Brown v. Gorum, 134.
| Decision Date | 24 July 1942 |
| Docket Number | No. 134.,134. |
| Parties | BROWN v. GORUM et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
J. D. Deblieux, of Baton Rouge, La., for plaintiff.
Spearing, McClendon & McCabe, of New Orleans, La., for defendants Jack Gorum and National Mut. Casualty Co.
Loret, Percy & Bailey, of Baton Rouge, La., for defendant Globe Indemnity Co.
This is another one of a series of cases that has followed in the wake of Vardaman Gill v. Jack Gorum et al. (Civil Action No. 111 of the docket of this court).1 It arises out of the same accident and, as in the case of H. L. Leforte v. Jack Gorum et al., La. App., 7 So.2d 733, it is stipulated that the court will determine the issues of liability on the same evidence that was introduced in the earlier case.
Findings of Fact.
On September 12, 1940 at about 1:30 P. M. on a clear day a motor bus owned by the Teche Lines, Inc., collided with a motor truck and trailer owned by Jack Gorum. The collision occurred on a straight stretch of the Baton Rouge-New Orleans Airline paved highway.
The plaintiff, Henry Brown, was a passenger in the bus. He sustained multiple lacerations of a minor character about the face and a partial amputation of the left ear; the nasal bone was fractured and there was a small incomplete fracture of the ankle. He was hospitalized for ten days and for two months his foot remained in a cast. At the time of his injury plaintiff was earning $3.20 per day and he testified it was nine months before he was in condition to resume work. Plaintiff has had a complete recovery.
This action was brought by plaintiff against Jack Gorum, the National Mutual Casualty Company, insurance carrier on the truck, and Globe Indemnity Company, insurance carrier on the bus, to recover damages for the injuries sustained by him as a result of the collision and for the expenses and loss of salary occasioned him thereby.
Just prior to the collision involved herein H. L. Leforte, an employee of Teche Lines, Inc., was driving the bus south in the direction of New Orleans and James Miller was driving the truck and trailer north in the direction of Baton Rouge. Miller was driving immediately behind a grocery truck which had a tarpaulin over it. In front of the grocery truck was a tractor and mowing machine of the Louisiana Highway Commission, traveling at a speed of three or four miles per hour, cutting grass on the right shoulder, or east side of the highway.
As the grocery truck approached the grass cutter unit, its driver observed the on-coming bus and realizing that he could not pass the overtaken grass cutter unit and regain his side of the road in safety, he reduced his speed to conform to the speed of the grass cutter unit.
Miller, by his own admission, was driving the truck and trailer so close behind the grocery truck and at such a speed that when the grocery truck slowed down behind the grass cutter unit he could not stop or slow down sufficiently to avoid striking the grocery truck in the rear.
Miller was not keeping a proper lookout and did not realize that he was getting himself and the truck and trailer that he was driving in that predicament until...
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