Case Name: Rosa Russo CAMPISI, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. The FIDELITY AND CASUALTY COMPANY OF NEW YORK et al., Defendants and Appellants
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1963-04-09
Citations: 152 So. 2d 88
Docket Number: No. 786
Parties: Rosa Russo CAMPISI, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. The FIDELITY AND CASUALTY COMPANY OF NEW YORK et al., Defendants and Appellants.
Judges: Before SAVOY, TATE and HOOD, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 152
Pages: 88–96

Head Matter:
Rosa Russo CAMPISI, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. The FIDELITY AND CASUALTY COMPANY OF NEW YORK et al., Defendants and Appellants.
No. 786.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana. Third Circuit.
April 9, 1963.
Rehearing Denied May 1, 1963.
Certiorari Refused June 5, 1963.
Plauche & Stockwell, by Fred Sievert, Jr., and Oliver P. Stockwell, Lake Charles, Broussard & Broussard, by Marcus A. Broussard, Jr., Abbeville, for defendants-appellants.
Voorhies, Labbe, Voorhies, Fontenot & Leonard, by H. Lee Leonard and Bennett Voorhies, Lafayette, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before SAVOY, TATE and HOOD, JJ.

Opinion:
HOOD, Judge.
This is an action for damages instituted by Mrs. Rosa Russo Campisi against Marion Guidry and the latter's liability insurance carrier, The Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York. After trial on the merits, judgment was rendered by the trial court in favor of plaintiff awarding her the sum of $7,759.07 as damages, and defendants have appealed. Plaintiff has answered the appeal demanding that the amount of the award be increased.
The evidence shows that plaintiff, a 72-year-old woman, was struck by an automobile as she was attempting to walk across Louisiana Highway 82 at a point two-tenths of a mile south of the corporate limits of the City of Abbeville. The automobile was owned by defendant, Marion Guidry, and at the time of the accident it was being driven by his 18-year-old son, Kenneth L. Guidry.
The accident occurred about 7:45 p. m., between dusk and dark. The weather was clear and visibility was good for that time of day, although most of the vehicles on the road at that time were using their headlights. The highway at that point is a blacktopped, heavily traveled thoroughfare, running north and south, the hard-surfaced portion being 24 feet wide, with four-foot shoulders on each side. Although the accident occurred outside the city limits of Abbeville, residences were located along both sides of the highway in that area, and the legal speed limit for motor vehicles there was 35 miles per hour. There was no street intersection in that immediate vicinity, and the place where the accident oc curred is not shown to have been designated or customarily used as a pedestrian crossing.
Just prior to the accident plaintiff and her 16-year-old grandson were standing on the east side of the highway, about six and one-half feet east of the edge of the blacktopped strip, waiting for traffic to ease up enough to allow them to walk across the highway safely. After waiting for about five cars to pass, the grandson turned around to set some coke bottles on the ground, and while he was doing so plaintiff started to walk across the highway alone. She succeeded in traversing most of the width of the highway, but was struck while in the southbound lane of traffic when she reached a point one or two feet east of the western edge of the hard-surfaced slab.
When plaintiff started to cross the highway, the Guidry car was being driven in a southerly direction, in its proper lane of traffic, at a speed of 30 or 35 miles per hour, which was within the legal speed limit. Immediately prior to the collision the brakes of the Guidry car were applied with considerable force, causing the car to skid a distance of about 65 feet before plaintiff was struck. The skid marks began at about the center of the southbound lane of traffic and angled to the right until the right wheels of the car skidded off the hard-surfaced portion of the road onto the west shoulder about 10 to 15 feet before the car reached the point of impact. At the time plaintiff was struck the right wheels of the car were on the west shoulder of the road, about two feet from the western edge of the blacktopping. The left front portion of the car struck plaintiff, and the automobile came to a stop almost at the point of impact
Plaintiff testified that there were no automobiles approaching from either direction when she started to cross, and that she did not see the Guidry car approaching until she reached the center of the highway. She says that she saw the lighted headlights of the Guidry car at that time, although she could not see the car itself. She offers no explanation as to why she continued into the southbound lane of traffic in front of this approaching vehicle, but since she incorrectly estimated that the car was-two-tenths of a mile from her when she first observed it, we assume that she felt that she had sufficient time within which to complete the crossing before the car reached that point.
Young Guidry testified that Mrs. Campisi was in the center of the highway when he first saw her, that he was unable to see her before that time because his view was obstructed by another automobile traveling north, which met and passed him immediately prior to the time he saw plaintiff, and that although he applied his brakes immediately and endeavored to bring his car to a stop, he was unable to avoid striking her. He estimated that plaintiff was 50 or 60 feet in front of him when he first saw her, but concedes that it actually must have been a little further than that since the car skidded 65 feet.
Under either of these versions of the facts, we think the trial court erred in finding that Mrs. Campisi was free from negligence. In our opinion, the evidence clearly establishes that she was negligent in attempting to walk across the southbound lane of traffic directly in front of the approaching Guidry automobile when it should have been obvious to her that she could not make the crossing in safety. Her negligence in that respect was a proximate and contributing cause of the accident and bars plaintiff from recovery, unless it has been established, as plaintiff contends it has, that young Guidry had the last clear chance to avoid the accident.
