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Long v. State6/29/2005
3 U.S.C. §§§ 130, 144 or 152. Guillen, 537 U.S. at 146. The privilege afforded to state agencies in § 409 and the documents at issue must not be viewed in a vacuum; rather, inquiry should be directed toward the purpose for which the documents are created.
Accordingly, we reverse the ruling of the lower courts, finding the trial court erred in admitting Letters 2 and 3 into evidence. As previously stated, the appellate court previously found Letter 1 to be inadmissible and the contents of Letter 1 were stricken from the plaintiffs' petition. On remand, all of the letters as reproduced in plaintiffs' petition are likewise to be removed.
DUTY OF THE DOTD
Plaintiffs seek recovery from the DOTD under the theory of negligence based on La. Civ. Code art. 2315. Conversely, the DOTD maintains that it bears no responsibility for the condition of the roadway/railroad crossing and that plaintiffs failed to produce any evidence regarding a duty to maintain the crossing or the breach thereof. Thus, the DOTD submits that plaintiffs failed to satisfy several critical elements of a negligence claim.
In order to determine whether a plaintiff should prevail on a claim in negligence, Louisiana courts employ a duty-risk analysis. Perkins v. Entergy Corp., 00-1372, (La.3/23/01), 782 So.2d 606. A duty-risk analysis involves five elements which must be proved by the plaintiff: (1) proof that the defendant had a duty to conform his conduct to a specific standard (the duty element); (2) proof that the defendant's conduct failed to conform to the appropriate standard (the breach element); (3) proof that the defendant's substandard conduct was a cause-in-fact of the plaintiff's injuries (the cause-in-fact element); (4) proof that the defendant's substandard conduct was a legal cause of the plaintiff's injuries (the scope of liability or scope of protection element); and (5) proof of actual damages (the damages element). Bonin v. Ferrellgas Inc, 2003-3024 p. 5 (La. 7/2/04), 877 So.2d 89, 94; Perkins v. Entergy Corp, 00-1372 p. 7, 782 So.2d at 611;and Boykin v. La. Transit Co., Inc., 96-1932, pp. 8-9 (La.3/4/98), 707 So.2d 1225, 1230.
A proper duty-risk analysis involves identifying (1) the duty imposed upon the defendant by statute or rule of law and (2) the conduct by defendant that allegedly constituted a breach of that duty. Boykin, 96-1932 p. 9, 707 So.2d at 1230. In the case sub judice, plaintiffs contend that the DOTD assumed a duty based on Rick v. State, Dept. of Trans. and Dev., 93-1776 (1/14/94), 630 So.2d. 1271. Plaintiffs submit that the DOTD breached their duty by (1) failing to take affirmative steps to erect lights and mechanical devices which would have prevented this accident from occurring; (2) failing to signalize the crossing, thus failing to fulfill an obligation it undertook two years prior to the accident; and (3) failing to recognize or correct defects with the intersection which included improper marking and inadequate marking.
Since plaintiffs assert that DOTD assumed a duty pursuant to Rick, the facts of that case are instructive. Mrs. Rick was killed when a train struck her vehicle after the vehicle stalled on a railroad track at a crossing in Hammond, Louisiana. The Court's analysis included a history of the DOTD's investigation of the crossing, which revealed that a letter was written by the mayor of Hammond to the DOTD requesting active warning devices for three dangerous crossings, including the Rick crossing. Id., 93-1776 p. 2-3, 630 So.2dat 1273-1274. The DOTD evaluated the crossing using an indexing system. Id. Because the DOTD erroneously used an outdated traffic inventory, which showed the average daily traffic count to be much lower
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