Case Name: Joyce Elaine REYNOLDS et al., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HARTFORD ACCIDENT & INDEMNITY COMPANY et al., Defendant-Appellee
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1969-04-01
Citations: 228 So. 2d 76
Docket Number: No. 11189
Parties: Joyce Elaine REYNOLDS et al., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HARTFORD ACCIDENT & INDEMNITY COMPANY et al., Defendant-Appellee.
Judges: Before GLADNEY, DIXON and PRICE, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 228
Pages: 76–82

Head Matter:
Joyce Elaine REYNOLDS et al., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HARTFORD ACCIDENT & INDEMNITY COMPANY et al., Defendant-Appellee.
No. 11189.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana. Second Circuit.
April 1, 1969.
On Rehearing Sept. 22, 1969.
Rehearing Denied Oct. 20, 1969.
Writ Refused Jan. 9, 1970.
Hendrick, Fant, Sexton & Bain, by Fred C. Sexton, Jr., Shreveport, for plaintiff-appellant.
Cook, Clark, Egan, Yancey & King, by Benjamin C. King, Shreveport, for American Service, defendant-appellant.
Mayer & Smith, by Paul Mayer, Shreveport, for Hartford, defendant-appellee.
Irving M. Greenberg, Shreveport, for Cooper, defendant and plaintiff in recon-vention — appellee.
Before GLADNEY, DIXON and PRICE, JJ.

Opinion:
DIXON, Judge.
This case arises from a head-on collision on the Old Benton Road near the intersection of Hamilton Lane in Bossier City, about 1:15 p. m. April 7, 1966. One car was operated by Mrs. Joyce Elaine Reynolds, headed toward Benton, with her two young children as passengers; the other car was driven by Robert D. Cooper, headed toward Shreveport, with Mrs. Laura D. Simmons as a passenger.
The suit before us was filed by Mrs. Reynolds and her husband to recover damages as a result of injuries suffered by Mrs. Reynolds. It was consolidated with another case for trial. That case sought damages as a result of injuries to the minor children of Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds, and is not before us. Another suit was filed by a passenger in Mr. Cooper's automobile, but was dismissed before the instant case was tried.
Defendants in the case before us were Robert D. Cooper and the Hartford Accident & Indemnity Company, alleged to be his liability insurer.
Cooper filed a third party petition and a reconventional demand, seeking damages against the Reynoldses and the American Service Mutual Insurance Company, their insurer. Issue was joined between Hartford and Cooper, Hartford claiming that the liability insurance policy it had issued to Cooper had been duly canceled prior to the accident for nonpayment of premiums. There was judgment in favor of Hartford and against Cooper. To this portion of the judgment, the parties seem to have acquiesced. No issue has been made in brief or argument concerning this portion of the case.
The trial court found in favor of Robert D. Cooper, granting him judgment against the Reynoldses and American Service Mutual Insurance Company in the sum of $2,341.20. The third party defendants appealed, and Cooper answered the appeal, seeking an increase in the amount of the judgment.
The trial court evidently found that the accident was caused by the negligence of Mrs. Reynolds. A police officer located the vehicles near the middle of the street, but more in Cooper's lane, after the accident and fixed the point of impact from debris in the street "right in the middle of the street." Pictures of the automobiles indicate that they collided, left headlight to left headlight.
The street on which the accident happened is a concrete street with rollover curbs, forming an S-curve south and west of its intersection with Hamilton Road. The street has no center line painted on it, but is built with an expansion joint between the concrete slabs, marking the center of the street. There are no buildings located within the S-curve and no parking .lane provided. The two lanes of travel are adequately wide to accommodate vehicles traveling at a moderate rate of speed.
There were three witnesses, in addition to the parties to the case, who testified that they saw the accident: Mrs. Sandra Brown, Samuel Lombardino, and Danny E. Womack.
Mrs. Brown was driving a Volkswagen behind Mrs. Reynolds' Chevrolet prior to the accident. She said that Mrs. Reynolds was across the center line when the accident happened.
