Case Name: Priscilla DOMINGUE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY et al., Defendants-Appellants
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1977-06-30
Citations: 348 So. 2d 209
Docket Number: No. 6060
Parties: Priscilla DOMINGUE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY et al., Defendants-Appellants.
Judges: Before CULPEPPER, WATSON and STOKER, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 348
Pages: 209–219

Head Matter:
Priscilla DOMINGUE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY et al., Defendants-Appellants.
No. 6060.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.
June 30, 1977.
Rehearing Denied Aug. 1, 1977.
Allen, Gooch & Bourgeois by Michael Harson, Lafayette, for defendants-appellants.
Plaisanee & Franques by A. J. Plaisance, Lafayette, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before CULPEPPER, WATSON and STOKER, JJ.

Opinion:
WATSON, Judge.
Defendants, Joiscin B. Cormier and Continental Insurance Company, his liability insurer, have appealed from a jury verdict awarding plaintiff, Priscilla Domingue, $30,000 in damages for an intervertebral disc injury received in an automobile accident. The driver of the automobile in which plaintiff was riding, Grace M. Pelle-rin, who was made third party defendant, was found free of negligence. Ms. Pellerin reconvened, but the jury concluded that she sustained no damages in the accident. The trial court denied new trial, additur and remittitur.
Defendants contend that the trial court erred in allowing the jury to consider the policy limits of Continental's policy. Also, it is contended that the jury erred in finding that Cormier was responsible for the accident, or, in the alternative, finding that he was solely responsible; and in finding that plaintiff's injuries justify an award of $30,000. Ms. Domingue has answered the appeal asking for an increase to $125,000, and Ms. Pellerin has answered asking for an award of $750.
The first issue is whether the trial court erred in allowing the jury to view Continental's insurance policy, which was introduced into evidence. The policy has limits of $100,000 for bodily injury in one occurrence. The jury was properly charged that an insurance company is entitled to be treated fairly and impartially in the same manner as a private individual. The First Circuit held in Ashley v. Nissan Motor Corp. in U.S.A., 321 So.2d 868 (La.App. 1 Cir. 1975) writ refused La., 323 So.2d 478, that the trial court correctly refused to allow a jury to be informed of the policy limits of the five insurers involved. 321 So.2d 874. The Supreme Court in denying writs in Ashley stated:
"Although we do not approve that portion of the opinion which permitted the policy limits to be withheld from the trial jury, we cannot say that under the facts the result is incorrect." 323 So.2d 478
In view of this plain language by the Supreme Court and the fact that the ability of a defendant to respond in damages is well established as a proper subject for jury consideration, State Farm Fire & Casualty Company v. Drost, 330 So.2d 393 (La.App. 3 Cir. 1976), the trial judge did not err in allowing the jury to see Continental's policy-
The remaining issues are:
(1) whether the jury's verdict that Cor-mier's negligence was the sole cause of the accident is manifestly erroneous; and
(2) whether the awards of $30,000 to Ms. Domingue and zero to Ms. Pellerin are within the jury's much discretion under LSA-C.C. art. 1934.
I. Causation
The accident occurred at the intersection of two blacktopped roads in Lafayette Parish on October 3, 1975. Mr. Cor-mier was driving a tractor-backhoe south on Louisiana Highway 93, Garcia Road, and Ms. Pellerin was driving west on Louisiana Highway 342, Ridge Road. Mr. Cormier was getting ready to turn at the intersection and the scoop on the front of his backhoe was protruding into Ridge Road where it caught the Pellerin automobile on the right or passenger side. The backhoe was either at a dead stop or slightly rolling. Mr. Cormier was charged with failing to yield the right-of-way and pleaded guilty. The Pellerin automobile was a total loss. Acadian Ambulance took both Ms. Do-mingue and Ms. Pellerin away from the scene.
The two state troopers who investigated the accident said that the scoop was protruding into Ridge Road some four to six inches. Garcia Road is controlled by a stop sign. The blade of the backhoe was approximately three feet from the ground. Ridge Road was estimated as less than 20 feet wide.
Ms. Pellerin said there was a car coming from the other direction and a big shovel in the road in front of her. She was unable to stop or avoid the shovel, which she thought was still moving at the time of impact. Her speed was around 35 or 40 miles per hour. Her passenger, Priscilla Domingue, was unconscious and bleeding from the forehead after the accident.
Ms. Domingue had another accident December 8, 1975, which defendants claimed caused her injuries, but she testified she was not injured in the second accident except for a small nick in the neck from a piece of glass. It was stipulated that the truck which struck her car in the second accident was traveling between 50 and 60 miles per hour. Four other witnesses, Patrick Ritchey Garrett, Murray Joseph Fer-nell, Arthur J. Fisher and Lou (Mrs. Murphy) Cloteau, testified that Priscilla Do-mingue was not hurt in the second accident.
Mr. Cormier testified that he was coming to a stop when the accident occurred and thought he had been stopped about a minute at the time of impact. He saw the Pellerin automobile when it was 150 feet away. Cormier admitted saying in deposition that he was at fault in causing the accident but maintained at trial that Ms. Pellerin could have avoided him. Until the investigating officers measured with a tape, Mr. Cormier did not believe his scoop was protruding onto Ridge Road, but he admitted going past the stop sign in order to see the intersection.
