Thomas v. Kilgore Ceramic Corp.

• Decision Date: 27 June 1972
• Docket Number: No. 11893,11893
• Parties: Willie Lee THOMAS et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. KILGORE CERAMIC CORPORATION et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 617

265 So.2d 617

Willie Lee THOMAS et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. KILGORE CERAMIC CORPORATION et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 11893.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

June 27, 1972.

Hal V. Lyons, Shreveport, for Willie L. Thomas, plaintiff-appellant.

Mayer & Smith by Alex F. Smith, Jr., Shreveport, for Ben Franklin Ins. Co.,

Wilkinson, Woods, Carmody & Peatross,

Wilkinson, Woods, Carmody & Peartross, by Arthur R. Carmody, Jr., Shreveport, for Kilgore Ceramic Corp. and Farmers Ins. Exchange, defendants-appellees.

Bodenheimer, Jones, Klotz & Simmons, by J. W. Jones, Shreveport, for Great American Ins. Co., third party defendant-appellee.

Lunn, Irion, Switzer, Johnson & Salley, by Richard H. Switzer, Shreveport, for Fidelity & Casualty Co. of N.Y., third party defendant-appellee.

Before BOLIN, PRICE and HEARD, JJ.

BOLIN, Judge.

Willie Lee Thomas alleges he was injured while working for Florsheim Construction Company of Shreveport, Louisiana. Thomas contends he was sitting in a parked truck when a tractor-trailer unit, owned by Kilgore Ceramic Corporation and insured by Farmers Insurance Exchange, struck an overhead high-voltage electric line, causing the line to fall on the parked truck and subjecting Thomas to severe injuries by electrical shock. Thomas was paid workmen's compensation by National Ben Franklin Insurance Company. Thomas and his employer's compensation insurer bring this action for damages for personal injuries to Thomas and for the amount of workmen's compensation payments made by the insurance company to plaintiff. Made defendants were Kilgore Ceramic Corporation and Farmers Insurance Exchange. Kilgore and Farmers Insurance filed third party petitions against Fidelity & Casualty Company of New York, insurer of Fitzgerald Plumbing & Heating Company, Inc., and Great American Insurance Company, insurer or Camus Electric Company. The third party demands were based on allegations that if Thomas was injured, such injury was caused by the negligence of Fitzgerald Plumbing and Camus Electric.

For reasons dictated into the record by the trial judge, plaintiffs' demands, as well as those of third party plaintiffs, were rejected for failure to prove Thomas was injured by an electrical shock. Plaintiffs appeal but since defendants-third party plaintiffs, Kilgore Ceramic Corporation and Farmers Insurance Exchange, have neither appealed nor answered the appeal, third party defendants are no longer parties to this...