Case Name: William L. WISE, Jr. and Mrs. Thelma Allen Wise, on Behalf of the Minor, William Leon Wise, III, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. The LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION & DEVELOPMENT, et al., Defendants-Appellants
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1985-05-15
Citations: 470 So. 2d 954
Docket Number: No. 84-64
Parties: William L. WISE, Jr. and Mrs. Thelma Allen Wise, on Behalf of the Minor, William Leon Wise, III, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. The LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION & DEVELOPMENT, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
Judges: Before DOMENGEAUX, DOUCET, YELVERTON, KNOLL and KING, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 470
Pages: 954–962

Head Matter:
William L. WISE, Jr. and Mrs. Thelma Allen Wise, on Behalf of the Minor, William Leon Wise, III, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. The LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION & DEVELOPMENT, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
No. 84-64.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.
May 15, 1985.
John W. King, Baton Rouge, Staggord Stewart and Potter, Larry A. Stewart and Walter E. May, Alexandria, for defendants-appellants.
T. Michael Masterson and Jack B. Wise of Wise and Masterson, Thibodeaux, for plaintiffs-appellees.
Before DOMENGEAUX, DOUCET, YELVERTON, KNOLL and KING, JJ.

Opinion:
DOUCET, Judge.
William L. Wise, Jr. and Thelma Allen Wise brought this suit on behalf of their minor grandson, William Leon Wise, III, for the wrongful death of his mother, Jo Ann Wise. The trial court entered a judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against the State of Louisiana, Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), for $81,165. The basis of this liability was the failure of DOTD to maintain a safe highway shoulder at the site of the collision, which was found by the trial court to be the proximate cause of the decedent's death. DOTD perfected this appeal.
The decedent was killed in a two-vehicle accident that occurred on Louisiana Highway One on May 1, 1980, at approximately 5:00 P.M. in Natchitoches Parish about four miles south of Cloutierville. Mrs. Wise, thirty-seven years of age, was riding alone in the northbound lane of the highway in her 1979 Honda Prelude. Mr. William Melvin was driving an eighteen-wheel truck on the southbound lane of the same two-laned highway. According to the testimony of Mr. Melvin in his deposition, Mrs. Wise veered onto the shoulder of the road and then suddenly veered directly into the path of the truck that Mr. Melvin was driving. The impact of the ensuing collision threw Mrs. Wise's car approximately 180 feet backward as well as breaking the car into several pieces. Mrs. Wise was killed instantly. Mr. Melvin was the only surviving witness to the collision.
After a trial on the merits, the trial court found that the sole and proximate cause of the collision was the negligence of DOTD in maintaining a defective road with a two to six inch drop-off from the road to the shoulder. The court also specifically concluded that there is no evidence to prove that Jo Ann Wise was guilty of any negligence. The State perfected this appeal wherein it argues that the trial court was in error when it concluded that the sole and proximate cause of the fatal collision was its negligence. The State also contends that the trial court erred in failing to find the decedent driver's negligence to be the proximate cause of the accident.
We will first address the alleged defective condition of the highway. DOTD is under a duty to maintain the highways and shoulders in a reasonably safe condition. The duty to maintain reasonably safe highways and shoulders extends to the protection of those people who may be foresee-ably placed in danger by an unreasonably dangerous condition. Rue v. State, Dept. of Transportation and Development, 372 So.2d 1197 (La.1979); Holmes v. State, et al, 466 So.2d 811 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1985).
The record amply supports the trial court's conclusion that the area of the highway in question was in a defective condition because of significant elevational distances from the edge of the road and the shoulder. The trial court, in its written reasons for judgment, summarized the witness' testimony concerning the shoulder drop-off, as follows:
"(1) Investigating Louisiana State Trooper Ronald W. Lewis:
His testimony was that there was a 2 to"2⅛ inch difference in elevation between the shoulder and the main travel portion of the highway, with the shoulder being lower.
(2) Former Natchitoches Parish Deputy Sheriff Asher Vandenburg:
His testimony as to the difference in elevation was allowed under a proffer and he estimated a difference of 3 or 4 inches elevation in the shoulder.
(3) George Darryl Taylor:
A resident of the area in which the accident took place and testified that the shoulder was in 'rough' condition the day before the wreck and had' been since 1978. He stated that he ran off the road near the site in question a week before the wreck and had to slow his vehicle down to drive back onto the highway. He testified that there was a drop-off of approximately 6 inches between the shoulder and the highway.
(4) Aristed 'Mack' Antee:
Lived south of the accident site on what is known as the 'Marco ' Road. He testified that the shoulder at the scene of the accident was lower like a 'rut' and had been in that situation for at least a couple of months.
(5) Lawrence M. Carnahan, Jr.:
A resident of Cloutierville and who farmed land adjacent to the scene of the accident, testified that prior to the accident the shoulders were 'rutted up pretty bad', but he never got out of his truck to check the shoulders.
