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Craighead v. Preferred Risk Mutual Insurance Co.8/25/2000
Application for rehearing may be filed within the delay allowed by art. 2166, La. C.C.P.
Victor Jerome Sullivan, Cedar Creek School and its insurer, Preferred Risk Mutual Ins. Co. (Cedar Creek defendants) appealed the judgment in which the trial court (1) granted Motions for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict and, alternatively, Motions for a New Trial; (2) found the Cedar Creek defendants to be 80% at fault in causing the accident; and (3) awarded the plaintiffs damages. On March 3, 1997 at 7:20 a.m., Caroline Craighead, age 11, was struck and killed by an eastbound motorist as the child attempted to cross the southern, eastbound lane of Hwy. 80 to board the westbound Cedar Creek school bus stopped in the northern westbound lane of the road. The Cedar Creek defendants complained on appeal that the trial court erred in granting the motions for JNOV and alternative motions for new trial. Additionally, the Cedar Creek defendants objected to being cast with 80% of the fault, with damages for emotional distress and for excessive quantum. For the following reasons, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Prior to filing suit, Caroline's parents and brother (the Craigheads) settled with the driver (Judy Martinez) who struck the child along with Martinez's insurer. The Craigheads sued the bus driver, Sullivan; Cedar Creek; and its insurer, Preferred Risk (No. 33, 731-CA). The Craigheads' UM insurer, State Farm, tendered its limits of $100,000 and filed a subrogation claim against Sullivan, Cedar Creek and Preferred Risk (No. 33,730-CA). The two suits were consolidated for trial and tried before a jury which found no negligence on the parts of the bus driver, the mother and the deceased child. The jury placed 100% of the fault for the accident on Martinez, the driver whose eastbound vehicle struck and killed Caroline. State Farm and the Craigheads filed Motions for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict and, alternatively, Motions for New Trial.
On July 26, 1999, the trial court granted the motions and entered a Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict in favor of the Craigheads. The trial court found that the bus driver, Sullivan, was 80% at fault in causing the accident. The trial court awarded $450,000 to each of the parents and $50,000 each for emotional distress to Mrs. Craighead and her son who witnessed the accident. In addition, the trial court awarded $20,000 for Caroline's survival action. The trial court conditionally granted the Motions for New Trial in the event this court reversed the JNOV. The Cedar Creek defendants appealed.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND TESTIMONY
The Craighead family resided in Calhoun, Ouachita Parish, and the children attended Cedar Creek, a private school in Ruston, Louisiana. Each morning, Mr. or Mrs. Craighead drove the children to a pick-up location, the parking lot of the Price Right Pharmacy on Hwy. 80 in Calhoun, for the children to ride the bus to school. On the day of the accident, Mrs. Craighead drove Caroline to the parking lot. They were accompanied by Caroline's nine-year-old brother, Christopher. who was ill and not attending school that day. Highway 80 runs east and west. Mrs. Craighead parked her van south of and perpendicular to Highway 80. The front of the Craighead vehicle was about a van length from the southern, eastbound lane of traffic. When they saw the approaching westbound bus turn on its flashing lights after it had topped the hill, they knew it was Caroline's bus. At trial, Mrs. Craighead estimated that the flashing yellow bus lights came on near the pizza place some distance east of her location. Caroline opened the van door and walked to the road to cross and board the bus stopped in the northern, west
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