Toth v. Interstate Fire & Casualty Co.
Toth v. Interstate Fire & Casualty Co.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff, Carol Johnson Toth, appeals a judgment dismissing her suit for personal injuries resulting from an interseetional collision. We affirm. The basic issue is credibility of the witnesses.
Each driver contends that the light was green in his favor and that the other driver had a red light requiring that vehicle to stop. Additionally, driver Behrens contends that there was a malfunction of the signal light at that time. As a result of this the defendant police officer and his insurer filed third party pleadings against the Parish of Jefferson and its insurer, and the plaintiff brought suit against both the policeman driver and the Parish of Jefferson, as well as their insurers.
The issue presented is a classic case of credibility of the witnesses. Driver Toth contends that she entered the intersection on the green light and in corroboration produced two witnesses occupying another vehicle at the intersection, who supported her testimony that the light was green for her and red for the police vehicle. In defense of this, the defendants produced the testimony of Sgt. Behrens, the driver, that the light was green for him, and he is supported by the testimony of an off-duty policeman who was at the southeast quadrant of the intersection. Behrens also testified that there was some malfunction of the light, and this was supported by the testimony of the deputy who investigated the accident and again noticed a very quick change in sequence of the lights. The trial judge resolved the issue by finding that plaintiff Toth was guilty of negligence in failing to stop for a red signal light, and dismissed plaintiff’s suit against the defendant driver. In considering the liability of the Parish of Jefferson, the court found as a fact that there was no malfunction of the electric semaphore light at the intersection and dismissed the pleadings against that defendant.
The latest expression of the duty of appellate courts in reviewing and evaluating the trial court judgment is found in the case of Arceneaux v. Domingue, 365 So.2d 1330 (La.Sup.Ct. 1978). In that case the court referred to its previous holding in the case of Canter v. Koehring, La., 283 So.2d 716, 724:
“When there is evidence before the trier of fact which, upon its reasonable evaluation of credibility, furnishes a reasonable factual basis for the trial court’s finding, on review the appellate court should not disturb this factual finding in the absence of manifest error.”
The court went on to explain this to mean that:
“ * * * We said, then, that the appellate court should not disturb such a finding of fact unless it is clearly wrong. Therefore, the appellate review of facts is not completed by reading so much of the record as will reveal a reasonable factual basis for the finding in the trial court; there must be a further determination that the record establishes that the finding is not clearly wrong (manifestly erroneous).” 365 So.2d 1333.
We find that the record does reveal a reasonable factual basis for the finding of the trial court and that that finding is not clearly wrong (manifestly erroneous). There is little in the way of factual demonstrative evidence to resolve the conflict and testimony. What little there is supports the finding of the trial judge. There was a conflict between the testimony of the parties as to the speed of the vehicles, and the
For the reasons above assigned, the judgment appealed is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.