Fontenot v. Patterson Ins.

• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana
• Writing for the Court: Peters
• Citation: Fontenot v. Patterson Ins., 5 So.3d 954 (La. App. 2009)
• Decision Date: 18 February 2009
• Docket Number: No. 06-1624.,No. 06-1625.,06-1624.,06-1625.
• Parties: Randy FONTENOT, et al. v. PATTERSON INSURANCE, et al. Germaine Brooks, et al. v. City of Lafayette, et al.

5 So.3d 954

Randy FONTENOT, et al. v. PATTERSON INSURANCE, et al.

Germaine Brooks, et al. v. City of Lafayette, et al.

No. 06-1624.

No. 06-1625.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

February 18, 2009.

Lawrence N. Curtis, Lawrence N. Curtis, Ltd, Lafayette, LA, for Plaintiffs/Appellants/Appellees: Randy Fontenot and Susanne Fontenot.

Rickey W. Miniex, Clyde R. Simien, Todd M. Swartzendruber, Holli K. Yandle, Simien & Miniex, Lafayette, LA, for Defendant/Appellee/Appellant: Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government.

Colleen McDaniel, Assistant Attorney General, Louisiana Department of Justice, Division of Risk Litigation, Lafayette, LA, for Defendant/Appellee/Appellant: The State of Louisiana Through The Department of Transportation and Development.

Court composed of Chief Judge ULYSSES GENE THIBODEAUX, SYLVIA R. COOKS, JIMMIE C. PETERS, ELIZABETH A. PICKETT, and J. DAVID PAINTER, Judges.

PETERS, J.

These consolidated actions are again before us, this time on remand from the supreme court. When these matters were first before us, we attempted to reconcile conflicting decisions rendered by the jury and the trial court in a bifurcated trial by performing a de novo review of the record. Fontenot v. Patterson Ins. Co., 06-1624, 06-1625 (La.App. 3 Cir. 12/5/07), 972 So.2d 401. One of the defendants, the State of Louisiana, Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), filed an application for supervisory writs with the supreme court questioning whether this court applied the proper standard of review in reaching our decision. In remanding the matter to this court, the supreme court did not reach the issue raised by DOTD. Instead, it concluded that the issues and parties remaining at the time of the trial on the merits were so aligned that a bifurcated trial was improper. Thus, on remand, the supreme court ordered that this court review only the jury's decision, and do so by applying the manifest error standard of review. Fontenot v. Patterson Ins. Co., 08-0414 (La.12/12/08), 997 So.2d 529. We have complied with the instructions of the supreme court and, in doing so, conclude that the jury manifestly erred in its allocation of fault; reallocate fault in causing the accident; affirm the jury's quantum award as amended by the trial court's judgment notwithstanding the verdict; render judgment in accordance with these percentages of fault; affirm the judgment awarding legal interest, as amended; and recast the judgment for costs.

DISCUSSION OF THE RECORD

As has been stated in the opinions previously rendered, this litigation arises from an automobile accident that occurred at the intersection of Morgan and Main Streets in Broussard, Louisiana, a few moments after 11:00 p.m. on March 23, 2001. At that time, a vehicle driven by Germaine Brooks and occupied by Charlotte Phillips entered the intersection and collided with a vehicle driven by Randy Fontenot and owned by the Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government (City-Parish). Both vehicles sustained significant damage, both drivers sustained severe personal injuries, and Ms. Phillips died as a result of the injuries she sustained in the accident.

At the time of the accident, Randy Fontenot, a City-Parish policeman, was proceeding east on Main Street in the direction of the Morgan Street intersection. Germaine Brooks was driving south on Morgan Street, approaching the same intersection. Both Main and Morgan Streets are part of the Louisiana State Highway System. A sequencing traffic light designed, constructed, and maintained by DOTD controls the flow of traffic through the intersection with the standard red-yellow-green sequenced traffic signals operating between 5:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. each day. At 11:00 p.m., the traffic signal automatically switches to a flashing mode with the yellow light flashing for Main Street, the favored street, with the red light flashing for Morgan Street. At the time of the accident, the light had switched to the flashing mode.

Mr. Brooks' vision in the direction of Mr. Fontenot's oncoming vehicle was impaired by a four-story brick building that houses a library and is situated on the northwest corner of the intersection. Approximately one year before the accident, DOTD had taken the steps to overlay and widen the intersection. This activity included the addition of a left-turning lane in all four approaches, which were further controlled by a stop bar on the pavement. However, DOTD failed to paint a stop bar on any of the other approaching lanes.

