Moore v. Chrysler Corp.
| Decision Date | 10 March 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 23149-CA,23149-CA |
| Parties | Gene Douglas MOORE, et al., Plaintiffs/Appellees/Appellants, v. CHRYSLER CORPORATION, et al., Defendants/Appellants/Appellees. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Leger & Mestayer by Michael J. Mestayer, New Orleans, Chester A. Bradley, III & Assoc. by Chester A. Bradley, III, Thompson, Sparks & Dean by Wood T. Sparks, Monroe, for plaintiffs/appellees/appellants.
Theus, Grisham, Davis & Leigh by Sharon W. Ingram, Monroe, for McAdams Custom Bldg., Inc.
Hayes, Harkey, Smith, Cascio & Mullens by Charles S. Smith, Monroe, for Bill Allen Dodge.
McGlinchey, Stafford, Mintz, Cellini & Lang by Ernest P. Gieger, Jr., New Orleans, for Chrysler Corp.
Before MARVIN, SEXTON and NORRIS, JJ.
Sally Moore, a guest passenger in a van, was killed by being ejected through a rear picture window when the van was involved in a one-vehicle accident. Her husband, Dr. Gene Moore, and her three children (including the driver of the van, Liza Pinegar) sued the manufacturer, Chrysler Corp., the seller, Bill Allen Dodge, the customizer, McAdams Custom Building, Inc. ("McAdams"), and their own uninsured motorist and liability insurer, State Farm, alleging the van was defective for failure to have seatbelts on the rear sofa seat and for having a large, easily breakable picture window. The parties filed various incidental claims. Prior to trial, the plaintiffs dismissed their claims against Chrysler without prejudice, and settled with Bill Allen Dodge and State Farm, reserving all rights against McAdams. After trial, the district court wrote long reasons for judgment, finding that the van was defective and that Sally Moore was not at fault in her death. The court assigned fault 20% to Liza Pinegar, 20% to Bill Allen Dodge and 60% to McAdams. The court denied the claims for lost services but awarded damages for wrongful death as follows: Dr. Moore, $150,000; Liza and Philip Pinegar, $75,000 each; and Julia Bailey, $50,000, with all amounts reduced by 40% to reflect the pretrial settlements with other codefendants. Both McAdams and the plaintiffs have appealed.
We conclude the van was indeed defective for lacking seatbelts in the rear sofa seat or a warning not to use that seat while the van is in motion; this defect was a legal cause of Mrs. Moore's death. However, the trial court was plainly wrong to find the van's window was also defective. Because both Bill Allen Dodge and McAdams were equally responsible for the defect, they must share equal fault for the plaintiffs' losses. The trial court was not plainly wrong to assess 20% fault to the driver of the van; fault of 40% each will be assessed to Bill Allen Dodge and McAdams. Because of the pretrial settlements with State Farm and Bill Allen Dodge, the final award will be reduced by 60%. The general damages for wrongful death are within the district court's discretion and will not be disturbed; however, the trial court erred in denying the claim for lost services. The judgment will be amended accordingly, affirmed and rendered.
Background facts
The plaintiffs lived in Monroe, where Dr. Moore, then age 52, is a psychiatrist. He and his wife, Sally Rollins Moore, lived with her children of two prior marriages: Julia Bailey, then 18; Liza Pinegar, then 15; and Philip Pinegar, then 13. This was Dr. Moore's fourth marriage. At the time of the accident Philip was institutionalized at Humana Hospital Brentwood in Shreveport for adolescent psychological problems. However, Philip came home for his birthday weekend and on the evening of April 21, 1985 he was being returned to Shreveport.
Sally Moore drove to Shreveport in the family's customized 1984 Dodge Ram van, which they had bought about a year earlier. The van had two captain's chairs in the front, two high-back captain's chairs in the middle, and a large fold-out bench (sofa) seat in the rear. After the family dropped off Philip, they headed back to Monroe; however, because it was about 11 p.m. and neither Sally nor Dr. Moore had slept much that weekend, Sally asked Liza to drive. Liza was not tired so she took the wheel; she testified she kept a steady speed of roughly 55 m.p.h. Dr. Moore sat in the front passenger seat and Sally went to the sofa seat, at first just leaning over slightly but eventually getting into an almost reclining position, with her feet up on the sofa. Conversation ceased presently and Dr. Moore dozed lightly in his seat.
