Addison v. Travelers Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 29 June 1973 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 9410--9413,s. 9410--9413 |
| Citation | 281 So.2d 805 |
| Parties | Herbert S. ADDISON, Jr., et ux. v. The TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY. Stewart CARRIER et ux. v. The TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY. Glenn REID, Individually, and as the Administrator of the Estates of his minor children, Kathy Reid and Glenn Reid, Jr., and Doris Reid v. The TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY. Harold STRICKLAND, Individually, and as the Administrator of the Estate of his minor child, Dewaine Strickland v. The TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Frank M. Coates, Jr., Baton Rouge, for Travelers.
Joseph H. Simpson, Amite, for appellee Addison.
Tom H. Matheny, Hammond, for appellees Hartford Acc. Ins. Co., Huey and Beverly Duncan.
Marion B. Farmer, Covington, for Huey and Beverly Duncan, for appellee.
Before LANDRY, TUCKER and PICKETT, JJ.
These four consolidated suits arose out of an accident that occurred in the Parish of Tangipahoa at approximately 3:15 p.m. o'clock on April 25, 1972, on Louisiana Highway 1054, about 1.1 miles North of the intersection of Louisiana 1054 and Louisiana Highway 16 and about two miles from the City of Amite, Louisiana. The vehicles involved were a 1968 Ford Station Wagon owned by Huey P . Duncan, and operated by his wife, Mrs. Beverly W. Duncan, and a 1968 Chevrolet work truck owned by the Louisiana Department of Highways and driven by Russell J. Costa, who was employed by the Louisiana Department of Highways. At the time of the accident, the Duncan vehicle contained ten school children whom Beverly W. Duncan was returning to their homes from the Valley Forge School, a private school.
As a result of the accident, four of the school children were killed, and three other children were injured. Mrs. Duncan also sustained severe injuries.
Herbert S. Addison, Jr. and his wife, Mary Lou Addison, the parents of Regina Carol Addison, who died as a result of the accident; Stewart Carrier and his wife, Bonnie Clark Carrier, the parents of Dorena Carrier, who died as a result of the accident; Glenn Reid and his wife, Doris Reid, the parents of Sandra Reid, who died as a result of the accident, and Kathy Reid and Glenn Reid, Jr., who were injured; and Harold Strickland, the father of Dewaine Strickland, who was injured in the accident, brought suit for the death and injury to their respective children. The defendants are the Travelers Insurance Company, insurer of the Louisiana Department of Highways, and Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, the insurer of the Duncan vehicle. They allege the accident and resulting damages were caused by the negligence of the driver of the Highway Department truck and Mrs. Beverly W. Duncan. It was alleged that Russell J. Costa, the driver of the Department of Highways truck, was acting in the course and scope of his employment at the time of the accident.
The Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company (Hartford) responded with an answer and third party petition for a concursus proceeding, and deposited in the Registry of the Court the sum of $20,000.00, representing the extent of its coverage on the Duncan vehicle.
The following persons were impleaded and made defendants in the concursus proceeding: John Sirchia, Sam Ferrara, Charles Baglio, Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Reid; Huey Duncan and Beverly Duncan; Mr. and Mrs. Stewart Carrier; Mrs. Joe Hayden; Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Hayden and Mr. and Mrs. Harold Strickland.
The Travelers Insurance Company filed third party demands against each of the plaintiffs alleging that a proximate cause of the accident was the negligence of Beverly W. Duncan. It alleged that Mrs Duncan was at the time of the accident engaged in a community mission for the community existing between Huey P. Duncan, and his wife, and that her negligence was imputable to Huey P. Duncan, the head and master of the community. Furthermore, it alleged that at the time of the accident, Mrs. Duncan was the agent, employee or joint venturer with the plaintiffs and that her negligence was imputable to them.
On motion of the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, these cases were consolidated for trial. The Travelers Insurance Company obtained a trial by jury of the consolidated cases.
In the Addison case (No. 9,410) there was judgment in favor of Herbert S. Addison, Jr. and Mary Lou Addison and against the Travelers Insurance Company, in the sum $55,000.00, and in favor of Herbert W. Addison, Jr. and against the Travelers Insurance Company for the sum of $5,437.68 in special damages for medical, hospital, and funeral expenses.