Charles Dale Domingue, an employee of Cormier, witnessed the accident from a truck behind Mr. Cormier and testified that the backhoe was at a complete stop. This witness and Clifton Chesson, also an employee and passenger in the truck, said that the car coming toward Ms. Pellerin passed the intersection before the collision.
The jury apparently accepted the testimony of Ms. Pellerin that she was unable to avoid hitting the backhoe because of the oncoming car in the opposite lane. Her perception of this vehicle was undoubtedly different from that of the witnesses who viewed it from the side. It is undisputed that Mr. Cormier had a duty to prevent the shovel of the backhoe from protruding into the right-of-way street. The two blacktopped roads in question are narrow and there is a reasonable evidentiary basis for the jury to conclude that the accident resulted from Mr. Cormier's partial obstruction of the intersection, clearly negligent on his part. Mr. Cormier was required to stop and yield the right-of-way without obstructing traffic on the favored highway. The jury's verdict that Cormier's negligence was the sole cause of the accident is not manifestly erroneous.
Damages
A. Grace M. Pellerin
Continental paid Ms. Pellerin $500 for property damage, $34 for wrecker service and $50 for inconvenience but did not receive a release from her. There is no evidence of any additional damages to Ms. Pellerin, and the jury correctly refused to award her further damages.
B. Priscilla M. Domingue
Ms. Domingue, age 24, said that the doctor at Charity Hospital suggested she see her own physician. She remained in bed in what she called "excruciating pain" until she went to Dr. Bourque a few days later. The base of her neck was hurting, her chest was sore and she had headaches. She returned to bed and remained on medication for a month and a half. She stopped taking the medication because she was unable to do so and work in her previous occupation as a waitress. She missed approximately a month of work as a result of the accident. At the time of trial, slightly over a year later, Ms. Domingue said she was still in pain with discomfort from the base of the neck to the elbow for which she took Tylenol and aspirin. She had returned to her previous occupation at the time of trial but said it aggravated her pain. Her chest pain subsided two or three weeks after the accident.
Ms. Domingue was seen by her family physician, Dr. Lawless Bourque, on October 7, four days after the accident, when she had a stiff neck and muscle spasms. Dr. Bourque saw her again on October 28, when she had a stiff neck and pain down the left arm. Dr. Bourque diagnosed a severe neck strain with some nerve root irritation on-the left side. Dr. Bourque referred her back to Charity Hospital for additional x-rays which could be compared with her initial ones. Ms. Domingue had been given medication for pain and muscle spasms at Charity and was given another kind of muscle relaxant and some codine on her second visit to Dr. Bourque. Dr. Bourque thought the arm and shoulder pain indicated a serious condition. He testified that his patient was truthful and honest and not a malingerer.
Ms. Dominque was subsequently sent by her attorney to Dr. John J. McCutchen in Houston, Texas; he is a neurologist with impressive professional qualifications. He saw Priscilla Domingue on August 13,1976, with a history of " . . . probable mild post-concussion syndrome, traumatic vesti-bulitis, improved, and Stage I cervical inter-vertebral disc injury at C4-5." (TR. 88) Dr. McCutchen's opinion was that her headaches would improve, "but the disc space narrowing revealed by her x-rays suggested " . a chronic intervertebral disc problem may result in the need for further medical treatment at sometime in the future." (TR. 88) He defined a Stage I cervical intervertebral disc injury as a damaged disc which might have the capacity to return to a normal disc and a Stage II degenerated or softened disc as one that will remain that way throughout a lifetime and which, with minor stress, is more likely to swell, cause nerve root pressure and possibly rupture. He stated Ms. Domingue probably would be moved into the Stage II category, since the narrowing on her x-rays made it unlikely the disc would return to normal. There is a very high probability, according to the physician, that it will rupture and it might require disc removal and fusion to keep pressure off the nerve roots even if it did not rupture. He recommended that Ms. Domingue avoid heavy lifting or straining and limit herself to light duty activity. Dr. McCutchen said that the Stage I classification was a conservative estimation of Ms. Domingue's injury and he could have put it in Stage II. He indicated that, if her pain continued, she should have further testing in order that a recommendation could be made for or against surgical treatment.
Dr. J. Lee Leonards, who examined Ms. Domingue on behalf of the defendant insurer, is an orthopedic surgeon in Lafayette, Louisiana, and saw her on October 7, 1976, not long before trial. The x-rays taken by Dr. Leonards show an abnormality at the C3-4 level which he described as ". an anterior flexion type of injury . ." with ". . . a residual osteophyte ." (TR. 148). He thought that the injury was a stable one.
The jury apparently accepted Dr. McCutchen's testimony and considered it in connection with Ms. Domingue's testimony that she was still in pain at the time of trial, over a year after the accident.
There is no abuse of the jury's discretion in the award of damages to Ms. Domingue. Compare Schexnayder v. Carpenter, 338 So.2d 344 (La.App. 3 Cir. 1976), writ issued La., 340 So.2d 993, amended 346 So.2d 196 (La., 1977); and Fox v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 288 So.2d 42 (La., 1974).
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the trial court herein is affirmed. All costs of this appeal are assessed to defendants-appellants, Continental Insurance Company and Joiscin B. Cormier.
AFFIRMED.
STOKER, J., concurs and assigns written reasons.
CULPEPPER, J., dissents from the holding that the jury can view the policy briefs and assigns written reasons, but concurs in the result.
. There is no explanation of the discrepancy between the findings of the two physicians as to the location of the disc injury.