Seals v. Morris
| Decision Date | 28 September 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 80-C-2291,80-C-2291 |
| Citation | 410 So.2d 715 |
| Parties | Shellie J. SEALS v. Eugene MORRIS, et al. Sylvester L. HARRY v. Eugene MORRIS, et al. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
Herbert R. Alexander, Jim W. Richardson, Jr., Bogalusa, for plaintiff-applicant.
John J. Hainkel, Jr., of Porteous, Toledano, Hainkel & Johnson, New Orleans, Edward A. Griffis, of Talley, Anthony, Huges & Knight, Bogalusa, for defendants-respondents.
This is a tort suit in which plaintiff seeks to recover the damages he sustained in an intersectional collision. 1 The trial court held defendant liable for entering the intersection without stopping for the stop sign facing him. The court of appeal reversed, concluding the accident was inevitable, in that defendant lost control of his truck when he was frightened by the discovery of a snake crawling on his shoulder. 387 So.2d 1220. We granted certiorari to review that judgment. 393 So.2d 745.
After fishing in a wooded area, defendant was driving on a dirt road at a reasonable speed and was approaching the intersection with a favored roadway, when he noticed a green snake on his shoulder. In the panic following this sudden and unexpected occurrence he lost control of his truck and proceeded past a stop sign into the intersection, where he collided with plaintiff's car.
The principal defense at trial and on appeal was that the accident was unavoidable, in that it was not caused by any negligence or unreasonable conduct on defendant's part.
Delictual responsibility in Louisiana is based on fault. C.C. Art. 2315. Fault is a more comprehensive term than negligence, and fault encompasses many acts which are not morally wrong, but are merely violative of laws or of legal duties. Langlois v. Allied Chemicals, 258 La. 1067, 249 So.2d 133 (1971).
Defendant had a duty to keep his vehicle under proper control and to refrain from entering the intersection until it was safe to do so. Plaintiff proved that his damages were caused solely because defendant did not maintain proper control and did not yield the right-of-way. Plaintiff thus established his own freedom from fault and a prima facie case of fault on defendant's part.
Faced with this proof that he breached his duty involving the right-of-way and injured a blameless approaching motorist, defendant can only escape responsibility by exculpating himself from any fault whatsoever. Simon v. Ford Motor Co., 282 So.2d 126 (La.1973). To do so plaintiff must prove that the damages to the fault-free motorist were caused by the fault of a third person or by some external circumstance sufficient to discharge him from responsibility. 2 Since there is no contention of fault chargeable to a third person, the critical issue is whether the external circumstance urged by defendant was sufficient to discharge him from responsibility to the innocent tort victim who was injured when defendant breached his duty.
Breaches of delictual or contractual duties may be excused when the breaches are caused by an irresistible force or a fortuitous event, each of which is defined in the Civil Code. 3 There is no codal authority for excusing a breach of duty for a lesser external circumstance.
Defendant argues, however, that his breach of duty should be excused because he acted reasonably. While this is the standard for judging negligence, the damages in this case resulted from defendant's non-negligent fault. To excuse himself from responsibility for this fault defendant must show something more than that he acted reasonably. He must show that the damages resulted from some external circumstance sufficient to discharge him from responsibility for his fault.
The presence of the snake was perhaps momentarily frightening and unforeseen, but is not such an external circumstance that defendant should be discharged from responsibility to an innocent tort victim for damages caused by his fault. 4
The trial court correctly rendered judgment against defendant Eugene Morris and his insurer, Southeastern Fidelity Insurance Company. By reversing that judgment, the court of appeal did not reach the insurance coverage issue urged by defendant Fidelity and Guaranty Underwriters or the quantum issue raised by plaintiff. The case must be remanded for adjudication of those issues.
Accordingly, the judgment of the court of appeal is reversed, and the judgment of the district court is reinstated. The matter is remanded to the court of appeal to adjudicate the remaining issues not reached in the original decision on appeal. Costs are assessed to Morris and to any other parties ultimately cast in judgment.
