LeBlanc v. Breaux12/13/2000
AFFIRMED.
Defendants, the Estate of Essie P. Breaux and First Financial Insurance Company (First Financial), appeal from a judgment in a case of the wrongful death of a child by fire, filed by Plaintiffs, Ronald LeBlanc, Sr. and Diane Copeland, individually and on behalf of their deceased minor child, Ronald LeBlanc, Jr. (Ronald). Plaintiffs answered the appeal and seek an increase in damages to Ronald LeBlanc, Sr. We affirm.
On January 9, 1993, a fire erupted in a home rented in December of 1992 by Defendant, Pamela Willett (Willett), from Defendant, Essie Breaux (Breaux). The previous tenant, Johnny Richoux (Richoux), left numerous items of mostly junk, both in and outside of the house. Among the stored items in the rear room of the house were two refrigerators, three Coleman lanterns, lantern fuel, cans of paint, old car batteries, tools, and old lumber. There was also a gas dryer and water heater in the room. The room had only one possible exit, a window at the back of the room, that was blocked by plywood boards. Thus, the sole exit from the room was through the door into the main house. The house did not have any fire extinguishers.
According to Willett, before Breaux agreed to rent, Breaux performed a "walk through" and told Richoux that he needed to remove the "junk" from the house and the yard. Willett understood that Breaux intended to withhold the deposit from Richoux until the premises was cleaned. However, Willett was anxious to move into the house, so Breaux agreed to let Willett and Richoux work it out. Willett testified that Breaux knew that Willett had a minor son living with her and that she sometime babysat for other families. After moving in, Willett and her boyfriend, Walter Champagne (Champagne), began the cleanup, starting with the yard, rather than the house. Before the job was finished, Richoux never returned. By the time of trial, Breaux had died and no other witness contradicted Willett's version of the events leading to the fire.
On the day of the fire, Willett was baby-sitting Ronald, age 18 months, and another child, Skylar, age two or three. She often babysat for Ronald, who was running around the house, playing with Skylar and Willett's son, Michael, age 12, and his friend, Kale Austin (Kale), age 14. Because Willett was concerned that the shelves holding the Coleman lanterns in the back room were unstable and might fall, she instructed Michael to remove the lanterns after draining them of any fluid. Michael was not familiar with this type of lantern. In order to determine if there was any fluid in one of them, he attempted to light a match. Ronald was in the room with the boys at the time. Flames erupted, catching other items in the room on fire and creating a fire barrier across the room between the back wall and the entry door. The flames imprisoned Kale and Ronald on the side of the room with no exit. Kale managed to escape by pulling off some wall boards and making a hole. He reached in several times to try to get Ronald out, but was unsuccessful because of the smoke and flames. In the meantime, Willett, who was on the other side of the flames when the fire started, also tried unsuccessfully to get to the two children. Then, because she had no phone, she ran out of the house screaming for help. The fire department arrived. Heavy smoke engulfed the house. Chief Rickie Eslick went to the back of the house to make sure that there was an exit for the firemen. He pulled a vent and some boards off of the exterior wall. When the boards were removed, he discovered the child who was either unconscious or dead, with severe external burns. Ronald was officially pronounced dead at the hospital, after unsuccessful attempts to revive him by the
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