Goza v. Parish of West Baton Rouge

• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana
• Writing for the Court: Guidry
• Citation: Goza v. Parish of West Baton Rouge, 21 So.3d 320 (La. App. 2009)
• Decision Date: 05 May 2009
• Docket Number: No. 2008 CA 0086.,2008 CA 0086.
• Parties: Jerry GOZA and Gladys P. Goza v. PARISH OF WEST BATON ROUGE, State of Louisiana and ABC Insurance Company.

21 So.3d 320

Jerry GOZA and Gladys P. Goza v. PARISH OF WEST BATON ROUGE, State of Louisiana and ABC Insurance Company.

No. 2008 CA 0086.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

May 5, 2009.

Opinion Granting Rehearing for Limited Purpose September 9, 2009.

Michael C. Palmintier, Baton Rouge, LA, for Plaintiffs/Appellees, Jerry and Gladys P. Goza.

James D. "Buddy" Caldwell, Attorney General, John H. Ayres, III, Assistant Attorney General, Baton Rouge, LA, for Defendant/Appellant, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

Before GUIDRY, GAIDRY, and WELCH, JJ.

GUIDRY, J.

The State of Louisiana, through the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), appeals a jury verdict and a judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) rendered in this matter. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On February 11, 1996, Jerry Goza attended a Mardi Gras parade with his wife, Gladys P. Goza, in Addis, Louisiana, where he consumed at least one or two beers. Following the parade, Mr. Goza and his wife went to Marley Marina, a local bar, where they danced and socialized with friends, some of whom had attended the same Mardi Gras parade. Around 7:45 p.m. that night, Mr. Goza, who had previously left the bar in his wife's car, was traveling westbound on Louisiana Highway 989-1 (a state-owned highway commonly known as Choctaw Road) on his way back to Marley Marina, when he traveled off the paved roadway at the juncture where Louisiana Highway 989-1 intersected at a sharp curve with Louisiana Highway 989-2 (commonly known as Ellwood Road). Mr. Goza drove off the roadway into a cane field adjacent to the road where his vehicle eventually ran into a ditch, struck a culvert, and flipped over. Mr. Goza sustained serious injuries, requiring surgery and rehabilitative treatment.

The Gozas filed a petition for damages against the DOTD and the Parish of West Baton Rouge, alleging that the design, construction, and signage of Louisiana Highway 989-1 were defective, but they later filed a motion to dismiss their claims against the Parish of West Baton Rouge. A "Restrictive Judgment of Dismissal" was signed by the trial court on April 3, 1997, dismissing the Parish of West Baton Rouge from the suit.

The remaining defendant, the DOTD, answered the petition generally denying liability for the plaintiffs' claims; however, after a period of extensive discovery and other pre-trial proceedings, the DOTD amended its answer to add a third-party demand against the Parish of West Baton Rouge. In the third-party demand, the DOTD alleged that portions of the location on which the accident occurred were maintained and controlled by the Parish of West Baton Rouge. The West Baton Rouge Parish Council answered the third-party demand to deny the allegations of liability asserted against it.

Thereafter, the West Baton Rouge Parish Council, which observed that it had been wrongfully identified in prior pleadings as the Parish of West Baton Rouge, filed a motion for summary judgment, alleging there was no evidentiary basis on which the West Baton Rouge Parish Council could be held liable. The trial court agreed, and rendered summary judgment in favor of the West Baton Rouge Parish Council, dismissing the DOTD's third-party demand. The DOTD appealed the summary judgment, which judgment was affirmed by this court on review, Goza v. Parish of West Baton Rouge, 05-1040 (La. App. 1st Cir. 5/5/06), 930 So.2d 1243(unpublished opinion), and a subsequent writ application to the supreme court was denied. Goza v. Parish of West Baton Rouge, 06-1221 (La.6/14/06), 929 So.2d 1272.

The matter thus proceeded to trial in October 2006 against the DOTD alone. Following a four-day jury trial, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs, but allocated only 25 percent fault to the DOTD. The jury awarded Mr. Goza the following amounts:

   Loss of enjoyment of life and permanent
                   disability                                $100,000.00
                   Future medical expenses                   $500,000.00
                   Past medical expenses                     $326,001.81
                   Lost wages, past and future               $678,195.00
                

The jury did not award Mr. Goza any other general damages. The jury awarded Mrs. Goza $100,000.00 for loss of consortium.

