Jacobs v. Kimbrough
| Decision Date | 24 September 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 13917,13917 |
| Citation | 376 So.2d 1273 |
| Parties | Loin F. JACOBS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Doyle KIMBROUGH, et al., Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Gordon E. Rountree, Shreveport, for defendants-appellants Doyle Kimbrough, Southern County Mut. Ins. Co. and Kimbrough Brothers Trucking Co.
Rothell & Toups, Ltd. by David A. Rothell, Mansfield, for defendant-appellant Roy Lee Coleman.
Bethard & Davis by J. Q. Davis, Coushatta, for plaintiff-appellee Loin F. Jacobs.
Before PRICE, MARVIN and HEARD, JJ.
The primary question on this appeal is whether the trial court was in error in finding that the driver of the overtaking vehicle was solely at fault in causing the accident and failing to find contributory negligence on the part of the left-turning motorist. A second issue concerns whether the damages awarded were excessive.
The accident in question happened at 6:15 a. m. on July 18, 1977, near the southerly corporate limits of Stonewell in DeSoto Parish on Highway 171. For some distance, both north and south of the accident site, Highway 171 was a two-lane highway which was undergoing construction to convert it to a four-lane divided highway. This section of the highway had been made a no-passing zone by the department of highways. Plaintiff, Loin Jacobs, the owner and driver of the Dodge pickup, was driving northerly pulling a homemade flat-bed trailer loaded with brick-laying equipment. As he attempted to turn left into the private driveway of a service station on the west side of Highway 171, his pickup was struck by the Ford tractor-trailer unit owned by Kimbrough Brothers Lumber Company and being driven by their employee, Roy Lee Coleman.
The determination of whose negligence caused or contributed to the accident in this instance hinges upon the resolution of the conflicting versions of the drivers of the subject vehicles of the events leading up to the collision.
Jacobs contends he had slowed to a speed between ten or fifteen miles per hour preparatory to making a left turn into the northerly driveway of the service station; that he turned on his left-turn indicator some 200 feet before beginning his turn; and that he looked for oncoming and overtaking traffic. He contends he observed the driver of the automobile immediately behind him slow his vehicle, and that it appeared the following traffic was responding to his signal to turn left. He contends he did not see the tractor-trailer driven by Coleman in the passing lane at this time, but was aware of its presence in the following traffic as he had noticed it come over a hill a few moments earlier. He further contends the front of the long-bed pickup had entered the driveway when the Coleman vehicle collided with the rear left side of his vehicle.
Coleman contends that as his vehicle came over a hill a short distance south of the accident scene, he saw the Jacobs truck and trailer and two following automobiles traveling very slowly, and as he continued toward these vehicles, the two...
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