LeJeune v. Allstate Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 06 February 1978
• Docket Number: No. 6252,6252
• Citation: 356 So.2d 537
• Parties: Theotis Fontenot LeJEUNE et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ALLSTATE INSURANCE CO. et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 537

356 So.2d 537

Theotis Fontenot LeJEUNE et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ALLSTATE INSURANCE CO. et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 6252.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

Feb. 6, 1978.

Writ Granted May 19, 1978.

Guillory, McGee & Mayeux by Robert K. Guillory, Eunice, for plaintiff-appellant-appellee, Theotis F. LeJeune.

C. Brent Coreil, Ville Platte, for defendant-appellant-appellee, Danny Glenn Lafleur.

Brame, Bergstedt & Brame, Joe A. Brame, Lake Charles, for defendant-appellant, Zurich Ins. Co.

Davidson, Meaux, Sonnier & Roy, Edward O. Taulbee, IV, Lafayette, for defendants-appellees-appellants, Randall Molitar, et al.

Raggio, Farrar, Cappel & Chozen by Stephen A. Berniard, Jr., Lake Charles, for defendant-appellant, Danny G. Lafleur.

Young & Burson by Joe Ortego, Eunice, for plaintiff-appellee, Ivy Fruge Molitor.

Fusilier, Pucheu & Soileau by L. O. Fusilier, Ville Platte, for plaintiff-appellant-appellee.

John Larry Vidrine, Ville Platte, for defendant-appellee-appellant.

Jack C. Fruge, Ville Platte, for defendants-appellees, Willie Smith and Dixie Auto. Ins. Co.

Lewis & Lewis, James T. Guglielmos, Opelousas, for defendant-appellee.

Voorhies & Labbe, Patrick A. Juneau, Jr., Lafayette, for defendant-appellee, Western World Ins. Co.

Calvin E. Hardin, Jr., Baton Rouge, for defendant-appellee, Ins. Co. of North America.

Allen, Gooch & Bourgeois, Ltd., Arthur I. Robison and Michael Harson, Lafayette, for intervenor-appellant, Insurance Co. of La.

Before CULPEPPER, DOMENGEAUX and JOHNSON, JJ.

JOHNSON, Judge.

This appeal is from cases arising out of an automobile accident. They arise from a collision which occurred at the intersection of two hard surfaced state highways. It occurred at 3:00 in the afternoon on a clear day, November 13, 1974. One highway runs east and west; the other, north and south. Visibility is good for a considerable distance in all directions. Drivers of cars can see one another for a good distance before reaching the intersection. The east-west highway had the right of way; however, traffic traveling east or west was faced with a constantly blinking yellow caution light located some eighteen to twenty feet above the center of the intersection. This requires by law that traffic enter the intersection cautiously. Both highways were hard surfaced with two lanes for traffic. The traffic traveling the north-south highway from either direction was faced with a stop sign located on the right hand side of the driver's vehicle in each instance. In addition, for traffic moving north and south there was over the center of the intersection a large flashing red light. This light required traffic to stop. It, along with the stop sign, was an admonition to traffic approaching from the north or south to stop before entering the intersection. These signs also required such traffic to give way to east-west traffic after stopping.

At the place and time involved, a funeral procession was proceeding northward with two or three vehicles of the procession having crossed the intersection. The hearse was approaching and about to enter the intersection. All vehicles in the funeral procession had their headlights burning. A number of vehicles were following the hearse.

At this time, some 300 to 500 feet away, the evidence discloses that a Mercury Marquis Sedan was being driven in a westerly direction toward the intersection at a speed probably in excess of a hundred miles per hour. The Cadillac hearse proceeded into the intersection without stopping. The driver of the Mercury automobile, apparently, at this instant about 300 feet away, realized the danger and was able to lay down skid marks of about 154 feet in length. Despite the skid marks, the Mercury automobile struck the Cadillac hearse approximately in the right hand center of the hearse. The actual impact was after the Cadillac hearse, headed North, had completely cleared the east-west-roadway (Hwy. 10) but was in close proximity thereto. The photographs in evidence show that the intersection is broad and flares out wider than the two highways. The impact resulted in the death of the funeral director who was a passenger in the hearse. It resulted in injuries to the driver of the hearse and injuries to the driver of the Mercury automobile. Both vehicles, heavily damaged, ended up in a field adjacent to the northwest corner of the intersection. The coffin was dislodged from the hearse and ended up in the intersection.

