AMERICAN EMPLOYERS'INS. CO. v. McLean
| Decision Date | 06 April 1942 |
| Docket Number | No. 9834.,9834. |
| Citation | 127 F.2d 275 |
| Parties | AMERICAN EMPLOYERS' INS. CO. v. McLEAN. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Richard B. Montgomery, Jr., of New Orleans, La., for appellant.
Joseph A. Loret and J. H. Percy, Jr., both of Baton Rouge, La., for appellee.
Before HUTCHESON, HOLMES, and McCORD, Circuit Judges.
Clifton E. McLean brought suit against American Employers' Insurance Company to recover for personal injuries and for damages to his automobile. The jury returned a verdict for McLean, and from judgment entered on the verdict the insurance company has appealed contending that the trial court erred in denying its motion for a directed verdict and in refusing to give its requested Special Charge No. 7.
Evidence important to decision shows that the accident occurred on the Scenic Highway in the Parish of East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in an unincorporated village known as Istrouma. The collision was between a Buick automobile which was being driven south by McLean, and a Ford automobile traveling north and being driven by Charles V. Pocorello, a deputy sheriff. Pocorello and another deputy sheriff were engaged in removing a woman to an institution and were not seeking to apprehend law violators at that time. The Ford automobile they were using was the property of the sheriff, and was being operated on official business with the consent of the sheriff. At the time of the accident appellant's policy of liability insurance covering rightful drivers of the automobile was in full force and effect.
The evidence is in sharp conflict on every material point. That for McLean shows that just prior to the accident the sheriff's car left the paved portion of the highway and ran into a depression or holes along its right side of the road. Pocorello righted the car and drove it back onto the pavement, across the black line in the center of the highway, into the path of McLean's oncoming Buick automobile, and a collision resulted. At the time of the accident the speed of the McLean car was between 20 and 25 miles per hour, and the sheriff's car was being driven at a speed of approximately 45 miles per hour. When the cars came to rest after the accident, the Buick was still on its right side of the road and headed in the direction in which it was moving before the collision; and the Ford was several inches over the center of the highway, and out of its rightful place in the road.
In Louisiana the driving of an automobile in excess of 25 miles per hour through an unincorporated town constitutes negligence. Pocorello was driving in excess of the lawful speed. He admitted that he knew he was in an unincorporated village, and that as he drove along the highway approaching the place where the accident occurred he saw signs warning that the speed limit was 25 miles per hour, but that he paid no attention to the...
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