(6) W.L. Huffman:
A resident of Little Eva Plantation in Chopin, Louisiana, near the scene of the accident, testified that there had been a 3 inch dropoff [sic] since 1977.
(7) Mrs. Patsy Deville Huffman:
Stated that there was a 2 to 4 inch dropoff [sic] near the site in question.
(8) Natchitoches Parish Deputy Sheriff Boyd B. Durr:
Stated that he went to the scene of the wreck prior to the time the vehicles were removed. He stated that there was approximately a 4 to 5 inch drop-off [sic] for a distance of 50 feet south of the point of impact.
(9) Charles Rogé:
A resident of Cloutierville and an employee of the Department of Transportation and Development, stated that the shoulders were not level with the road and that he had personal knowledge that the shoulders were lower for at least 6 weeks to 2 months prior to the wreck. Under a proffer, he estimated a distance of a difference of 4 inches between the shoulder and the highway. " (Emphasis added.)
From this evidence one can easily deduce that the road in question had a defective shoulder because of such a long drop-off and that this defect existed at the time of the accident, Therefore, we hold that the State was negligent in its failure to maintain this particular road in a reasonably safe condition. The crucial issue in this case however, is the question of causation. Was the violation of this duty the sole cause of the decedent's fatal vehicular accident or, in other words, did this duty extend to this particular plaintiff? In order to resolve this issue, a brief explanation of the relevant jurisprudence is in order.
A discussion of these road shoulder cases should begin with Rue v. State, supra. In Rue, the Louisiana Supreme Court held that a motorist who slightly veers off of a highway onto a defective shoulder through "inadvertence" is not precluded from recovery against DOTD because of his negligence in veering off of the road. In effect, the Supreme Court held that a momentary lapse in a driver's attentiveness was a foreseeable risk against which the DOTD had to protect when maintaining highways. Thus inadvertence was not to be considered contributory negligence which would bar the motorist from recovering against DOTD for its negligence in maintaining highways.
This holding in Rue, supra, was slightly modified in Sinitiere v. Lavergne, 391 So.2d 821 (La.1980), in which the Supreme Court stated that if a driver is chargeable with knowledge of the defect and nonetheless breaches his duty of safety to himself and to others by leaving the roadway, then he is guilty of contributory negligence and barred from recovering. Furthermore, the Supreme Court held that the driver's attempts to re-enter the roadway once he was clearly on the defective shoulder and aware of the consequent danger were a breach of his duty of safety to himself and to others and therefore constituted contributory negligence. Accordingly, the plaintiffs contributory negligence barred his recovery against the DOTD for its negligence in maintaining the highway.
This court subsequently decided LeBlanc v. State, 405 So.2d 635 (La.App. 3rd Cir. 1981) in which we held that the driver's attempts to re-enter the roadway once he was on a defective shoulder constituted contributory negligence as it did in Siniti-ere, supra. The Supreme Court reversed this decision on the ground that the attempts by the plaintiff to re-enter the highway were an instinctive reaction to the consequences of a defective road shoulder and therefore, a foreseeable risk within the ambit of the duty announced in Rue, supra. LeBlanc v. State, 419 So.2d 853 (La.1982). The Supreme Court concluded that the instinctive over-reaction to a defective shoulder was within the duty to maintain safe roads. The Supreme Court then admonished the lower courts about seeking to extract rules of precedent from its opinions on which to rely rather than deciding each case on its own merits. The Supreme Court then directed the lower courts to apply a duty-risk analysis to these cases in order to properly decide them.
In compliance with this admonishment, this court decided Quinn v. State, 464 So.2d 357 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1984). In Quinn this court stated:
"In deciding this issue (whether re-entry attempts were instinctive) our task is to approach this case on its own facts rather than attempting to fit the facts of this case under Sinitiere or LeBlanc. As admonished by the Supreme Court in LeBlanc, we must make a duty risk analysis and determine whether the conduct of Mrs. Quinn under the circumstances falls within the protection of the rule associated with the State's duty to maintain shoulders of highways. Any attempt to mechanically extract a rule of precedent by focusing on the meaning of 'instinctive' action may lead us into error.
Thus the issue should be framed as: Is the risk of injury from a motorist's reaction in straying from the surfaced portion of a highway so that at least a rear right wheel makes an unexpected 3V2 inch drop-off onto a shoulder (presuming negligent shoulder maintenance is a cause in fact of the accident) following which the motorist persistently and unsuccessfully attempts to return to the highway within a four to five second span of time (to the extent of three to four attempts) within the scope of protection of the rule of law which requires the State to maintain safe highway shoulders?
We conclude that such a risk is not covered.
