Wingfield v. State, Dept. of Transp.
| Citation | 835 So.2d 785 |
| Decision Date | 08 November 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 2001 CA 2668.,No. 2001 CA 2669.,2001 CA 2668.,2001 CA 2669. |
| Parties | Gordean Adella WINGFIELD, Individually and as Guardian and Conservator of the Estate of Her Major Son, Kenny Clark v. STATE of Louisiana Through the DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Wilson Trailer Company, Inc. and National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA. Jackie Murray, Sharon Ray Rovner, Ivy J. Wills as Legal Guardian and Attorney for Joseph Edward Wingfield and Joseph Edward Wingfield v. State of Louisiana, Through the Department of Transportation and Development and Wilson Trailer Company, Inc. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana (US) |
J.E. Cullens, Jr., Charles R. Moore, Baton Rouge, Counsel for Plaintiffs-Appellees Gordean Adella Wingfield, et al.
Richard G. Creed, Jr., Baton Rouge, Robert E. Kleinpeter, Baton Rouge, Stacey Moak, Douglas M. Chapoton, Baton Rouge, Isaac H. Ryan, Robert E. Kerrigan, New Orleans, David F. Bienvenu, Nathan L. Schrantz, New Orleans, Counsel for Plaintiffs-Appellees Jackie Murray, et al. Counsel for Defendant-Appellant State of Louisiana Through the Department of Transportation and Development. Counsel for Defendant-Appellant National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA.
Before: FITZSIMMONS, GAIDRY and JAMES1, JJ.
On August 6, 1994, Mr. Kenneth Clark and his step-father, Mr. Jack Ray Wingfield, both commercial truck drivers, were hauling a load of cattle from Florida to Arizona via Interstate Highway 10, westbound. A fatal accident occurred when the driver of the double decked tractor-trailer, Mr. Clark, entered a sharply curving ramp on the interstate, just before the Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At the time of the accident, approximately 5:50 a.m., Mr. Wingfield was asleep in the sleeper compartment of the tractor cab.
The tractor-trailer rolled over the ramp railing and landed on the highway below. Mr. Wingfield subsequently died of the massive injuries he sustained. Mr. Clark also suffered serious injuries, including an injury to his brain that left him totally disabled and unable to care for himself.
Mr. Wingfield's wife, individually and as guardian for her son, Mr. Clark, filed suit on June 22, 1995. Mrs. Wingfield alleged that defendants, State of Louisiana, through the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), and its insurer, National Union Fire Insurance Co.,2 were liable for all the damages sustained. She alleged that the DOTD knew that the interstate, at the site of the accident, was unreasonably dangerous because of defective design and inadequate warning signs. On July 21, 1995, plaintiffs, Jackie Murray, Sharon Ray Rovner, Ivy J. Wills as guardian for Joseph Edward Wingfield, and Joseph Edward Wingfield, filed a separate petition for damages based on essentially the same allegations. Jackie, Sharon, and Joseph are children of the deceased Mr. Jack Wingfield. Their mother, Ivy Wills, is the former spouse of the decedent. The two suits were consolidated.
After a jury trial, the jury found defendants, DOTD and its insurer, liable and attributed to them 54% of the fault. Mr. Clark, the driver, was found to be 46% at fault. The jury awarded damages totaling almost fourteen million dollars. A judgment implementing the jury's verdict was signed on May 25, 2001. The judgment assessed 66 percent of the taxable costs to defendants, and also imposed on DOTD 100% of the fault for the survival and wrongful death actions arising from Jack Wingfield's injuries and death.
Subsequently, plaintiffs filed a rule to tax costs, a post-trial motion for a new trial, and, in the alternative, a motion to have repealed Louisiana Revised Statutes 13:5114 declared unconstitutional. Defendants filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), and in the alternative, a motion for new trial. By judgment dated August 3, 2001, the various motions were decided, and the May 2001 judgment was amended where necessary and adopted. The trial court granted the JNOV, and reduced the Wingfield survival action award from $800,000.00 to $500,000.00. The trial court excluded from a reversionary trust, previously ordered by the trial court, the jury's award of future economic losses, but affirmed the inclusion in the trust of Mr. Clark's award for future medical expenses. The rule to tax costs, which asked for the trial court to give a specific amount of the plaintiffs' expenses to be paid by defendants, was taken under advisement, but is not at issue here. All other motions were denied.