On an overpass near Gibsland Dr. Moore awoke suddenly; he thought he heard someone (perhaps his wife) say, "We hit something," and he noticed the van was careening across the interstate. He thought he took a brief, sweeping glance toward the rear of the van and "had the impression" that Sally was moving forward, but the van hit something and knocked him forward. Liza had fallen asleep at the wheel and had no recollection of the incident. Dr. Moore reached over and steered the van to a stop on the right (south) shoulder, a short way past the overpass. Dr. Moore and Liza both sustained moderate blows to their heads; Liza started talking irrationally.
A motorist following some distance behind, Tracee Randall, had noticed the van swerve quickly to the left lane and then skid to the right. As it crossed the center line, the witness saw a body appear to "fall" out a side window and land on the pavement. She pulled off the road and woke her husband who, after taking several minutes to calm his wife, got out of the car and walked to the object in the road. It was a woman's body with blood coming out of the mouth and face. She was not breathing. Mr. Randall walked to the van, where he found Liza in shock and Dr. Moore crouched in the back of the van searching for his wife. The large picture window on the driver's side, next to the sofa seat, was smashed out.
State troopers reached the scene at 12:17 a.m. Finding scrape marks on the rails and concrete curbs, they surmised that the van had struck the left (north) guardrail near a small delineator sign, zigzagged across the road and struck the right rail, then traveled 82' before coming to rest on the right (south) side of the road, past the bridge. Sally's body was 68' from the delineator sign. Blood on the sign suggested that she struck it and was deflected into the road. Blood spots on the highway suggested that her body may have bounced on the pavement before coming to rest on the centerline, the head facing west.
Dr. Moore had bought the van new from Bill Allen Dodge in Monroe in May 1984. Bill Allen Dodge, in turn, had received the van from Chrysler a few months earlier as a "shell," its interior consisting of only two front seats and bare metal to the back. A "shell" van is suitable for converting, but Bill Allen Dodge did not perform this work. The relationship between Bill Allen Dodge, the customizer and the ultimate buyer was the subject of much testimony.
Wesley Pleasants is a carpenter and cabinet maker with some experience making camper shells. In about 1973 he started converting vans for friends; his then father-in-law, Mr. Bill Allen Sr. (former president of Bill Allen Dodge) asked him to come to Monroe and convert vans for the company in 1976. At that time Mr. Allen's son, Lane Allen, gave Pleasants some instruction in safety techniques, but nothing very detailed. Another Bill Allen Dodge employee, Bill Nevins, showed Pleasants how to customize with a kit. Pleasants did not attend any schools or join any associations; he testified he had heard of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Act ("FMVSA") but he did not know its content. Eventually Pleasants went into business for himself, doing conversions for Bill Allen and others, but at no time did Bill Allen supervise his work.
Because business was slow, Pleasants went to work for Glen McAdams, owner of McAdams Custom Building, in 1983. McAdams did building construction and he knew nothing about van conversions or the FMVSA; he testified he hired Pleasants because "his work was good." He allowed Pleasants to call his end of the business "VanFare, Division of McAdams Custom Building Inc." VanFare would not convert a van except by request from a customer like Bill Allen Dodge or an individual.
According to Pleasants, if an order did not mention seatbelts, he would discuss this with the customer. He wanted to install as many belts as possible because he made about $12 per seat (and added about $30 per seat to the final price). He testified, however, that Bill Allen's position was to keep down the price as much as possible so his vans would be competitive, and most of the time Bill Allen did not add belts to the seats he ordered installed. Bill Allen Sr. testified he would not turn down a sale because seatbelts were requested. Pleasants knew that if he installed a seat without a belt, he should place a warning sticker advising passengers not to use the seat while the vehicle is in motion.
Pleasants was hired to customize the van that Dr. Moore eventually bought. He installed the two middle captain's chairs and the rear sofa seat. As Bill Allen's purchase order did not specify seatbelts, Pleasants did not attach any to the seats he installed. He affixed a sticker identifying the customizer as VanFare. He also cut five spaces in the sides of the van using window templates from a kit (it was only the second or third time he had used this particular kit). The rear driver's side window was large, 34" wide by 24" high, and its bottom was almost flush with the top of the sofa seat. The window's frame came in the kit; Pleasants cut the frame into six sections which were not contiguous when installed, but he riveted each segment in three or four places. For the window pane he used a plate of AS3 glass, the kind ordinarily used in side windows. Pleasants's project also included carpet, drink stands and other accessories.
The total cost of VanFare's work for Bill Alle...
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