As has been set out in the prior opinions, the suits arising from this accident resulted in a number of combinations of plaintiffs and defendants through the principal demands as well as the ancillary demands. However, when the trial on the merits occurred, the only claims left were those of the Fontenots and the City-Parish¹ against Mr. Brooks, the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA),² and DOTD. At trial, the claims of the Fontenots were decided by a jury and the claims of the City-Parish were decided by the trial court.³

Liability was the main factual dispute⁴ at trial. The jury returned a verdict assessing Mr. Brooks with ninety percent of the fault causing the accident and assessing Mr. Fontenot with the remaining ten percent. The jury then awarded Mr. Fontenot the following damage awards:

Past medical expenses—$255,000.00

Past wages loss—$176,512.00

Lost future wages and earning capacity—$250,000.00

Additionally, the jury awarded Mrs. Fontenot $10,000.00 and the Fontenots' minor daughter $5,000.00 for loss of consortium.

In considering the City-Parish's intervention claim against the same three defendants, the trial court found that the City-Parish was entitled to recover $19,994.87 for the property damage to its vehicle,⁵ but apportioned fault for that damage equally between Mr. Brooks and DOTD. Thus, the jury found no fault on the part of DOTD and the trial court found no fault on the part of Mr. Fontenot.

The Fontenots challenged the jury's findings by filing a judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), or in the alternative a motion for a new trial. This pleading addressed the jury's allocation of fault and its failure to award general damages. The trial court granted the JNOV as to the general damages complaint, awarding Mr. Fontenot $500,000.00 in general damages, but denied the request for reallocation of fault. Thereafter, the trial court executed three separate judgments-one with regard to its judgment on the City-Parish's claim, and two with regard to the jury verdict and its subsequent grant of the JNOV. In separate appeals, the Fontenots, the City-Parish, and DOTD appealed the allocation of fault. Additionally, in its appeal, DOTD claimed that the general damage award granted Mr. Fontenot through the JNOV was excessive.

OPINION

When first considered by us, all the litigants presented this case as a bifurcated trial wherein the jury and trial court had rendered conflicting verdicts. Thus, our first inquiry was the standard of review to be applied. We recognized the unsettled nature of the law in this area and noted that our own circuit had tried different approaches in fulfilling our review obligations. See Hebert v. Rapides Parish Police Jury, 05-471 (La.App. 3 Cir. 7/12/06), 934 So.2d 912, rev'd on other grounds, 06-2001, 06-2164 (La.4/11/07), 974 So.2d 635, and McDaniel v. Carencro Lions Club, 05-1013 (La.App. 3 Cir. 7/12/06), 934 So.2d 945, writ denied, 06-1998 (La.11/3/06), 940 So.2d 671. We chose to use the de novo approach as applied in Hebert. In doing so, we affirmed the jury's award of damages as amended by the trial court's grant of the JNOV and reversed the jury's allocation of fault and reallocated fault in the same percentages reached by the trial court: fifty percent to DOTD and fifty percent to Mr. Brooks.

In its remand, the supreme court instructed us to ignore the trial court judgment on the City-Parish's ancillary demand, to consider only the apportionment of fault as determined by the jury, and to consider that determination under the manifest error standard of review. It reached its decision by noting that, by the time the matter came to trial, all claims against the City-Parish had been resolved, and thus, all remaining issues should have been tried by jury.

Allocation of Fault

As previously stated, the jury assessed ninety percent of the fault in causing the accident to Mr. Brooks and assessed the remaining ten percent to Mr. Fontenot. The trial court declined to change this assessment when presented with the opportunity through the motion for JNOV, but obviously disagreed with the determination, given its separate judgment on the issue. However, as instructed by the supreme court, we will not consider the trial court's judgment, but only that of the jury. In considering the jury verdict under the manifest error scope of review, we are mindful of the requirement that credibility determinations are for the trier of fact, and that "reasonable evaluations of credibility and reasonable inferences of fact should not be disturbed upon review, even though the appellate court may feel that its own evaluations and inferences are as reasonable." Rosell v. ESCO, 549 So.2d 840, 844 (La.1989).

Fault in causing an accident is determined under the five-step duty-risk analysis which we set forth in our original opinion as follows:

This is a five-step process which requires that a party asserting fault on another establish (1) that the party whose fault is at issue had a duty to conform his conduct to a specific standard, (2) that the party's conduct failed to conform to the appropriate standard, (3) that the party's conduct was a cause-in-fact of the injuries at issue, (4) that the party's substandard conduct was a legal cause of the injuries at issue, and (5) that there were actual damages. Toston v. Pardon, 03-1747 (La.4/23/04), 874 So.2d 791. A party asserting comparative fault bears the burden of proof by...