Summers v. Parish of Vermilion
Summers v. Parish of Vermilion
Opinion of the Court
Wayne E. Summers, individually and as natural tutor of Sarah Summers and Wayne E. Summers, Jr., and Miriam Summers filed this personal injury suit for damages resulting from a one car accident which occurred on January 5, 1980. The accident, involving a 1977 Datsun pickup truck owned by Wayne and Miriam Summers, operated by Mrs. Summers and occupied by the Summers’ two children, Sarah and Wayne, Jr., occurred in Vermilion Par
The undisputed facts of the case are as follows: Parish Road No. 922, also known as Gautreaux Road, is a narrow two lane blacktop rural road. On the date of the accident, Mrs. Summers, accompanied by her two children, left her home at approximately 3:00 p.m. traveling in a southerly direction on Gautreaux Road. The weather was clear and dry. Less than one mile from Mrs. Summers’ home on Gautreaux Road is a bridge.
Plaintiffs assert that defendants are at fault for maintaining the road in an improper condition which caused this accident and the resulting injuries, and are liable under LSA-C.C. Art. 2317 for a defective thing in their custody.
Although the trial judge found that the condition of Gautreaux Road was “not up to the standard of the modern interstate highways,” he ultimately concluded that plaintiffs had failed to prove that any defect in the road was a cause in fact of the accident. Plaintiffs assert that this finding constitutes manifest error.
In particular, plaintiffs argue that the presence of a bridge railing or other visible marker on the east side of the bridge would have served to warn Mrs. Summers of the narrowness of the bridge. They, thus, argue that the absence of the bridge railing created an unreasonable risk of harm to plaintiffs. For this argument, plaintiff rely on Dabov v. Allstate Insurance Co., 302
The remaining authorities relied on by plaintiffs deal with the issue of contributory negligence and damages. Because we find that the trial judge properly concluded that defendants were not liable under LSA-C.C. Art. 2317, we do not reach these issues.
For the above and foregoing reasons, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed. All costs of this appeal are to be borne by plaintiffs.
AFFIRMED.
. We use the term bridge for want of a better word. Actually, there is a culvert which runs under the roadway connecting two ditches which run parallel on either side of Gautreaux Road. The surface of the roadway above the culvert is the same as the rest of the road but there is little or no shoulder at this point. The roadway over the culvert is supported by 10" by 10" timber beams. The hard surface blacktopped portion of the road at this site is 15' 5" wide. In between the beams and the paved portion of the roadway is a shell shoulder. From the inside of the east timber beam to the inside of the west timber beam, the roadway measures 18' 6". Abutting and fanning out from the four corners of the culvert are wooden pilings. In between these pilings, there is a steep drop-off into a ditch.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.