Case Name: James PRICE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lois WATTS et al., Defendants-Appellants
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1968-10-31
Citations: 215 So. 2d 187
Docket Number: No. 2438
Parties: James PRICE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lois WATTS et al., Defendants-Appellants.
Judges: Before TATE, HOOD, and CULPEP-PER, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 215
Pages: 187–191

Head Matter:
James PRICE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lois WATTS et al., Defendants-Appellants.
No. 2438.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana. Third Circuit.
Oct. 31, 1968.
Rehearing Denied Nov. 20, 1968.
Gist, Methvin & Trimble, by James T. Trimble, Jr., Alexandria, for defendants-appellants.
Neblett, Führer & Hunter, by Leonard Führer, for plaintiffs-appellees.
Before TATE, HOOD, and CULPEP-PER, JJ.

Opinion:
TATE, Judge.
Mrs. Lois Watts and her liability insurer are sued for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff, James Price, a now-emancipated minor. Price, then 17, was struck by an automobile driven by Mrs. Watts. The defendants appeal from adverse judgment.
The accident occurred on a two-lane highway in the outskirts of the city of Alexandria. Prior to it, Mrs. Watts was driving southward in her (west) lane. Approaching her on the narrow west shoulder was the plaintiff Price, riding his bicycle, and loaded with items purchased from a grocery store.
By exceptionally persuasive argument, counsel for the defendants-appellants argues that Mrs. Watts, his driver, was free from fault because she could not anticipate that the boy on the bicycle would suddenly fall in her path. Ardoin v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co., La.App. 3 Cir., 205 So.2d 632; Cormier v. Sinegal, La.App. 3 Cir., 180 So.2d 567. However, the facts of the present case are distinguishable from those in the cited decisions. The trial court did not commit error in rejecting this contention.
We pretermit the plaintiffs' contention that young Price fell or turned into Mrs. Watts' path when she was an appreciable distance from him, as a result of which her negligent failure to observe him sooner and to avoid him was the sole cause of the accident. See, e. g., Brooks v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., La.App. 2 Cir., 91 So.2d 403, certiorari denied. For we believe that, even accepting Mrs. Watts' version of the accident, she nevertheless is liable because she had the last clear chance to avoid it.
Mrs. Watts stated that she saw the young bicyclist proceeding toward her on the narrow shoulder with a package of ice under his right arm and steering his bicycle with the other hand. She did not slow down from her speed of 35-40 mph, nor take precautions to veer to her left. She says only that she could not avoid the accident when, as she got almost abreast of him, young Price suddenly fell in her path as he reached for the ice when it slipped out from under his arm. There was no other traffic approaching at the time.
Under the circumstances, she should have realized earlier that the hazardous situation of the young bicyclist might necessitate evasive action on her part. According to the preponderant testimony, the boy was not only carrying a bag of ice in his right hand; he was also with his left hand holding a bag of other purchases from the grocery store, while using this left hand to guide the bicycle. The narrow 18-inch gravel shoulder was unlevel and bumpy. Tr. 101. The precariousness of the boy's situation should have been reasonably apparent to oncoming motorists. Nevertheless, without slacking her speed or veering, she continued onward near the right edge of the pavement.
The Louisiana last clear chance doctrine applies in circumstances such as the present. Under this doctrine, a defendant motorist is liable for injury to a plaintiff, despite any contributory negligence on the latter's part, if an accident occurs when (1) the plaintiff was previously in a position of peril, of which he was either apparently unaware or else from which he could not extricate himself, (2) the defendant discovered, or could reasonably have observed, the plaintiff's danger and (3), thereafter, could have reasonably avoided the accident. See Belshe v. Gant, 235 La. 17, 102 So.2d 477; Jackson v. Cook, 189 La. 860, 181 So. 195; Rottman v. Beverly, 183 La. 947, 165 So. 153; Venero v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., La.App. 3 Cir., 196 So.2d 841.
The trial court therefore correctly found that, upon observing the perilous situation of young Price struggling to guide his bicycle on the narrow shoulder, his arms hampered by the loads, Mrs. Watts should reasonably have slowed or veered leftward (young Price was struck just 2 feet within the 24-foot wide paved roadway) or should otherwise have assumed such control of her automobile as to prepare to stop immediately to avoid the readily foreseeable hazard to the young bicyclist created by his perilous position on the edge of the pavement.
Her failure to do so constituted a dereliction of the first duty of a motorist to keep a sharp lookout ahead to discover the presence of those who might be endangered by the vehicle's advance. Jackson v. Cook, cited above. As stated in the cited Venero case at 196 So.2d 845: "The failure to heed this duty is negligence, and under the settled jurisprudence of this state, such a failure imposes liability on persons in control of motor vehicles and other dangerous instrumentalities for injuries which they inflict upon less armored members of our society who happen upon the roadways. "
The negligence of Mrs. Watts is founded on a principle similar to that summarized at 2 Blashfield, Automobile Law and Practice, Section 102.7 (3d ed., 1965): "If a motorist sees a bicycle rider pursuing an unsteady course in front of him, he should exercise that care to avoid an accident which is commensurate with such a situation." See Bybee Brothers v. Imes, 288 Ky. 1, 155 S.W.2d 492 (1941). In Bosarge v. Spiess & Co., La.App., Orl., 145 So. 21, for instance, a motorist approaching a young bike rider was held negligent for passing too close and failing to anticipate that the young cyclist would veer into his path to avoid a parked truck. Cf. also Ates v. State Farm Mutual Auto Ins. Co., La. App. 3 Cir., 191 So.2d 332.
Although the defendants-appellants complain of the award of $10,000 as excessive, the record shows that the plaintiff Price sustained compound fractures of the leg and arm, as well as severe face lacerations leaving some scar tissue. The award will not be disturbed upon appellate review. There is no showing that the fact-trier abused its very great discretion in the award of general damages for personal injuries. LSA-Civil Code Art. 1934(3); Lomenick v. Schoeffler, 250 La. 959, 200 So.2d 127; Ballanga v. Hymel, 247 La. 934, 175 So.2d 274; Gaspard v. LeMaire, 245 La. 239, 158 So.2d 149.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed, at the cost of the defendants-appellants.
Affirmed.