Court Opinion

ID: 9865990
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-26 00:00:57.33147+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:08:43.617960
License: Public Domain

JANVIER, Judge
(dissenting).
I fully appreciate the futility of dissenting in a matter involving only a question of fact, but, after mature deliberation, I have reached the conclusion that I cannot concur in a decree which appears to me erroneous and which reverses a judgment which, I believe, to be not only not manifestly incorrect, but, in fact, fully justified by the evidence.
Even if it be conceded that the defendant Thomas, who was driving the automobile, had taken no drinks after about 11 a. m., still we find that between 8 a. m. and 11 a. m. he had consumed at least one-half of one-fifth of a gallon of gin and probably more than one-half, since pHaintiff states that only she and defendant drank, and that she, herself, took only two or three drinks.
In order for defendants to prevail, it is not necessary that it be shown that Thomas was so drunk that he could not operate an automobile. All that is required is that it be shown that to the knowledge of plaintiff he had imbibed sufficiently of liquor to make it appear that he could not drive with reasonable safety.
I am well convinced that no man can imbibe as much liquor as defendant drank and drive with' reasonable safety.
Now plaintiff knew exactly defendant’s condition, since she was with him during the entire preceding part of the day. Therefore, conceding that he took no liquor after leaving New Orleans, and this is a violent concession to make, since on the trip from New Orleans to the point of the accident the automobile stopped several times and the occupants took cold drinks, and since they admittedly had in the car with them two other bottles of liquor — still, even conceding that defendant drank no more liquor, he had, at 11 a. m., already imbibed more than any man can contain without losing his ability to drive with caution and prudence.
I place no credence whatever in plaintiff’s story that she had been practically forced by defendant to accompany him on the trip. It is possible that she was reluctant to join him, but that she was under coercion which overcame her ability to resist is impossible to believe. She first joined him early in the morning and had remained with him for some seven or eight hours. During that time they drove around the city for about five hours, stopping many times and at various places, at any one of which she could have left him. After leaving the city, they stopped at several filling stations, and after each stop she continued to ride with him. Of course, her explanation is that after each stop he (Thomas) promised to turn around and return her to her home, but her continued and repeated acquiescence in. riding with him makes it impossible for her story to be believed when she says that it was beyond her power to leave him. She was not a young and inexperienced girl. She was a matured woman with many years’ experience in the ways of men, and I refuse to place any credence in her story.
My associates feel that, since the car had gone as far as about fifty miles before the accident took place, it is conclusively shown that defendant could operate it with reason- • able safety. I think that there was merely considerable good luck involved up to that point. Many intoxicated drivers manage miraculously to escape accidents, but that fact does not prove that an intoxicated driver is able to operate a car prudently.
*85In my conclusions I am in accord with the judgment of the district judge who saw the witnesses and heard what they said.
If a man and his mistress embark upon a drinking expedition, and afterwards start out on an automobile ride, the car being driven by one of them, there should be no recovery by the other if an accident results from the fact that the one who is driving is manifestly unable to do so with reasonable safety.
I believe that the findings of the district judge were quite correct, and therefore from the majority decree I respectfully dissent.