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Wright v. Pratt8/23/2000
Application for rehearing may be filed within the delay allowed by Art. 2166, La. C.C.P.
KOSTELKA, J., concurs with written reasons.
The plaintiff, Willie Wright, appeals the trial court's judgment granting a motion for involuntary dismissal in favor of the defendants, Nancy Odom, and her insurer, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. The plaintiff had sought damages he had sustained in an automobile accident. The defendants, Nancy Odom and Willie Hall, have answered the appeal requesting damages for a frivolous appeal. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of involuntary dismissal and deny the defendants' requests for damages.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On February 27, 1995, the parties were involved in a three-vehicle automobile accident on Interstate 20 in Monroe, Louisiana. The defendants, Albert Pratt ("Pratt"), Nancy Odom ("Odom") and Willie Hall ("Hall"), were traveling east on the interstate as they approached an entrance ramp, located to their right, that allowed traffic coming onto the interstate to merge into the two existing lanes. At the point where the entrance ramp and the interstate connect, the interstate becomes three lanes, which continues for the next two exits. After the second exit, the interstate converts back into two lanes. On the day of the accident, the road surface was wet due to sporadic rain throughout the day.
The plaintiff, Willie Wright, was a passenger in a 1984 GMC logging truck being driven by the defendant, Willie Hall. The plaintiff was employed by Hall and assisted him in harvesting lumber to sell to local paper mills. Hall provided transportation for his employees to and from the work sites. At the time of the accident, Hall was driving the plaintiff home from a work site. Hall was traveling in the outside lane. Defendants, Pratt and Odom were traveling behind Hall's vehicle. They were adjacent to each other in the outside lane and inside lane, respectively. As the defendants' vehicles approached Hall's vehicle, Pratt's vehicle veered into the inside lane and collided with Odom's vehicle. Consequently, Odom's vehicle traveled into the outside lane and struck the rear of Hall's logging truck.
The plaintiff filed the instant claim for damages for injuries he allegedly sustained as a result of the accident. Named as defendants were Albert Pratt, who was uninsured, Nancy Odom and her insurer, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company ("State Farm") and Willie Hall and his insurer, Western World Insurance Company ("Western World"). The trial court denied Hall's peremptory exception of no right of action and no cause of action. Thereafter, Hall filed an answer and a cross-claim against Pratt and Odom seeking indemnity and contribution for their negligence in causing the accident. State Farm intervened in the suit seeking to recover its payment of property damages to Odom. State Farm also filed an answer and cross-claim against Hall and Pratt. Prior to trial, the parties dismissed all claims against Albert Pratt.
At the close of plaintiff's evidence at trial, the remaining defendants dismissed their cross claims against each other. Nancy Odom moved for involuntary dismissal on the ground that plaintiff had failed to present evidence to prove that she was at fault in causing the accident. The trial court sustained Odom's motion and dismissed the plaintiff's claim, with prejudice. The court found that plaintiff had failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that either Hall or Odom was negligent. It found that the accident was caused solely by the negligence of Pratt or possibly an unidentified third person. A judgment was signed dismissing plaintiff's clai
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