Fowler v. Roberts

• Decision Date: 12 September 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-C-1422,88-C-1422
• Citation: 556 So.2d 1
• Parties: Marvin F. FOWLER, et al. v. Bobby R. ROBERTS, et al.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 1

556 So.2d 1

Marvin F. FOWLER, et al. v. Bobby R. ROBERTS, et al.

No. 88-C-1422.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Sept. 12, 1989.

Rehearing Granted Oct. 12, 1989.

On Rehearing Feb. 5, 1990.

Dissenting Opinion Feb. 9, 1990.

Robert L. Roshto, Baton Rouge, for applicant.

R. Wayne Smith, Ruston, Robert P. Hogan, Raleigh Newman, Lake Charles, Charles H. Heck, Theus, Grisham, Davis & Leigh, Monroe, for respondent.

LEMMON, Justice.

The principal issue in this case is whether the State Department of Public Safety (DPS) is liable for damages sustained by plaintiffs in a three-car collision caused by defendant Bobby R. Roberts while Roberts was undergoing the effects of a seizure. The basis of plaintiffs' claim against DPS was that DPS issued a virtually unrestricted driver's license to Roberts with full knowledge that he was prone to seizures and without requiring any monitoring or subsequent evaluation of the known condition, and that DPS later automatically renewed the license of the seizure-prone driver at a time when Roberts was regularly experiencing seizures which could no longer be controlled by medication. We hold that a driver's licensing agency which issued a license to an applicant known to be subject to a condition that produced seizures in the past and was likely to do so in the future, which failed to institute reasonable procedures for monitoring the condition of the driver, and which automatically reissued the license three years later without inquiry into the driver's current condition, may be held liable to motorists injured in an accident caused by the driver's operation of a vehicle while under the effects of a seizure.

Facts

The October, 1983 accident occurred when Roberts' car, traveling at an excessive speed, struck the rear of a car driven by Evelyn Fowler, causing the Fowler vehicle to collide with an oncoming car driven by Hugh Winfree. Mrs. Fowler and an occupant of the Winfree vehicle were killed, and Winfree, his wife and another occupant were seriously injured. At the time of the collision Roberts was suffering the effects of a seizure.

Roberts' seizure disorder resulted from a severe head injury in 1966 at age twenty-three. The injury left him with permanent brain damage, partial paralysis of his left side, and some memory impairment. He later developed seizure disorders which grew progressively worse. Because of his medical condition, he was unemployable.

When Roberts moved to Louisiana from Texas in 1968, he did not have a Texas driver's license. In 1975 he attempted to obtain a Louisiana driver's license, voluntarily disclosing his seizure disorder. He was given a medical report form to be completed by his doctor verifying that he had been seizure-free for a period of one year. He did not return to DPS until 1977 when he applied for a license as a "new driver", indicating on his application the fact of the prior denial. He submitted a completed medical report form on which a doctor recited that Roberts had been seizure-free for one year, was under regular medical care, and was taking medication to control the disorder. ¹ The report further contained a positive answer to a request for the doctor's opinion whether the applicant was capable from a medical standpoint of safely operating a motor vehicle.

On the basis of the medical report DPS issued Roberts a standard driver's license, but did not instruct him to notify DPS if he had further seizures or require him to update the medical report periodically as to his current condition. Further, while Roberts' license contained an "05" restriction limiting him to driving an automatic transmission vehicle because of his partially paralyzed arm and leg, the license contained no indication of his seizure disorder which would alert future licensing officers to that condition and to his need for regular medical care and medication. ²

In 1980 Roberts' license was automatically renewed for four years at the same DPS office, without any inquiry as to recent seizures. At that time Roberts' seizures could no longer be controlled by medication, and he was experiencing seizures regularly.

On the day of the accident Roberts failed to take the medication prescribed for his condition. While preaching as a lay Pentacostal minister to a group of prison inmates, he became dizzy and asked for their prayers. When he left the prison, he drove his car off the road into a ditch. He refused help and drove toward the highway, insisting he was able to continue on his way.