The trial judge found that the defendant negligently caused the accident and was legally responsible for the plaintiffs' injuries. In my opinion the trial judge's findings of fact were not clearly wrong or manifestly erroneous.
We granted a rehearing to reconsider the basis on which recovery, if any, should be permitted. A review of the facts is necessary to make this determination.
On the morning of April 24, 1976, Shellie Seals was operating his 1972 Ford pickup truck in a northerly direction on Old River Road about a mile and a half north of Jones Creek. Sylvester Harry was a passenger in the vehicle. Old River Road is a blacktop, two-lane road with two-way traffic. It was light and clear at the time. Seals was driving at about 40 miles per hour when a 1970 Chevrolet pulpwood truck driven by Eugene Morris entered the roadway from "a little old wooded trail like a pulpwood road" and hit into the side of his vehicle. Morris had been fishing in the river at a place called Beaver Dam prior to the accident. He described the road on which he was traveling as "a little old dirt road" and stated that he was driving at about 8 or 10 miles per hour. He further testified that he had planned to stop at the blacktop road but about 8 or 10 feet before he reached the intersection "a little green snake" crawled across his shoulder and caused him to lose control of his truck which "just went on out in the road" and collided with the Seals vehicle. Morris was on his way home at the time of the accident. While fishing, he had parked his truck under some bushes and trees with the windows open. He stated that he was a "pulpwooder" most of his life and was familiar with green snakes. The "green snake" in question was never recovered or observed by anyone other than Morris.
Seals and Harry instituted separate actions against Morris and his insurers for personal injuries sustained by them as a result of the accident. The suits were consolidated for trial. The principal defense at trial was that the accident was unavoidable in that it was not caused by any negligence or unreasonable conduct on the part of Morris. The trial judge, finding negligence on the part of Morris, rejected the defense of "inevitable accident" and rendered judgment in favor of plaintiffs. The court of appeal, finding "no actionable negligence" on the part of Morris and applying the doctrine of "unavoidable or inevitable accident" reversed the judgment of the district court and dismissed the consolidated suits at plaintiffs' cost. 1 We granted certiorari to review the correctness of that judgment. 2 On original hearing, finding that the damages resulted from Morris' "non-negligent fault" and that there were no external circumstances sufficient to discharge him from responsibility for his fault, we reversed the judgment of the court of appeal, reinstated the judgment of the district court, and remanded the case to the court of appeal to consider the issues of amount of damages and coverage not reached in its original decision. We granted a rehearing to reconsider the issue of liability.
La.Civ.Code art. 2315 provides in pertinent part:
Every act whatever of man that causes damage to another obliges him by whose fault it happened to repair it.
La.Civ.Code art. 2316 further directs:
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.
Under these articles, the elements of a cause of action are fault, causation and damage. The existence of a legal duty coupled with a breach of that duty are prerequisites to any determination of fault. Whether a legal duty is owed by one party to another depends on the facts and circumstances of the case and the relationship of the parties. In all cases, duty can be stated generally as the obligation to conform to the standard of conduct of a reasonable man under like circumstances. Roberts v. State, Through Louisiana Health and Human Resources Administration, 404 So.2d 1221 (La.1981); Straley v. Calongne Drayage & Storage, Inc., 346 So.2d 171 (La.1977). A breach of a legal duty that causes damage to another makes the offender liable under the above articles.
As a general rule, the doctrine of "unavoidable or inevitable accident" relieves a person of liability. The person invoking the protection of the doctrine, however, must also show that he himself was in no way to blame for the happening. Sharp v....
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...to accrue, three elements are required: fault, causation and damages. Owens v. Martin, 449 So.2d 448 (La.1984) (citing Seals v. Morris, 410 So.2d 715, 718 (La.1982)); Weiland v. King, 281 So.2d 688 (La.1973). Thus, a sine qua non for accrual of a cause of action is damages. However, "Louisi......
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