Langlois v. Allied Chemical Corp.
| Decision Date | 07 June 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 50852,50852 |
| Citation | 249 So.2d 133,258 La. 1067 |
| Parties | Emmanuel J. LANGLOIS v. ALLIED CHEMICAL CORPORATION and the Travelers Insurance Company. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
D'Amico, Curet & Bush, Louis D. Curet, Baton Rouge, for plaintiff-appellant.
Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips, William Luther Wilson, Baton Rouge, for defendants-appellees.
This suit was filed by Emmanuel Langlois, a fireman employed by the Baton Rouge Fire Department, for personal injuries he sustained from inhalation of a gas that escaped from the Allied Chemical Corporation. Suit was brought against Allied and its liability insurer, The Travelers Insurance Company. 1 On appeal the judgment of the district court which awarded Langlois damages was reversed. 238 So.2d 41.
On February 23, 1967, a radio call was received by Fire Station No. 2 in Baton Rouge directing that a fire truck be sent to Delta Southern Tank Corporation to give assistance to two men who were trapped in a tank by a gas. Langlois, who was acting as temporary fire truck driver, and the other members of the crew proceeded to Delta's premises. Arriving at Delta's parking lot they were told that the men had been extricated and to return to the fire station. During the five-minute interval while they remained at Delta they encountered gas in the form of a haze or fog coming from an unknown source. Langlois' throat started tickling, his eyes smarted, and he began to cough. All others in the area evidenced the same effects from the gas. On the return trip they continued to encounter the gas with a heavier concentration for about two and one-half blocks. Although the windows of the cab of the truck were closed, Langlois and the Captain who rode with him in the cab still suffered from the effects of the gas. At the fire station Langlois was again exposed to the gas as it drifted in that direction while he was washing down the fire truck. To avoid contact with the gas he and the other firemen went into the station and closed the windows.
Langlois continued to cough the night after the exposure and for the next three days. He also began to expectorate a thick mucus, had difficulty in breathing, and ran a temperature of 102--103 degrees. A skin irritation occurred with some scaling and dryness of the face and ears. The morning of the fourth day after his exposure to the gas he was admitted to the hospital for treatment for chemical bronchitis. Five days later he was discharged from the hospital with out-patient care. About a month after the incident Langlois returned to work, and approximately two weeks later he was discharged from all medical care. No permanent disability resulted from the injury.
It was ascertained after the incident that the gas was antimony pentachloride, which was used as a catalyst in the manufacture of certain Genetrons. The gas had escaped from Allied Chemical Corporation's plant, which was adjacent to Delta, when a Halon-lined pipe carrying the gas from a reactor ruptured.
Allied admits that it was responsible for the damage caused by the escaped gas, and that negligence is not the criterion for determining its responsibility. Allied urges that the final judicial conclusion as to its liability to a third party is to be made after a determination of the relationships and a consideration of the conduct of the parties toward each other. It admits that Langlois was a person protected from the damage caused by the poisonous gas released from Allied's premises into the general neighborhood, but contends that it had the right to expect that Langlois would not act in such a manner as to cause his own damage. It argues that under the theory of contributory negligence or assumption of risk plaintiff, as a fireman, could and should have avoided the damage he suffered.
Langlois answers that it is of no moment that he was acting as a fireman, and that by any standard he did not cause or contribute to his own damage. He urges that where responsibility for damage attaches without proof of negligence, imprudence, or want of skill on the part of the defendant, the court should not inquire into the conduct of the one damaged to determine whether liability attaches. It is his position that contributory negligence and assumption of risk do not apply when liability is imposed without negligence.
Counsel for all parties litigant, while agreeing that Allied is responsible for the damages that ensued because it allowed a poisonous gas to escape, advance numerous theories and codal authorities as a basis for this responsibility in order to propose or dispose of the defenses urged. Their dilemma is partially the result of inconsistence in jurisprudential assignment of a legal basis for allowing recovery for damages resulting from the dangerous and harmful activities and enterprises.