In response to the jury's verdict, the DOTD filed a motion for JNOV. The trial court granted the motion in part and amended the jury's verdict to award Mr. Goza $600,000.00 in general damages and to decrease the award of future medical expenses to $150,000.00. In all other respects, the trial court maintained the awards and the fault allocations rendered by the jury. The DOTD appeals the original jury verdict and the JNOV.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

In this appeal, the DOTD contends that the trial court committed error in admitting uniform motor vehicle accident reports, which it attempted to exclude pursuant to a motion in limine that was denied by the trial court, and in restricting its ability and right to present evidence opposing the accident reports. The DOTD further contends that it was error to apportion any fault to it and to award Mr. Goza future medical expenses.

DISCUSSION

We began our review of this appeal by first considering the DOTD's third assignment of error relative to the trial court's denial of its motion in limine to exclude from evidence the Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Reports (accident reports) that the plaintiff obtained from the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Office. Relying on 23 U.S.C. § 409 and Long v. State, Department of Transportation and Development, 04-0485 (La.6/29/05), 916 So.2d 87, the DOTD contends that the trial court erred in allowing the plaintiff to introduce copies of the accident reports at trial.

The federal statute, 23 U.S.C. § 409, was enacted by Congress "to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of information that States compile in good faith to meet the purposes of Federal aid highway programs to eliminate or reduce hazardous roadway conditions." Long, 04-0485 at 10-11, 916 So.2d at 94-95. Accordingly, the statute provides:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, reports, surveys, schedules, lists, or data compiled or collected for the purpose of identifying, evaluating, or planning the safety enhancement of potential accident sites, hazardous roadway conditions, or railway-highway crossings, pursuant to sections 130, 144, and 148 of this title or for the purpose of developing any highway safety construction improvement project which may be implemented utilizing Federal-aid highway funds shall not be subject to discovery or admitted into evidence in a Federal or State court proceeding or considered for other purposes in any action for damages arising from any occurrence at a location mentioned or addressed in such reports, surveys, schedules, lists, or data.

The definitive pronouncement of the proper scope and application of 23 U.S.C. § 409 is found in the United States Supreme Court's opinion of Pierce County, Washington v. Guillen, 537 U.S. 129, 123 S.Ct. 720, 154 L.Ed.2d 610 (2003). In that case, the United States Supreme Court declared:

§ 409 protects not just the information an agency generates, i.e., compiles, for § 152[¹] purposes, but also any information that an agency collects from other sources for § 152 purposes. And, it also takes a narrower view of the privilege by making it inapplicable to information compiled or collected for purposes unrelated to § 152 and held by agencies that are not pursuing § 152 objectives. We therefore adopt this interpretation.

Guillen, 537 U.S. at 145-46, 123 S.Ct. at 730-31 (emphasis added).

Evidentiary privileges are in derogation of the search for truth and thus such privileges must be strictly construed. Sevario v. State, Department of Transportation and Development, 98-1302, p. 10 (La.App. 1st Cir.11/10/99), 752 So.2d 221, 229, writ denied, 99-3457 (La.4/7/00), 759 So.2d 760, and writs not considered, 99-3638, 00-0044 (La.4/7/00), 759 So.2d 81, 82.

In Long, the issue before the court was whether the trial court erred in admitting into evidence three letters between the DOTD and the mayor of Boutain that were obtained from the mayor's office. The DOTD argued that the letters should have been held inadmissible pursuant to 23 U.S.C. § 409. Long, 04-0485 at 13, 916 So.2d at 96. The court in Long agreed, finding that the "three letters represent information necessary for the commencement of the upgrade [of the] roadway/railroad crossing, and thus, the letters effectuate the purpose of the federal safety program." Long, 04-0485 at 20, 916 So.2d at 100. The court therefore held that the letters were "protected from discovery and ... inadmissible under 23 U.S.C. § 409[,]" even though the letters were in the hands of an agency not charged with the responsibility of developing highway safety construction improvement projects that utilize Federal-aid highway funds. Long, 04-0485 at 20, 916 So.2d at 100.

We find the Long case distinguishable from the matter before us. The court in Long expressly found that the letters in that case "were compiled and collected by the DOTD for purposes related to funding through ... a federal safety program[,]" because each of the letters specifically addressed the commencement of the process of selecting the roadway/railway crossing for improvement. Long, 04-0485 at 19-20, 916 So.2d at 99-100. As discussed hereafter, we hold that there has been no such showing regarding the accident reports at issue.

The Louisiana Supreme Court specifically held in Long that "[t]he privilege afforded to state agencies in § 409 and the documents at issue must not be viewed in a vacuum; rather, inquiry should be directed toward the purpose for which the documents are created." Long, 04-0485 at 20, 916 So.2d at 100. While the DOTD created the accident report form and trains local law enforcement officers to properly complete the form to fulfill its obligations under 23 U.S.C. §...