Guidry v. Davis

• Decision Date: 05 March 1980
• Docket Number: No. 7504,7504
• Citation: Guidry v. Davis, 382 So.2d 250 (La. App. 1980)
• Parties: Charles W. GUIDRY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Wannie D. DAVIS and Allstate Insurance Company, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana

Page 250

382 So.2d 250

Charles W. GUIDRY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Wannie D. DAVIS and Allstate Insurance Company, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 7504.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

March 5, 1980.

Joseph A. Koury, Lafayette, for plaintiff-appellant.

Onebane, Donohoe, Bernard, Torian, Diaz, McNamara & Abell, Timothy J. McNamara, Michael Harson, Lafayette, for defendant-appellee.

Before DOMENGEAUX, FORET and SWIFT, JJ.

SWIFT, Judge.

In this tort action plaintiff-appellant, Charles W. Guidry, appeals a jury verdict, asserting the amount awarded him as damages was grossly inadequate.

The record reveals that on February 7, 1977, Mr. Guidry was stopped in his automobile for a traffic light on South College Road in Lafayette, Louisiana, when his vehicle was struck from the rear by an automobile being operated by the defendant, Wannie D. Davis. There is no issue before this court as to the liability of Davis.

The plaintiff contends that in addition to the physical injuries he sustained in the accident, it was the precipitating cause of his psychiatric problems which manifested in a severe depression in April of 1977 and continued thereafter.

Mr. Guidry sued Davis and also Allstate Insurance Company, his own uninsured motorist carrier. Allstate filed a third party demand against Davis, asserting its subrogation right to recover all sums paid to plaintiff under its insurance policy. After trial on the merits, the jury awarded plaintiff $2600.00 in damages, exclusive of the prior payment by Allstate of $5,000.00 in compliance with the medical payment provisions of its policy.

The principal question for consideration in this case is whether or not the jury abused its "much discretion" in the amount of damages awarded to Mr. Guidry. Coco v. Winston Industries, Inc., 341 So.2d 332 (La.1976).

For several years prior to this February, 1977, accident plaintiff had been treated for both physical and mental conditions. In October of 1970 he underwent surgery to fuse a broken neck sustained in an automobile accident. Not long after that his father died. In 1973 Mr. Guidry was hospitalized for a severe depression which his psychiatrist believed was brought on by the loss of his job due to an unauthorized company loan he had made to himself. He was sent to Central Louisiana State Hospital in Pineville, where he remained a short period of time.

Although he told the officer who investigated the accident of February 7, 1977, that he was not injured, the following day he consulted Dr. Michael E. Boustany, a surgeon, complaining of a headache and pains in his neck, chest wall and low back. Dr. Boustany's diagnosis was a severe strain of his cervical and lumbar musculature, with generalized body contusions and later a severe depression. The doctor's records reflect that while the plaintiff came into his office for heat treatments a number of times prior to March 7, Dr. Boustany examined him only twice thereafter, on February 10 and March 7, before Guidry was hospitalized the following April.

On April 10, 1977, plaintiff was arrested and charged with DWI when his automobile backed into a vehicle driven by Officer Kermit M. Rickert of the Lafayette Police Department, who had pulled him over after noticing his car weaving between lanes. Later that evening Guidry appeared at the hospital and was admitted for treatment because of what he described as being "powerless over alcohol". This seems to have been a problem for a number of years.

He was hospitalized again in May, 1977, for what was diagnosed as "early pneumonia", in July for tracheobronchitis and sinusitis, in December of 1977 for a condition known as "meralgia paresthetica". He was admitted again in September, 1978, for a severe depression. Whether or not any of these were related to the accident is subject to question.

Dr. William E. McCray, Mr. Guidry's treating psychiatrist since 1972, testified that most of the hospital admissions were made at his request although he was not listed on the hospital records as the admitting physician except the last occasion. Dr. McCray readily acknowledged that it was not known just what caused the plaintiff's impaired mental condition, but he expressed the opinion that the February, 1977, accident was the primary precipitating cause of his subsequent depression. He also said such a "trigger" usually will cause a reaction or depression to occur "within hours to days", although he admitted that plaintiff was not hospitalized for severe depression until two months later, on April 10, 1977. Actually, the plaintiff missed work only on February 8, 9, 10, 11 and 24, March 3 and April 1 during the period from February 7 to April 10, 1977. And a fellow employee testified he did his work well both before and after the February 7 accident. He did not notice any difference.

Dr. James D. Cole, a clinical psychologist who examined Mr. Guidry at Allstate's request, agreed that usually only a few days would pass between an aggravating precipitating factor and the occurrence of such a depression. His opinion was that the February accident did not cause plaintiff's severe psychotic depressive state, because it would have manifested itself within a week and he could not have maintained the work record that he did. Dr. Cole's opinion was that Mr. Guidry had a "severe emotional pathology which dates back most of his life." He believed that the threat to the plaintiff of possible loss of his job because of the D.W.I. in April was probably what triggered the...