Opinion ID: 1856297
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: liability of st. bernard parish

Text: As did the trial court, we conclude that once Scheeler lost control of the vehicle, there was nothing he could do to avoid colliding with the dump truck. The record reflects that had Couture parked completely off the paved shoulder of the road, the collision that killed Matthew Shephard would not have occurred. We therefore conclude, as did the trial court, that the Parish was at fault for parking their dump truck in a space which should have been available for Scheeler to recover control of his pickup. Couture stopped at the maintenance yard several times a day, and more often than not, he stopped his dump truck on the shoulder of the road in front of the maintenance yard rather than driving into the yard to pick up workers. Couture testified he had been instructed by his supervisor to pick up workers in this manner. Furthermore, the record reflects the Parish had placed a bed of shells and gravel just off the paved shoulder of the road and encouraged its employees to park their personal vehicles there. There was ample space for Couture to park the truck so that it would not have obstructed the shoulder of the highway. The Parish asserts that Louisiana law permits public vehicles to stop temporarily on the shoulder of a roadway while conducting official business. The Parish cites La.R.S. 32:296, which provides: A. No person shall stop, park, or leave standing any unattended vehicle on any state highway shoulder when such stopping or parking on the highway shoulder shall obstruct the flow of traffic or is a hazard to public safety, unless such stopping, parking, or standing is made necessary by an emergency, except: (1) In those areas designated as parking areas by the Department of Transportation and Development, or (2) By any public utility personnel or public utility equipment engaged in the operation of the utility business, public vehicles owned by public bodies which are engaged in the conduct of official business, or privately-owned vehicles which are engaged in services authorized by the local governing authority. B. In case of an emergency, the driver of such vehicle must operate it in accordance with the normal standards of prudent conduct to protect himself and others from harm. While we acknowledge that the Parish was not in violation of La.R.S. 32:296, this fact alone does not absolve it of liability. La.R.S. 32:296 is not a grant of immunity to public entities, and the shoulder of the highway is not a safe harbor for any public vehicle, even those on official business. The fact that the dump truck was a parish vehicle on official business simply absolves it of statutory liability or a finding of liability per se under La.R.S. 32:296, it does not preclude a finding of liability based on other grounds. In Pierre v. Allstate Insurance Company, 257 La. 471, 242 So.2d 821 (1970), this court stated: Criminal statutes are not, in and of themselves, definitive of civil liability. They are, however guidelines to which a court may resort to establish the proper standard of care for assigning civil liability. Criminal statutes do not set forth the civil rule; it is the court which by analogy must determine whether the statutes can define the rule to be applied in civil cases. Pierre, supra, at 830. While we recognize that La.R.S. 32:296 gives public entities the right to use the shoulder in the conduct of its official business, La.R.S. 32:296 does not allow those public entities to completely disregard the safety of others in using the shoulder. Public entities using the shoulder under La.R.S. 32:296 are still required to do so in a reasonably prudent manner, and with reasonable regard for the safety of the motoring public. The primary safety purpose of the paved shoulder of the highway is to provide an area for motorists who require a momentary stop, and to protect a motorist who inadvertently leaves the roadway. Campbell v. DOTD, 94-1052 (La.1/17/95), 648 So.2d 898. Whether the Parish's use of the shoulder was unreasonably dangerous depends upon the facts and circumstances of each case. Hunter v. Dept. of Transp. and Dev., 620 So.2d 1149 (La.1993). The occasional and transitory use of the shoulder by stopped vehicles is not incongruous with its function as a safety device. Nevertheless, when the use of the shoulder is regular and routine, the safety function is mitigated. This is especially true when such use occurs near the end of a curve in a rural highway, where the chances of a vehicle leaving the traveled portion of the roadway are increased. We find the continuous use of a fixed area of the shoulder as a parking lot or a regular embarkation point for Parish workers unreasonably impairs its safety function as a recovery area. We also note that Couture had ample room to park the dump truck off the paved shoulder of the highway, but he failed to do so. The record in the instant case reflects that the Parish had installed a shell and gravel parking area adjacent to the shoulder, and that this area was available to Couture for the purpose of parking the dump truck on the day of the accident. In the case sub judice, the probability of the harm and gravity of the harm caused by the Parish's parking truck on the shoulder greatly outweighed the cost of avoiding the risk by parking elsewhere. The use of the shoulder in a consistent and continuous manner rather than a transitory manner, accompanied by the failure to utilize an available safe area to park the truck constituted an unreasonable risk of harm to motorists. We therefore hold that the Parish breached its duty to use the shoulder in a reasonably safe manner, and that this breach was a legal cause of the accident. The harm that occurred in the instant case was the very risk of harm contemplated by the duty to use the paved shoulder in a reasonable manner, namely that a vehicle that leaves the traveled portion of the highway would collide with a vehicle stopped in the recovery area.