The above recited statement of facts seems not too complicated upon presentation. The various legal problems and issues arising from this accident are far from simple. The presentation of the various problems that have arisen has resulted in multitudinous pleadings, cross claims, third party claims, interventions, answers, amending and supplemental petitions, reconventional demands, exceptions, motions for summary judgment, etc.

In these three consolidated cases consisting of seven bound volumes of records, four of the volumes are devoted to pleadings alone. This has resulted in a legal guagmire of monumental proportions. The powers that be in the legal profession in Louisiana concerned with simplification and streamlining of procedure could well use these cases and these records as an example to justify additional work in this area. If this record represents an example of what Louisiana third party practice is headed for, it is believed that we will rival or surpass the common law pleadings of yesteryear.

We find that the learned trial judge, with one exception, has properly disposed of the numerous issues which have arisen herein. We take the liberty of repeating his reasons for judgment with additional comment and quotation of authorities wherever we feel it is indicated.

We quote from his Reasons for Judgment:

These cases, consolidated for trial, arise from a hearse-automobile accident in the Parish of Evangeline, Louisiana. The facts are these:

Rolance LeJeune died instantly as a result of a hearse-automobile accident which occurred at the intersection of Louisiana Highways 10 and 13, on November 13, 1974, at approximately 2:58 P.M. Both highways, at the time of the accident were hard-surfaced, two-lane highways. The intersection was controlled by a stop sign and a semaphore light blinking red for traffic on Louisiana 13, and amber or yellow for traffic on Louisiana 10.

The hearse was being driven north on Louisiana 13, an inferior highway, by Danny Lafleur, an employee of Ardoin's Funeral Home of Ville Platte, Inc., for Ardoin's Funderal Home of Mamou, Inc. Having been assigned this task by the director of Ardoin's Funeral Home of Ville Platte, Inc., pursuant to a request of Rolance LeJeune, the director of Ardoin's Funeral Home of Mamou, Inc., Lafleur was under the supervision and control of LeJeune at the time of the accident. The automobile, the other vehicle in the collision, was being driven by Randall Molitor, and was the property of his widowed mother, Mrs. Ivy Molitor, with whom he resided.

When the accident occurred, the hearse, part of a cortege proceeding from Mamou to Pine Prairie for a funeral service and interment, was led by an Evangeline Parish sheriff's car, which signalled with a flashing red light. The driver of this car, deputy Willie Smith, had never before led a funeral procession on this route, and was untrained in the manner in which such a procession was to be escorted and in the manner in which intersecting avenues of travel should be secured to allow unimpeded travel to a motorcade of this kind. As Smith reached the intersection where the accident subsequently occurred, he did not stop and secure the intersection with his automobile, nor did he get out of his car to direct traffic. Instead, he stopped in the intersection, looked both ways, saw no approaching traffic on Louisiana Highway 10, and proceeded across the intersection as he continued to escort the vehicles which followed.

Upon arriving at the intersection where the accident occurred, Danny Lafleur, the driver of the hearse, slowed down but did not stop. He knew and observed that the intersection had not been secured by the police escort and that no one was directing traffic at the intersection to allow traffic on Louisiana Highway 13 the right of way over the superior right of way of the intersecting Louisiana Highway 10. He could see that the intersection was controlled by a stop sign and a red-blinking semaphore light for traffic on Louisiana Highway 13, and being familiar with the intersection, he knew it to be dangerous. Too, although he had observed that the Molitor car was traveling towards the intersection on Louisiana 10 and that the driver did not give any indication that he was going to stop, Lafleur nevertheless attempted to cross the intersection.

Randy Molitor, driving an automobile at a grossly excessive rate of speed, failed to reduce his speed as he approached the intersection, and collided with the hearse near the northeast quadrant of the intersection close to or out of the extension of the west-bound lane of Louisiana 10 as it crosses Louisiana 13. As a result, Mr. LeJeune, a passenger in the right front seat of the hearse, was killed.

Considering the evidence, I therefore find:

1) That Danny Lafleur was negligent in causing the accident and the consequent death and damages. He saw or should have seen the Molitor car in too close proximity to the intersection to proceed across. He had a flashing red light, he knew he was on an inferior highway, and he knew that no officer was directing traffic at the intersection so as to take precedence over the posted stop sign and the flashing red light. Therefore he should not have proceeded until he was certain that he could negotiate the crossing in absolute safety and that the oncoming car had stopped or would stop to allow the funeral procession to move through the intersection.

Additionally, we note in passing that the driver of the Guillory...