Alderman v. Jacks
| Decision Date | 24 February 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 31,572-CA.,31,572-CA. |
| Citation | 729 So.2d 729 |
| Parties | Art ALDERMAN, et al., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Hubert R. JACKS, et al., Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Myrt T. Hales, Jr., Rayville, Counsel for Appellant.
Fred W. Sartor, Jr., Monroe, Counsel for Appellee.
Before WILLIAMS, GASKINS and DREW, JJ.
In this action for damages for personal injuries and property damage arising from an automobile accident, plaintiffs-appellants appeal from a trial court's judgment finding that they failed to carry their burden of proving that the defendants are responsible for their damages. For the following reasons, we affirm.
On the morning of December 16, 1996, seventeen-year-old Crystal Alderman stopped her car at a red light at the intersection of Louisa Street and Highway 80 in Rayville, Louisiana. Crystal's car was in the northbound lane on Louisa Street and was north of the railroad tracks which run parallel to Highway 80. Accompanying Crystal was her thirteen-year-old brother, Brandon; the two teenagers were on their way to school.
Crystal and Brandon reported that as they waited to turn right onto the highway, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig hit them from behind. The Alderman children said that the impact was sufficient to push their car into the near lane of the highway.
After the impact, Crystal drove the car into a parking lot, where Brandon got out of the car to examine the damage. Brandon discovered a dent in the trunklid approximately 35 inches from the ground. The Aldermans said that this damage was not present before the accident. As he surveyed the damage, Brandon watched the truck drive away from the scene.
A few minutes later, when Crystal realized that the truck was not going to return, she continued to school where she called the police. During that telephone conversation, Crystal described the truck to the police officers as "an eighteen wheeler with a blue tarp headed north." The police radio dispatcher forwarded the description to the police department in Bastrop, the next town to the north. When Rayville Police Chief Eddie Joe Graham arrived at the Aldermans school, Brandon described the cab of the rig as dark blue or green and said that the trailer was a flatbed covered by a blue tarp. According to Brandon, he did not see any logos on the truck or on the tarp. Brandon also told police that the driver was a black man. Crystal stated she did not get a good look at the truck or the driver.
Bastrop police officers soon stopped a dark blue-green Peterbilt tractor pulling a flatbed trailer covered by a blue tarp. This truck was driven by the defendant, Hubert Jackson.1 Although Jackson admitted that he had driven across Highway 80 on Louisa Street in Rayville that morning, he denied that he had been involved in an accident. The police officers discovered that the front bumper of Jackson's truck was damaged, and returned Jackson and his truck to Rayville. There, Brandon Alderman identified the truck as the one involved in the accident. Chief Graham said that no other similar trucks were seen in the area that morning. Despite the damage to the truck, Rayville police did not issue Jackson a citation for hit-and-run driving.
Crystal Alderman testified that she began to suffer from severe headaches after the accident. Two weeks later, her parents took her to a chiropractor and within a month, her headaches had stopped. However, at the time of trial, Crystal reported that the headaches had started again. Brandon Alderman had no injuries. The Alderman vehicle, a 1989 BMW 325i, sustained approximately $1500 in damage. The Aldermans did not have collision insurance on their car.
Art Alderman, Crystal and Brandon's father, sued Jackson and his insurance carrier, U.S.F. & G., because Jackson continued to deny that he was involved in the accident. A bench trial was held on April 27, 1998. In addition to the testimony of the Aldermans and Chief Graham, the court heard testimony from Jackson, and from Larry King, an accident reconstruction expert.
At trial, Brandon Alderman testified that he saw the truck driver's face and identified Jackson as the person he had seen driving the truck. Jackson testified that he had driven through the intersection of Louisa and Highway 80 on the morning of the accident, but stated that he did not hit the Aldermans. Jackson testified that when he came to the intersection, the traffic signal was red and, because he was pulling a flatbed trailer, he stopped his truck on the south side of the railroad tracks so that the truck would not be stopped across the tracks. Jackson also testified that there were no cars in front of him at the light. According to Jackson, the blue tarpaulin covering his trailer bore the inscription "Buffalo Wood" in letters 10 inches wide and 12 inches tall and that the truck also had a Buffalo Wood magnetic sign on the fuel tank that was 18 inches wide and 24 inches long. Jackson testified that the damage to his bumper was caused by an earlier incident where he hooked his bumper with a pole and pulled it away from the truck. He further testified that his truck's side windows were tinted and were rolled up when he went through Rayville.
King, the accident reconstruction expert, testified that the damage to the Aldermans' car was not consistent with a rear-end collision with Jackson's truck. King said that even a low-speed collision with the loaded truck would have caused much more substantial damage to the BMW than was observed. He testified that the truck's bumper would have compressed the car's bumper at least three inches if the truck had contacted the body of the car as was speculated. More significantly, King showed the court that the body damage to the BMW found at 35 inches from the ground could not have been caused by a collision with the truck because the truck's bumper was only 29 inches high at its highest point and the truck had no higher protruding feature. King said that the damage to the truck's bumper was consistent with Jackson's testimony that the bumper had been pulled forward and was not evidence that the truck had struck the BMW. King testified that the vehicles bore "no marks, no scrapes, scratches, ... there [were] no rub marks on his bumper, there [were] no scrapes or scratches that I could see in the photographs on the BMW."
After hearing all of the evidence, the trial court ruled in favor of defendants. Finding that the photographic evidence was irreconcilable with the plaintiffs' theory, the court ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to carry their burden of proving that Jackson's truck was the one which struck their car.
Plaintiffs now appeal, urging that the trial judge's ruling was manifestly erroneous.
A defendant is liable for damages occasioned by his fault, and fault includes negligent acts. LSA-C.C. arts. 2315, 2316. However, a plaintiff seeking damages must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant caused the damages. By a preponderance of evidence means evidence which is of greater weight, or more convincing than that which is offered in opposition to it. It is evidence which, as a whole, shows that the fact or causation sought to be proved is more probable than not. McCartney v. Columbia Heights Nursing Home, Inc., 25,710 (La.App.2d Cir.3/30/94), 634 So.2d 927, 932.
In the instant case, the trial court found that the plaintiffs failed to carry their burden of proof. The court stated:
[A]s I'm sitting here right now I've got balanced scales, I've got one saying this is him, I've got one saying this ain't him. I've got to see something to tip those scales. And [plaintiff] has the obligation of tipping the scales, that's your duty to put on that extra...
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