Opinion ID: 1830481
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Unreasonably Dangerous Defect

Text: Whether the condition of a road is unreasonably dangerous is a question of fact and should only be reversed if it is manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong. Ledoux v. Dep't of Transp. And Dev., 98-0024, p. 3 (La.9/18/98), 719 So.2d 43, 44-45. When applying a manifest error or clearly wrong standard, even if an appellate court may feel that its own evaluations and inferences are as reasonable as those of the district court, it should not disturb the findings of the district court. Canter v. Koehring, Co., 283 So.2d 716, 724 (La. 1973). In this case, the lower courts found an unreasonably dangerous defect in the road that was a substantial factor in causing plaintiffs' damages, and, as a result, DOTD was liable to plaintiffs. Petre, 775 So.2d at 1264. We find, as did the court of appeal, that this determination of the district court was not manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong. DOTD argues that the lower courts erred in holding that any unreasonably dangerous defect in the highway, specifically the width of the shoulder, the steepness of the adjacent ditch, and the failure to place chevrons marking the curve, were substantial factors in bringing about the accident. DOTD points out that Ms. Petre testified that she did not leave the road as a result of a defect in the road, but rather because she lost her concentration. Furthermore, according to DOTD, the testimony demonstrates that regardless of the slope of the ditch, plaintiff ran off of the road too close to the driveway and, therefore, did not have enough time to recover. DOTD argues that as a result, the slope of the ditch played no part in causing the accident. DOTD additionally argues that the narrow shoulders did not render the highway unreasonably dangerous because as explained in Myers v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co., 493 So.2d 1170 (La.1986), highway safety was increased by widening the travel lanes at the expense of the shoulder. Id. at 1173. On the other hand, in spite of the fact that lane widening improved the road, the reduction in the shoulder width to a severe degree creates a different and independent risk that a motorist who travels onto or partially onto the shoulder for any reason, whether as a result of inattentiveness or negligence, will be unable to recover in time to avoid an accident. DOTD's duty to maintain the road and shoulder encompasses the risk that a motorist may travel onto or partially onto the shoulder. Graves v. Page, 96-2201 (La.11/7/97), 703 So.2d 566, 572. In this case, the shoulder consisted of one and one-half feet of usable surface area before it descended into a ditch. Mr. Evans, an expert witness who inspected the accident scene in February of 1993, testified that the ditch adjacent to the road varied in slope from 4:1 to 3:1. He stated that a 3:1 slope is not recoverable by a vehicle traveling on it, and a 4:1 slope is barely so. Mr. Evans testified that in this situation, once a motorist left the road, even sober, she would not have been able to recover and reenter the road. Considering Mr. Evans's testimony, we find that the record supports the lower courts' findings that the width of the shoulder along with the slope of the adjacent ditch was a substantial factor in causing the damages. Regardless of whether another fact finder might have concluded differently, because the finding is supported by the record and is not unreasonable overall, we cannot say it is manifestly erroneous.