v-national-surety-corp-lactapp-1963.