Although we have deviated from the theory of the case pleading under Code of Civil Procedure Articles 854 and 865, the courts must still ascertain the nature of an action in order to determine the available defenses and the applicable prescription. It would be conceded by all that this is an action seeking damages for injury caused by the act of another. Under our Civil Code such an act is called an offense or quasi-offense and the action is generally termed a delictual or tort action. Louisiana is most fortunate to have a broad but simple statement of the law which determines the delictual responsibility of man. Article 2315 reads: 'Every act whatever of man that causes damage to another obliges him by whose fault it happened to repair it. * * *' Article 2316 reads: 'Every person is responsible for the damage he occasions not merely by his act, but by his negligence, his imprudence, or his want of skill.' These articles are the basic source for determining when one man's conduct which does harm to another is of such a nature that the actor must respond in damages. 2
Fault is the key word in Article 2315. Although it is given three qualities or categorized in three degrees by Article 3556(13), it is nowhere defined in the Civil Code. A careful reading of Civil Code Article 2316 gives insight into the meaning of 'fault' as expressed in Article 2315. It enumerates three additional or particularized faults--that is, negligence, imprudence, and want of skill. Article 2316 is not all-inclusive or definitive of fault, but rather illustrative of fault. To accord full meaning, purpose, and value to Article 2316, we must conclude that it defines three qualities of fault, that they apply to acts and to omissions to act in response to a duty, and that it is by its own express terms not a full definition of fault. 3
Under these articles the courts of this state have been given a broad, general principle of legislative will under which we are required to determine when the interest of society is best served by allowing the act of man which causes harm to be accepted as a proper standard of conduct or when society is best served by requiring one who harms another to respond in damages for the injury caused. See Malone, Nuisance and Fault, 8 La.L.Rev. 248. Our common law neighbors are required, conversely, to begin with the jurisprudence arising out of specific circumstances and to draw from this jurisprudence a general principle to govern future determinations. It has been said: '* * * The merit of the civilian general principle lies in the fact that the principle is wider than the cases decided and that hence it has within itself the potentiality of growth.' Stone, Tort Doctrine in Louisiana, 17 Tul.L.Rev. 159, 166.
Definitions of fault are actually indefinite generalities and usually not illuminating when applying the concept. Colin and Capitant have said that fault signifies that conduct which a man should not have engaged in--that is, that he has acted as he should not have acted. 2 Colin et Capitant, Cours e le mentaire de droit civil francais (8e e d.1935) § 190. Defining fault is a logomachy. Because of the difficulty in defining fault for all times and purposes and instead of defining fault by listing numerous activities which constitute fault (much as we enumerate the activities which constitute criminal conduct in our Criminal Code) our law has left this determination in the hands of the court. However, our lawmakers have provided us with numerous standards of fault in the Civil Code, in statutory law, and in ordinances. Fault is not limited to moral wrongs but encompasses many acts which are merely forbidden by law. The fault of the employer which makes him liable for the negligence of his employees is founded upon socio-economic needs and not upon moral considerations. Our Code has defined man's responsibility in numerous relationships with others, such as lessor (Arts. 2692--2709), as lessee (Arts. 2710--2723), as carrier (Arts. 2752--2754), as an adjoining landowner (Arts. 667, 670, 691, 697, 698), as a neighbor (Art. 669), to illustrate only a few. 4
As Professor Stone said about Article 2315, which we paraphrase here to include also Article 2316: Hence it becomes clear that in the decision of a case in tort or delict in Louisiana, the court first goes to that fountainhead of responsibility, Articles 2315 and 2316, and in applying those articles it goes to the many other articles in our Code as well as statutes and other laws which deal with the responsibility of certain persons, the responsibility in certain relationships, and the responsibility which arises due to certain types of activities. Just as we have found in the Code many standards of conduct, many statutes and local ordinances also detail standards of conduct which courts may apply per se, impliedly or by analogy. Criminal laws, traffic regulations, zoning laws, health laws, and others may and often do set the standard for lawful conduct in personal relationships, although they are designed for societal protection and incorporate penalties and specific...
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