Landry v. State Farm Auto. Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 11 May 2022 |
| Docket Number | 21-790 |
| Citation | 339 So.3d 1215 |
| Parties | Kayla LANDRY v. STATE FARM AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, et al. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
339 So.3d 1215
Kayla LANDRY
v.
STATE FARM AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, et al.
21-790
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.
May 11, 2022
Todd M. Ammons, Darrell G. Guidry, Jr., Stockwell, Sievert, Vicellio, Clements, & Shaddock, LLP, Post Office Box 2900, Lake Charles, Louisiana 70602, (337) 436-9491, COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLEE: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, in its capacity as UM Insurer for Kayla Henry
Justin T. Morales, Jordyn A. Goody, The Townsley Law Firm, LLP, 3102 Enterprise Boulevard, Lake Charles, Louisiana 70601, (337) 478-1400, COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF/APPELLANT: Kayla Landry
Kyle M. Beasley, Christopher J. Rinn, Plauché, Smith & Nieset, LLC, Post Office Drawer 1705, Lake Charles, Louisiana 70602, (337) 436-0522, COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLEE: State Farm Automobile Insurance Company Brad David Racca Grant Alan Racca Kendal Henry
Court composed of John E. Conery, Van H. Kyzar, and Sharon Darville Wilson, Judges.
CONERY, Judge.
By this appeal, Plaintiff Kayla Landry questions apportionment of fault and causation of injury related to a May 25, 2017 automobile collision occurring in Jennings, Louisiana at the intersection of Highway 26 and Interstate Drive. Following a bench trial, the trial court determined Plaintiff to be 25% at fault due to her failure to exercise caution in proceeding into the intersection under the yellow light facing her. The trial court assessed the remaining 75% of fault to Defendant Grant Racca (Grant), due to his failure to yield the right-of-way to Plaintiff as he executed a left turn, colliding into her vehicle. Despite its apportionment of fault, the trial court determined that Plaintiff failed to prove that the collision caused Plaintiff's injury, a torn right rotator cuff. Plaintiff appeals. For the following reasons, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and render.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
At the time of the accident at issue, Plaintiff was driving her Chevy Malibu on Highway 26 in Jennings, Louisiana. The Uniform Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Report, prepared by Officer Brooke Rice1 of the Jennings Police Department, indicates that Plaintiff "advised that she went under the YELLOW LIGHT; and that is when the other vehicle collided with her driver[’]s side." In her contemporaneous, handwritten report affixed to the Crash Report, Plaintiff explained: "I Kayla Landry was driving on Hwy 26 going under the light and a white truck hit my driver[’s] side[.] [H]e was coming north on 26."
Approximately five days after the accident, Plaintiff amended her statement after a friend urged her to provide more detail. Plaintiff explained therein:
I Kayla Landry was driving on HWY 26 traveling south in the right lane. I was going under the light when it turned yellow. As I was going through the light I looked over to my left and saw this white truck making a U turn (which is illegal)[.] I swerved to the right to try to avoid him hitting me. He came across and hit me on the driver[’]s front side of my car.
The "white truck" referenced by Plaintiff was a Ford F-350 driven by Grant and owned by his step-father, Brandon Henry (Mr. Henry). Officer Rice explained in the Crash Report that Grant, sixteen years old at the time of the accident, "stated he was driving North on Highway 26 when he
attempted to make a left hand turn. Mr. Racca advised that the light was GREEN when he began to turn left." Grant acknowledged at trial that although the light facing him was green, he did not have a green turn arrow. Grant explained that he followed behind a left turning truck and trailer into the intersection and that he felt he could safely do so as the southbound cars in the lanes adjacent to that of Plaintiff had stopped.
Plaintiff stated that upon entering the intersection and seeing Grant's approaching truck, she attempted to swerve to the right. She was unable to avoid the crash, however. After she was struck by Grant's truck, Plaintiff's vehicle "shook" and she heard a "loud noise." The Crash Report indicates that Plaintiff's vehicle sustained damage to its front driver's side and had to be towed from the scene, whereas Grant's truck sustained only "minor damage on the front push bumper."