In order for the doctrine of last-clear chance to be successfully applied in this case, it is necessary that the following facts or circumstances be established: (1) that the pedestrian was in a position of peril of which she was unaware or from which she was unable to extricate herself; (2) that the driver of the motor vehicle actually •discovered, or was in a position where he should have discovered, the pedestrian's peril; and (3) that, at the time, the driver of the motor vehicle, with the exercise of reasonable care, could have avoided the •accident. Ballard v. Piehler, La.App. 1 Cir., 98 So.2d 273; Newton v. Pacillo, La.App. 2 Cir., 111 So.2d 895; Wells v. Meshell, La.App. 2 Cir., 115 So.2d 648; Fontenot v. Travelers Indemnity Company, La.App. 3 Cir., 134 So.2d 330 (Cert. denied).
The principal issue presented here with reference to the applicability of the last clear chance doctrine is whether Guidry discovered, or by the exercise of reasonable care he should have observed, that plaintiff was in a position of peril in time for him to have avoided the accident.
Guidry's assertion that he was unable to see Mrs. Campisi until she reached the center of the highway is strongly supported by the testimony of Mrs. Rosalind Hebert, who was riding as a passenger in the Guidry automobile at the time of the accident. Mrs. Hebert testified that traffic on that road was heavy immediately prior to and at the time •of the collision, and that the Guidry vehicle met four or five cars, all traveling in a northerly direction, at or about the time of the accident. She stated that when she first saw Mrs. Campisi the latter was about 50 feet in front of the Guidry automobile and that Guidry immediately blew his horn, applied his brakes and veered to the right in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid striking her.
Billy M. Matheny, who was standing at the front door of a residence located near the scene of the accident, testified that immediately before the collision occurred Mrs. Campisi had crossed the northbound lane of traffic directly in front of another automobile which was traveling in a northerly direction, and that the northbound car had its headlights burning at that time.
Plaintiff's grandson, Lloyd Wayne Cam-pisi, testified that about five cars passed while he and plaintiff were waiting to cross the road, that he did not see plaintiff start across the highway, but that when he did notice that she was crossing, there were only two cars that he could see at that time. One of these cars was the Guidry vehicle approaching from the north, and the other was a vehicle approaching from the south. Mr. Campisi further testified:
"Q But you do remember there were cars going both ways along there.
"A Yes, sir.
"Q You realized it was a dangerous crossing.
"A Yes, sir, that's why I wanted to wait.
*
"Q Go ahead.
"A When I looked up, she had already started. I didn't look at her while she was starting. I looked up after putting the bottles down, I was fooling around, then I saw she started.
"Q So actually, if you had seen her, you wouldn't have let her cross at that time, would you?
"A No.
"Q Mr. Campisi, as a matter of fact now, straightening your recollection, didn't your grandmother start across there just after a car passed going in the opposite direction, that you had tried to keep her from going in front of before?
"A I don't remember."
It appears to us that the testimony of the three eyewitnesses, other than plaintiff and the driver of the car, tends to support Gui-dry's statements to the effect that another vehicle blocked his view of Mrs. Campisi until she reached the center of the highway. Mrs. Campisi's own admission that she did not see the Guidry car until she reached the center of the highway, although she contends that she had looked in both directions, also seems to confirm defendants' position as to this issue of fact. The testimony of all of these witnesses conflicts with that of plaintiff to the effect that there was no other traffic approaching from either direction at the time she started across the highway.
The trial judge did not specifically determine whether Guidry's view of Mrs. Cam-pisi was obstructed prior to the accident, but he reasoned that if there was such an obstruction by a northbound car, Guidry should have seen plaintiff either before or after meeting that car, and thus, by the exercise of reasonable care, he could have avoided the accident.
The jurisprudence is well settled to the effect that a plaintiff relying on the doctrine of last clear chance bears the burden of establishing all the facts essential to make this doctrine applicable, and that these facts must be proved and will not be presumed. Franicevich v. Lirette, 241 La. 466, 129 So.2d 740; Phares v. Biggs, La.App. 2 Cir., 135 So.2d 507 (Cert. denied).
In our opinion, plaintiff in the instant suit has failed to establish that young Gui-dry saw, or by the exercise of reasonable care should have seen, that Mrs. Campisi was about to enter or attempt to cross the southbound lane of traffic in front of him in time for him to have brought his automobile to a stop before striking her. We conclude, therefore, that plaintiff has failed to establish that the driver of the automobile had the last clear chance to avoid the accident. See Fontenot v. Travelers Indemnity Company, supra; Bergeron v. Department of Highways, 221 La. 595, 60 So. 2d 4.
In view of our finding that plaintiff was chargeable with contributory negligence, and that she has failed to establish that the driver of the automobile had the last clear chance to avoid the accident, it follows that the judgment of the trial court permitting plaintiff to recover must be reversed.
For the reasons herein set out, the judgment appealed from is reversed, and judgment is hereby rendered in favor of defendants and against plaintiff, rejecting plaintiff's demands and dismissing this suit at her costs. All costs of this appeal are assessed to plaintiff-appellee.
Reversed.