At various points along the highway witnesses saw Roberts driving very erratically with his head slumped over the steering wheel, driving alternately very slow and fast, stopping briefly in the road, weaving on and off the road, and forcing several vehicles off the road. The inevitable collision occurred about fifteen miles from the prison. Roberts did not remember anything that occurred after the preaching services.

After the ensuing bench trial judgment was rendered holding Roberts and DPS solidarily liable for plaintiffs' damages, with fault allocated equally between them. As to DPS, the judge reasoned that it had the duty, under its responsibility for licensing drivers on state highways, to formulate and implement rules and regulations reasonably designed to insure that drivers with seizure disorders would be properly evaluated and screened before original or renewal licenses were issued. According to the judge, the absence of a statutory requirement for such an evaluation did not render DPS immune from liability for a breach of this duty. The judge concluded that DPS breached this duty at least in connection with the issuance of the renewal license to Roberts, inasmuch as there was no procedural safeguard at the issuance of the initial license to protect against automatic renewal without required inquiry into the current condition of the known seizure-prone driver. ³ The judge further concluded that Roberts more probably than not would have refrained from driving if his license had not been renewed. Finally, citing Pierre v. Allstate Insurance Co., 257 La. 471, 242 So.2d 821 (1970), the court determined that the risk encountered by plaintiffs was within the scope of protection afforded by the duty imposed on DPS.

The court of appeal affirmed. 526 So.2d 266. The court determined the source of DPS's duty by examining the highway regulatory statutes in Title 32 of the Revised Statutes and DPS's Policy/Procedure Statements in effect for the issuance and renewal of driver's licenses during the pertinent period. The court then determined DPS's liability by using the duty-risk analysis, essentially paralleling the analysis used by the trial court. Citing Stewart v. Schmieder, 386 So.2d 1351 (La.1980), the court first pointed out that a public agency may be held liable for a breach of duty owed to the general public. As to the policy analysis regarding imposition of liability on a driver's licensing agency which breaches its duty to establish adequate procedures in monitoring handicapped drivers, the court noted the significant difference between licensing a handicapped driver whose condition does not require periodic monitoring (such as a driver with a paralyzed leg) and licensing one whose condition does require such monitoring (such as a seizure-prone driver under medication to control that condition). The court concluded that DPS should be held liable because it failed to provide any safeguards whatsoever after the initial licensing of a known seizure-prone driver.

We granted certiorari because of the important public policy questions involving the liability of a governmental agency in performing a governmental function. ⁴ 531 So.2d 257.

Duty-Risk Analysis

The determination of liability in a negligence case usually requires proof of five separate elements: (1) proof that the defendant had a duty to conform his conduct to a specific standard (the duty element); (2) proof that the defendant's conduct failed to conform to the appropriate standard (the breach element); (3) proof that the defendant's substandard conduct was a cause-in-fact of the plaintiff's injuries (the cause-in-fact element); (4) proof that the defendant's substandard conduct was a legal cause of the plaintiff's injuries (the scope of liability or scope of protection element); and (5) proof of actual damages (the damages element). The first element is usually a judge question, and the other four are usually jury questions unless reasonable minds could not differ. D. Robertson, W. Powers, Jr. & D. Anderson, Cases and Materials on Torts 83-84 (1989). ⁵

Prior to this court's decision in Dixie Drive It Yourself System v. American Beverage Co., 242 La. 471, 137 So.2d 298 (1962), Louisiana courts generally determined liability by using the proximate cause approach, wherein the third and fourth elements were effectively combined into a jury question whether the defendant's substandard conduct was a proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries. This approach was easy to explain to the jury. Proximate was a relatively familiar word, meaning, "very near" or "next immediately preceding or following". Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1971). But while the proximate cause approach was simple, it had a false simplicity that ignored complicating factors, particularly in the case of multiple defendants. It appealed to reactions that were ultimately visceral in nature. Robertson, Reason versus Rule in Louisiana Tort Law: Dialogues on Hill v. Lundin & Associates, Inc., 34 La.L.Rev. 1 (1973).

Determination of causation by first determining whether the defendant breached a standard of care imposed on him and then testing for proximate cause also tended to exclude from liability all but the defendant whose negligence occurred latest in point of time. Because the proximate cause approach often included distinctions between active and passive negligence, there was a tendancy to place further undue emphasis on the...