In the Carrier case (No. 9,411), judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiffs, Stewart Carrier and Bonnie Clark Carrier, and against the defendant, The Travelers Insurance Company, in the sum of $52,500.00; and the further sum in favor of Stewart Carrier, of $2,901.70 in special damages, for medical, hospital, and funeral expenses.
In the Reid case (No. 9,412) judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiffs, Glenn Reid and Doris Reid, and against The Travelers Insurance Company, in the sum of $52,500.00, and the further sum in favor of Glenn Reid, of $2,281.60 in special damages for hospital, medical and funeral expenses. There was judgment in favor of Glenn Reid, as administrator of the estate of Kathy Reid, and against the Travelers Insurance Company, in the sum of $1,000.00; and judgment in favor of Glenn Reid, as Administrator of the estate of Glenn Reid, Jr. and against Travelers Insurance Company in the sum of $1,000.00.
Mr. Harold Strickland (No. 9,413) was awarded a judgment in his individual capacity in the sum of $690.23, and as the administrator of the estate of his minor son, Dewaine Strickland, in the sum of $10,000.00.
There was further judgment in each of the cases in favor of Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company and against the plaintiffs dismissing each of the suits as to Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company at the costs of the plaintiffs. There was further judgment in the third party demands in each of the cases, against the third party plaintiff, The Travelers Insurance Company, and in favor of the third party defendants, dismissing the third party demands at the cost of third party plaintiff.
With respect to the concursus proceeding, there was judgment dismissing the concursus proceeding as to all parties and releasing the money deposited in the concursus to Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, without cost or interest.
The Travelers Insurance Company has appealed suspensively in each of the cases.
Each of the plaintiffs has appealed devolutively.
Separate petitions were filed in each of these cases but they were consolidated for trial. With the exception of the question of quantum, and the concursus proceeding, the basic issues involved are essentially the same. Therefore, we shall treat these consolidated cases as one for the purpose of this opinion with a copy hereof to be filed in each case.
Louisiana Highway 1054 is a two-lane black-topped road, which runs in a generally east-west direction, at the scene of the tragic accident, which is the basis of this litigation. The road is straight for a considerable distance eastward from the site of the accident. The evidence shows that about six hundred feet east of the accident scene, the highway passes over a small hill, from the crest of which to the accident scene the parked highway truck was constantly visible. Trooper Fred J. Piazza, who investigated the accident, said the paved portion of the highway was twenty feet and five inches wide. At the site of the accident, the shoulder of the road was approximately two and one half feet wide, but gradually sloped to a shallow ditch, that was parallel to the highway, in such a manner that there was ten feet and four inches of usable ground on the side of the highway where the highway truck could have been parked off the traveled portion of the road. On the opposite side of the highway from where the collision occurred, there is an abandoned driveway, across which a wire fence has been constructed at a sufficient distance from the road, that Trooper Piazza said two cars could easily park off the traveled portion of the highway.
Mrs. Beverly W. Duncan was, at that time, assistant principal and a teacher in the Valley Forge Academy, a private school located on Louisiana 1054, about five miles easterly from the accident scene. On this particular day, Mrs. Duncan was returning home from the Valley Forge Academy, traveling in a westerly direction in a 1968 Ford Station Wagon, with ten school children as passengers, when she ran into the left rear of a Louisiana Highway work truck parked partly in her lane of travel. The force of the impact was so great that it caused the death of four of the children, namely: Regina Carol Addison, Dorena Carrier, Sandra Reid and Mrs. Duncan's own son, Craig. Kathy Reid, Glenn Reid, Jr. and Harold Strickland were injured. Mrs. Duncan sustained severe injuries from which she has not fully recovered. Based on the physical evidence, it does not appear that Mrs. Duncan saw the Highway truck in time to take effective evasive action. Sergeant Piazza observed tire marks that showed she swerved her vehicle to the left twenty-two feet to the rear of the point of impact. The right front of her vehicle struck the work truck. Based on the physical evidence, Sergeant Piazza estimated the speed of the Duncan vehicle to be fifty miles per hour . The force of the impact knocked the Highway truck quite a distance along the shoulder of the road and into the roadside ditch. The Duncan Station Wagon came to a stop in the paved portion of the road.
Neither the surviving children, nor Mrs. Duncan, because of post-traumatic amnesia, could recall the events leading up to the accident. Mrs. Duncan said that her last memories of events prior to the accident were occurrences at Valley Forge before leaving the...
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