Plaintiff did not report immediate injury to Officer Rice at the time of the crash, as reflected in the Crash Report. Neither did Plaintiff report injury five days later when interviewed by the adjuster for State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm), the UM provider for Plaintiff as well as the liability insurer of the truck driven by Grant and owned by his step-father, Mr. Henry. When asked whether she was "injured at all[,]" Plaintiff responded, "No ma'am." Plaintiff later explained however, that she felt "shook up" and "sore" from the accident and did not immediately appreciate that the pain she felt following the accident was an "injury" per the inquiry of either Officer Rice, at the scene, or the State Farm adjuster. Plaintiff testified that on returning home after the accident she took Tylenol and "did heat and cold" on her shoulder. Plaintiff's friend, Mistie Landry (Mistie), explained that she provided Plaintiff with a ride from the accident scene and that Plaintiff appeared "kind of shooken up[.]" Mistie reported that Plaintiff indicated her arm was "hurting" and "bothering" her that night.
Plaintiff reported to her job at Butchie's Corner, a convenience store, the day following the accident. Plaintiff testified, however, that she needed assistance in performing her work tasks, which included working the cash register, stocking the coolers, and performing food service-related tasks. Kimberly Lessigne, Plaintiff's long-time friend and co-worker at Butchie's Corner, confirmed that she learned of Plaintiff's accident the next time she worked with Plaintiff at the store. Plaintiff reported pain and difficulty lifting during the course of their work together. Ms. Lessigne testified that given Plaintiff's difficulty in lifting her right arm, Plaintiff would either perform tasks with her left hand or "switch jobs" to something that she could perform more easily.
Plaintiff continued working and, according to her testimony, continued to experience increasing pain upon activity, particularly lifting. In July 2017, two-months post-accident, Plaintiff's pain symptoms continued and she sought treatment from Dr. Joel Conner, a chiropractor. Plaintiff attributed her pain to the accident and reported that her shoulder hurt when she would "pick up something heavy[.]" She explained that she experienced pain daily, that her pain level was a 5 on a scale of 10 at the time of the visit, and that it had been a 10 out of 10 on the night of the accident.
According to Dr. Connor, he saw Plaintiff for less than ten minutes and told her that he was unable to help given what he felt was a more serious condition than he could "take care of." He recommended that she see an orthopedist. Dr. Connor stated in his deposition that he did not perform range of motion tests with Plaintiff
because she was holding her arm and crying. Given that history, Dr. Connor attributed Plaintiff's injury to the car accident.
Five months post-accident, on October 26, 2017, Plaintiff visited Dr. Paul Fenn, an orthopedist with whom she had treated for prior injuries. Plaintiff reported that she experienced right shoulder pain and weakness on lifting since the accident. A January 2018 arthrogram revealed a "massive" tear of the right rotator cuff. Dr. Fenn explained in his deposition that although the tear was large, he would attempt surgical repair of the shoulder. Further, in his deposition, Dr. Fenn confirmed on questioning by counsel for State Farm that "[h]olding onto a steering wheel driving down the highway," was not a "mechanism of injury[,]" but that the accident was a "reasonable mechanism" of injury. Dr. Fenn explained more fully that:
Holding onto a steering wheel driving down the highway, no. But if there's a motor vehicle collision, I have given up trying to opine on what happens to a body in the middle of a collision. So assuming there's a hard enough collision to do some damage to the vehicle, sure, that's a reasonable mechanism.
Dr. Michael Duval, an orthopedic surgeon, examined Plaintiff and rendered a second medical opinion on behalf of State Farm on July 2, 2019. Dr. Duval opined in his deposition that the size of the tear indicated that it was caused by a "significant, traumatic event" and, in his second medical opinion report, that it was "difficult to conceptualize a mechanism of injury to cause this simply holding onto a steering wheel." Dr. Duval noted that Plaintiff explained to him that she had previously injured her left shoulder in a fall but denied having harmed her right shoulder at that time.
Dr. Duval explained that such a tear would have caused an "onset of severe pain and the inability to use one's arm or lift it at all." Dr. Duval testified in his deposition that although he did not dispute Plaintiff's history, he thought it was more likely than not that the subject accident did not cause the tear shown on the MRI. Dr. Duval found the injury to be so profound that he felt that the...
To continue reading
Request your trial