Mrs. Quinn's testimony shows that she was at least aware of the danger of a precipitate jerking of her car to the left and indicates that she reflected on the danger of such a maneuver which she says she avoided. We conclude that at some point before she finally maneuvered her car onto the surfaced portion of the road, Mrs. Quinn was aware of the dangerous situation confronting her. Being aware of the shoulder defect she had encountered, Mrs. Quinn breached the duty of reasonable care owed to herself and others when she attempted to re-enter the traveled portion of the highway. Apparently there was nothing to prevent Mrs. Quinn from driving on the shoulder until she reduced her speed. She should have remained on the shoulder until she had reduced her speed enough to safely re-enter the traveled portion of the highway. Pitre v. Aetna Insurance Company, [456] So.2d [626] (La.1984), Docket No. 83-C-1771, decided September 10, 1984. Her duty to follow such a course was further increased by the fact that Mrs. Quinn was meeting the oncoming vehicle driven by Mr. Robert Machacek of which she was aware. Except for the collision with the Machacek vehicle, Mrs. Quinn might not have been injured in any way. See Estate of King v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 427 So.2d 902 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1983), writ denied, 433 So.2d 1048 (La.1983)."
Accordingly, in the case at bar, we shall frame the issue as follows: Is the risk of injury of staying onto a defective shoulder by a motorist chargeable with knowledge of the defective shoulder and nonetheless seeks to re-enter the road with a degree of deliberation within the scope of protection of the rule of law which requires the State to maintain safe highway shoulders?
After reviewing the record, we conclude that this particular motorist in this particular risk does not come with the scope of protection. It was clearly established at the trial that Mrs. Wise had often used the road in question and that the road's shoulder had been defective for several years. Thus, Mrs. Wise knew, or should have known, of the hazardous condition of the road's shoulder. Furthermore, the only surviving eyewitness to the accident, Mr. Melvin, who was driving the truck, stated that when he first noticed the decedent's car it was already on the shoulder. This testimony suggests that the decedent did not instinctively over-react to an inadvertent drop-off of the highway, but that she consciously sought to re-enter the highway fully aware of the hazards that such an attempt would present. The distinction between this case and LeBlanc v. State, supra, lies in our finding of fact that Mrs. Wise was on the. shoulder long enough to have made a deliberate decision to return to the highway, and thus, her return to the highway was not an instinctive reaction. The evidence supporting our finding that it was a deliberate reaction, in turn lies solely in the deposition of the driver of the 18-wheeler, which contains the only eyewitness account of how the accident happened. He said in his deposition that when he first saw the Honda, it was already on the shoulder. He did not see the Honda go off the highway but he did see it re-enter the highway. When he first saw it, the right wheels were on the shoulder, and then suddenly it darted onto the highway, crossing directly in his path. This testimony is inconsistent with the trial court's implied finding that the Honda made an instinctive return to the highway. If Mrs. Wise had made an instinctive return to the highway, once she dropped off, the entire scene would have registered on the mind of the witness as a single event. His testimony that when he saw her the first time she was already on the shoulder, indicates that her leaving the highway and getting back on again did not constitute a simultaneous event. Some interval of time must have elapsed while she was on the shoulder. Therefore, her re-entry was a deliberate one, not an instinctive one. Finally, there is nothing in the record which would indicate that there was something that prevented Mrs. Wise from continuing to proceed on the shoulder until she could slow down to a safe speed. Under all of these circumstances, we hold that Mrs. Wise was negligent when she inadvertently veered off of the highway and then consciously sought to re-enter the highway with knowledge of the attendant dangers.
In reaching the above factual conclusions regarding the deceased's negligence, we note that we are not bound here by the manifest error standard of review. This is because the trial court's implied finding that Mrs. Wise was not negligent was based entirely on the above deposition evidence. This deposition was the only evidence in the record describing the deceased's conduct just before the accident. The "clearly wrong" (or manifest error) standard of review is therefore not applicable, as the trial court is in no better position to evaluate credibility or resolve conflicts in deposition testimony than the reviewing court. Gould v. State Through La. Dept. of Correct., 435 So.2d 540 (La.App. 1st Cir.1983), writ denied, 438 So.2d 1107 (La.1983); Schwarz v. Bourgeois, 422 So.2d 1176 (La.App. 4th Cir.1982), writ denied, 429 So.2d 153 (La.1983); Farris v. Ducote, 293 So.2d 589 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1974), writ refused, 295 So.2d 814 (La.1974).
We must add that we do not feel that the State was completely free from fault but because the accident occurred before the effective date of La.C.C. art. 2323 which provides for comparative negligence, we are unable to assess degrees of fault accordingly. Instead, the plaintiff's claim is barred by the contributory negligence of the driver. Quinn v. State, supra. It is hereby adjudged and decreed that the plaintiffs claim is barred and a recovery of damages is not merited in this case.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the trial court is reversed and a judgment by this court is rendered against the plaintiff-appellee. Costs of this appeal are to be paid by the plaintiff-appellee.
REVERSED AND RENDERED.
KNOLL, J., dissents and assigns reasons.
KING, J., dissents and assigns written reasons.