Mr. Lombardino was seated in a pickup truck stopped at the "Stop" sign on Hamilton Lane, preparing to enter or cross the Old Benton Road. Hamilton Lane crosses the railroad spur track at this point, and is elevated above the Benton Road. He testified that the Cooper automobile was across the center line at the time of the accident.
Mr. Womack resides on Hamilton Lane, and his house faces the situs of the accident. He had just pulled up the blind in his bedroom window and was looking out the window when he saw the accident happen. He said Cooper's car was on the wrong side of the street and collided with Mrs. Reynolds' car.
The most striking portion of the testimony of the witnesses was that of the drivers of the two automobiles. Neither saw the other approaching vehicle until the cars were very close together. Mrs. Reynolds said that she saw the Cooper car when she was about 20 feet from it. Mr. Cooper said that he saw the Reynolds car when he was about 20 to 25 feet from it. There is no question of misapplication of the unit of measurement by these parties, since they pointed out people in the courtroom that approximated those distances.
This failure on the part of each motorist to observe the proximity of the other necessitates a careful examination of the testimony to determine fault in the accident.
No one testified that either car occupied very much of the opposing lane of traffic. Mrs. Brown placed the front of the Reynolds automobile substantially in Mr. Cooper's lane, but her description of the path followed by the Reynolds car is difficult to understand. She said that she was about three car-lengths behind Mrs. Reynolds, and after they passed an oil company and a lumber company the Reynolds car "started in the other lane of traffic," and from that point was driven partially in the wrong lane of traffic until the collision. However, Mrs. Brown stated more than once that the car was traveling in a "diagonal position with the center of the road." On cross-examination she further specified that she meant that the left rear wheel was at the approximate center of the road, but that the left front wheel was about three feet in the other traffic lane. A fair reading of Mrs. Brown's testimony leads to the conclusion that she was saying that the Reynolds car was traveling down the road with its left front across the center line and its left rear almost completely on its own side of the road. Mrs. Brown's observation of this oblique angle of travel diminishes the confidence that may be placed in her testimony about the cause of the accident.
Mr. Lombardino was in an excellent position to observe what happened. He actually testified that, although Mrs. Reynolds "weaved" and "leaned out a little from the curve" at the time of the accident, Mrs. Reynolds was on her side and Mr. Cooper crossed the center line into Mrs. Reynolds' path.
Some physical facts create problems about the weight to be given the testimony of Mr. Womack. Mr. Womack's house is across a levee and across Hamilton Lane from the point of the accident. The floor of his house is below the top of the levee. Although his bedroom window is visible from the Old Benton Road, it is very doubtful whether his visibility would be sufficient to determine which car was on which side of the road at the time of the accident. Mr. Womack could have seen the collision, but it is doubtful whether he could see the center line of the road from the place where he was located.
With Mrs. Brown testifying that Mrs. Reynolds' car was across the center line, and Mr. Lombardino testifying that Mr. Cooper's car was across the center line, and with each driver testifying that he did not see the other until he was 20 to 25 feet away, and with the cars colliding squarely at the left front corner, the conclusion is almost inescapable that both cars were across the center line, and that both drivers were at fault. Consequently, neither can recover.
For these reasons, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed in part and reversed in part: The judgment rejecting the demands of Joyce Elaine Reynolds and James Willard Reynolds against Hartford Accident & Indemnity Company and Robert D. Cooper is affirmed; the judgment rejecting the demands of the third party plaintiff Robert D. Cooper against the Hartford Accident & Indemnity Company is affirmed; the judgment on the reconventional demand and third party petition of Robert D. Cooper against Joyce Elaine Reynolds and James Willard Reynolds is reversed, and there is now judgment in favor of Joyce Elaine Reynolds and James Willard Reynolds, and American Service Mutual Insurance Company, defendants in reconvention and third party defendants, rejecting the demands of Robert D. Cooper, plaintiff in reconvention and third party plaintiff. Costs are to be borne equally by appellants Joyce Elaine Reynolds, James Willard Reynolds, and American Service Mutual Insurance Company on the one hand and by Robert D. Cooper on the other.