Case Name: AMERICAN SECURITY INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. GRIFFITH'S AIR CONDITIONING et al., Defendants-Appellants
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1975-07-30
Citations: 317 So. 2d 256
Docket Number: No. 5052
Parties: AMERICAN SECURITY INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. GRIFFITH’S AIR CONDITIONING et al., Defendants-Appellants.
Judges: Before HOOD, CULPEPPER and WATSON, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 317
Pages: 256–264

Head Matter:
AMERICAN SECURITY INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. GRIFFITH’S AIR CONDITIONING et al., Defendants-Appellants.
No. 5052.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.
July 30, 1975.
Rehearings Denied Aug. 28, 1975.
Writs Refused Oct. 24, 1975.
Scofield, Bergstedt & Gerard by Robert L. Hackett, Lake Charles, for defendant-appellee-appellant.
Pugh, Boudreaux & Gachassin by Nicholas Gashassin, Jr., Lafayette, for defendant-appellant-appellee.
Brame, Bergstedt & Brame by Joe A. Brame, Lake Charles, for plaintiff-appel-lee.
Before HOOD, CULPEPPER and WATSON, JJ.

Opinion:
WATSON, Judge.
This is a subrogation claim by plaintiff, American Security Insurance Company, against defendants, Steve and Shirley Griffith, doing business as Griffith's Air Conditioning, and Fedders Corporation, for a fire loss paid to Mrs. Edna Porteau as a result of a fire demolishing her residence. A third party demand was filed on behalf of Griffith against Fedders, contending that Fedders would be liable to Griffith for any sum for which Griffith was cast.
The trial court gave judgment in favor of plaintiff and against defendants, jointly and in solido, in the amount of $22,925.00 and this appeal by both defendants resulted. There is no controversy as to the amount of the loss, but defendants vigorously contest their liability.
There are two decisive issues to be resolved, and these are: (1) did defendants' negligence cause the fire? and (2) did plaintiff's concealment or destruction of certain evidence relieve defendants of liability ?
The trial court has accurately and succinctly stated the basic facts of the case and we will quote these findings with approval :
"The evidence preponderates that Mrs. Edna Porteau moved into her newly constructed home the last week of October, 1972. This was a frame house constructed by James Porteau, her son, who was a building contractor. The house consisted of a carport, utility room, kitchen, living room, three bedrooms and a bath. Griffith's Air Conditioning Service installed a Fedders central heating and air conditioning unit in a small closet near the center of the home with a thermostat control in the hallway (See D-l). The unit was heated by gas and the controlled air was discharged to the rooms through duct work located in the attic.
"After Mrs. Porteau moved into the house, she testified that she had trouble getting the heating system to function properly. She stated that when the heater would ignite, it would do so with a loud noise and then emit a 'pop and snap' sound. She called Griffith's Air Conditioning and reported the complaint. Two service calls were made by Griffith's men. She stated that the operation of the heater continued about the same after the calls. She testified that the noise of the heater was such that she turned it off at night as it would keep the family awake. Mrs. Porteau's sister, Mrs. Parker, who lived next door, and a son, Frank Porteau, corroborated this testimony.
"On the morning of December 28, 1972, Mrs. Porteau left the home to spend the day in Reeves, Louisiana. One son, Frank, went next door to Mrs. Parker's house to stay with her and help her with her invalid husband. Before leaving, Mrs. Porteau turned the thermostat down to 60°. At 5:30 P.M. Frank Por-teau, 14 years of age, and who was next door at Mrs. Parker's home, went to the Porteau home to get a tape player. As he entered the house through the kitchen, he heard the telephone ringing in a bedroom. (Exhibit D-l, Bedroom #2). As he left the kitchen he started down the hall to answer the phone and as he went by the thermostat he turned it up to 80 or 85 degrees. He went into the bedroom to answer the phone. The caller asked for a certain telephone number. He left the phone to get the number as requested. As he entered the hall he found it 'full of smoke'. He went down the hall and upon looking into a bedroom saw flames on the wall and door of the room. He ran out of the house and across the street to call the fire department. As he came out of that house he saw the window of the flaming bedroom blow out. He estimated that he was in the house approximately two minutes or less. The house was totally destroyed before the fire department arrived.
"Steve Griffith testified that he installed the unit on behalf of Griffith's Air Conditioning. He said he made two service calls after installation. He stated he recalled no complaints about the heater. He stated that his service calls were for the purpose of checking the air conditioning. He stated that he did check the heating unit however, and it was working satisfactorily. This Court concludes that Griffith was mistaken or told an untruth about the purpose of the service calls. These calls were made either in November or December of 1972. It is highly unlikely that air conditioning complaints would be filed during those months of the year. Furthermore, Mrs. Porteau nor her sons have any interest in the outcome of this suit. She has been paid for her loss.
"Defendants called an engineer who is employed by Fedders, Mr. Kizlowski. This engineer explained the principal features and mechanism of the heater and the tests applied by Fedders. He felt that a fire could not have started in the one and a half or two minute interval between the time the son turned the thermostat up and the time he saw the flames. He did state that it was possible to have a fire caused by a 'roll out' of the gas from the heater but this would take more than two minutes to materialize.
"George Pappas, an expert for Shilstone Testing Laboratories, stated that the unit should have had more louver area on the door of the heater closet for intake. He stated that for the fire to burn through the wall from the heater area would take 10 to 15 minutes.
