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Williams v. City Baton Rouge4/30/1998
, attainments and skill of the expert. Id. Additional considerations include helpfulness of the expert's report and testimony to the trial court, the amount in controversy, the complexity of the problem addressed by the expert and awards to experts in similar cases. Expert witnesses are entitled only to reasonable compensation. Id. The amount agreed upon between an expert witness and the party calling him is not the criterion to be used by the court in assessing expert fees. Id.
Based on the record before us, we cannot say the trial court abused its sound discretion in any of its awards of expert fees. The trial court relied heavily on the testimony of Mr. Russell in calculating all the property damage awards.
The trial court's awards to the Gage and Williams family plaintiffs for Mr. Boudreaux's services totaled $6,500.00. Mr. Boudreaux submitted a bill of $15,010.00 for engineering services, and these plaintiffs request this court adjust the award to conform to Mr. Boudreaux's bill. Much of the engineer's testimony relative to the Gage and Williams family plaintiffs was directed to restoration of their property; however, as indicated above, the restoration plan presented by Mr. Boudreaux actually enhanced the value of plaintiffs' property and was of no value to the trial court. Insofar as the award to the Raby family for engineering services, we note the additional preparation required to determine the cost of restoration of their parking lot, and the trial court's reliance on that testimony, were clearly factored into the award of $5,000.00. We cannot say the trial court abused its discretion in its awards for engineering services to plaintiffs.
VII. INSURANCE COVERAGE
During the time of the DPW excavation project on plaintiffs' property, the City/Parish was insured by F & C under a commercial general liability policy, in excess of the City/Parish's $100,000.00 self-insurance retention. The F & C policy has liability limits of $400,000.00; Chicago , excess insurer for the City/Parish, provides coverage for liability in excess of $500,000.00. F & C and Chicago urge the trial court erred in its Conclusion regarding the liability of each of the insurers under the terms of the policies.
A. F & C's policy
F & C and Chicago assert two bases to support their argument that there is no coverage under the F & C policy. First, they maintain that the policy must be read as a whole; for coverage, the insured must meet the threshold requirement of establishing that its conduct constituted an "occurrence" as defined in the policy. Secondly, they urge that under the plain language of the exclusions set forth in that section, the insured is not afforded coverage. In finding coverage, the trial court concluded that the damages awarded to plaintiffs arose out of the "wrongful entry or eviction or other invasion of the right of private occupancy" by the City/Parish.
Turning to the F & C policy, we note Coverage P, designated as "Personal Injury Liability," provides in relevant part:
The company will pay on behalf of the insured all sums which the insured shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because of injury (herein called "personal injury") sustained by any person or organization and arising out of one or more of the following offenses committed in the conduct of the named insured's business:
Group C Ä wrongful entry or eviction, or other invasion of the right of private occupancy;
if such offense is committed during the policy period within the United States. . . . (Emphasis deleted.)
The Personal Injury Liability section further provides:
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