Defendants appealed. Plaintiffs answered the appeal.
Before trial, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment on the issue of federal preemption of Louisiana tort law. Defendants alleged that the highway in question had been designed, built, and signed as a joint state and federal project, but with the mandated approval of the federal government and with 90 percent of the funding provided by the federal government. Based on their claim of preemption, defendants argued that plaintiffs could not seek damages based on alleged defects in a highway designed, constructed, and signed under federal requirements. The thrust of the argument seems to be that federal approval equates to the absence of any negligence or liability for the state. Initially, plaintiffs pointed out that the applicable federal law, the Federal Aid Highway Act (FAHA), 23 U.S.C. § 101, et seq., did not contain any express preemption clause. They also argued that federal funds are linked to the state's compliance with the FAHA, but the FAHA does not provide any remedy to a victim of negligence. Finally, plaintiffs asserted that Louisiana tort law does not conflict with or frustrate the purpose or goal of the FAHA. Thus, the federal standards and rules are not meant to preempt by implication or by operation all of Louisiana tort law. After a hearing, the trial court denied the motion. Defendants assigned error to that ruling.
Federal preemption of an area of law may be either express or implied. Haydel v. Hercules Transport, Inc., 94-1246, p. 6 (La.App. 1 Cir. 4/7/95), 654 So.2d 418, 423, writs denied, 95-1172 (La.6/23/95), 656 So.2d 1019. Particularly in an area of law traditionally occupied by the state, the party claiming preemption must show an express preemptive clause in the federal law. Alternatively, the party must overcome an assumption of state sovereignty and prove "a clear and manifest purpose" by Congress to supersede state law. Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corporation, 331 U.S. 218, 230, 67 S.Ct. 1146, 1152, 91 L.Ed. 1447 (1947); see Haydel, 94-1246 at p. 6, 654 So.2d at 424. In a similar vein, the court may find preemption when "compliance with both federal and state regulations is a physical impossibility," or when the state law "stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress . ." Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul, 373 U.S. 132, 141-43, 83 S.Ct. 1210, 1217, 10 L.Ed.2d 248 (1963), quoting Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U.S. 52, 67, 61 S.Ct. 399, 404, 85 L.Ed. 581 (1941); Haydel, 94-1246 at pp. 6-7, 654 So.2d at 424. If Congress's intention is ambiguous, there is a general presumption against preemption. See Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc., 373 U.S. at 146-47, 83 S.Ct. at 1219.
Defendants reference no express preemption clause in the FAHA. Compare Duncan v. Kansas City Southern Railway Co., 2000-0066, p. 7 (La.10/30/00), 773 So.2d 670, 678, cert. denied, 532 U.S. 992, 121 S.Ct. 1651, 149 L.Ed.2d 508 (2001) (). On the contrary, the FAHA contains the following: 23 U.S.C. § 145(a) (Emphasis added.).
Tort law falls within the traditional power of this state to protect its citizens. Louisiana tort law is designed to place the burden of repair on those that caused the damage or on those persons who had custody of damage-causing property. La. C.C. art. 2315 & 2317. The object of the FAHA is to promote, through federal funding, the construction of federal aid highways. See 23 U.S.C. § 101, et seq.; State of Vermont v. Goldschmidt, 638 F.2d 482, 483 (2nd Cir.1980). The FAHA does provide standards, but the issue here is not whether the highway met the minimum standards necessary for federal funding. See 23 U.S.C. § 109 (standards). The issue is whether the highway was an unreasonably dangerous one; defective by inadequate warnings and in design. The FAHA standards do not attempt to supersede the prohibition in our state law against negligent acts of design, construction, or signage or imposition of strict liability. Nothing in the FAHA provided an alternative to our tort law or required the state to build an unreasonably dangerous and defective highway. Thus, based on our thorough review of the record, we see no error in the trial court's denial of the summary judgment on the issue of preemption. The defendants failed to prove a manifest intention by Congress to replace Louisiana tort law with the FAHA, or prove that our tort law stands as an obstacle to the federal standards of design, construction, or signage.
Defendants assigned error to the trial court's denial of their peremptory exception raising the objection of no right of action against the claims asserted by Mrs. Gordean Wingfield, the alleged spouse of the deceased, Mr. Jack Wingfield. Defendants asserted that the Wingfield marriage was not valid; thus, she was not the right...
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