"The testimony of these experts that the heater could not have caused the fire is based primarily on the conclusion that the fire started after the son came into the house, turned the thermostat up, answered the phone, left the phone, saw flames and left. This took one and a half to two minutes. It must be noted that when Mrs. Porteau left that morning she had turned the thermostat down to 60 degrees but didn't turn the unit off. It was stipulated that the weather bureau in Lake Charles reported a temperature of 59 degrees at 4:00 P.M. and 57 degrees at 5 :00 P.M. The heater, set orí 60 degrees, could have activated itself before the boy came into the house." (TR. 91-94)
In addition to these facts found by the trial court, we note certain other facts reflected by the record upon which the trial court did not comment. As a whole, the record indicates considerable difficulty with the central heating unit, manufactured by Fedders and installed by Griffith, during the short period the house was occupied, that is, from the last week of October until December 28. For example, the contractor who built the house testified that it was very difficult to keep the pilot light ignited. The other witnesses, who testified for plaintiff but who were not interested in the outcome of the case, emphasized the noise made by the heating unit. They described it variously as sounding like firecrackers, popping, snapping, a locomotive popping, metal popping, or like someone beating on a piece of tin. Also, the evidence in the record is convincing that the heating unit was installed by Griffith without louvers or other openings on the door to the closet. Steve Griffith testified that he was not aware that the installation book supplied by Fedders calls for such openings. The installation book filed in the record clearly requires two openings in the door. (See page 4 of D-3). Even the experts testifying on behalf of the defendants admitted that the provision of openings on the door to the heater closet would have been a better (meaning safer) installation.
As to the factual background on the issue concerning destruction of the evidence, we will note merely that both defendants complain that plaintiff authorized the removal of the burned heating unit from the premises following the fire. The record reflects that this was done following authorization by the representative of the insurance company some six weeks after the fire. The uncontradicted testimony of Thomas J. Rabalais, who adjusted the fire loss for plaintiff, is that he notified defendant Griffith of the subrogation claim by letter of January 11, 1973, about two weeks after the fire. This testimony is confirmed by a copy of the letter which appears in the record. Griffith admitted that on at least one occasion following the fire he personally went to the premises and saw the remains of the unit which he described as being burned and melted.
Likewise, Fedders has proved no intent or design by plaintiff to destroy or conceal the evidence; any complaint by Fedders would appear to be against Griffith. Therefore, we find no merit to the contention by defendants that plaintiff is precluded from recovery on this basis.
As to defendants' liability, we agree with the trial court that the applicable law, at least in part, is found in Boudreaux v. American Insurance Company, 262 La. 721, 264 So.2d 621 (La., 1972). The plaintiff's burden of proof and the evidentiary import of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur are described in detail in Boudreaux. As we understand these rules, they are as follows:
First, the circumstantial evidence required in civil negligence cases need not negate all other possible causes of injury if the proof excludes other reasonable hypotheses with a fair amount of certainty so that it is more probable than not that the harm was caused by the conduct of defendant.
Second, the doctrine of res ipsa lo-quitur (usually "the thing speaks for itself" and here meaning that the facts warrant an inference of negligence) sometimes applies as a rule of circumstantial evidence, obviating the necessity of proving just what negligent act caused the injury.
Third, the basic question to be decided is whether the facts of the controversy suggest negligence of the defendant, rather than some other factors, as the most plausible explanation of the accident.
And finally, Boudreaux concludes that this is simply another formulation of the burden of a plaintiff in a tort action to prove that, more probably than not, his injury was caused by the negligence of the defendant.
We have no difficulty in concluding, as did the trial court, that the fire originated in the central heating unit. A study of the record reflects that this is far and away the most plausible explanation of the occurrence. Then, applying the rules of Boudreaux, we believe that it is obvious that a properly designed and constructed unit, properly installed, would not cause a conflagration such as occurred here. The doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is properly applied.
We know that the door to the heating unit was not properly vented or louvered, but the evidence is not conclusive that this alone would cause a fire. It is not necessary, under Boudreaux, to isolate the acts of negligence by defendant or defendants which caused the fire.
We find that the circumstances of this case are analogous, to those of Plunkett v. United Electric Service, 214 La. 145, 36 So.2d 704 (La., 1948) where it was held that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur was properly applied to a situation where a gas-burning heater caused a fire. While the Plunkett heater had been installed only two days prior to the fire, and the heater in the instant case had been installed for two months, we find no basic distinction. Also, see Saunders v. Walker, 229 La. 426, 86 So.2d 89 (La., 1956).
As to the liability of Fedders, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is also applicable. This was a new unit; and by manufacturing and selling such a unit, Fedders impliedly warrants that it is safe and fit for its intended use. Moreno's, Inc. v. Lake Charles Catholic High Schools, Inc., et al, 315 So.2d 660 (La., 1975). In our opinion, the responsibility of the manufacturer and that of the installer of complicated machinery using natural gas and electricity are tightly woven together. Where the evidence establishes that the new device, newly installed, caused a fire, both installer and manufacturer should be cast for damages unless one or both prove freedom from fault or one proves that the other was solely responsible.
The joinder of multiple defendants does not bar res ipsa loquitur. McCann v. Baton Rouge General Hospital, 276 So.2d 259 (La., 1973).
Fedders has not exonerated itself from negligence and liability; Griffith has not exonerated itself from negligence and liability. Neither has proved that it was the negligence of the other which was responsible for the fire. Therefore, we find as did the trial court that the defendants are liable in solido. The third party demand of Griffith against Fedders was properly denied.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed and costs are taxed against appellants.
Affirmed.
HOOD, J., dissents and assigns written reasons.
. For simplicity we will refer to this defendant^) as "Griffith"; the precise legal status is not clear in the record and appears variously in the pleadings.