Opinion

Washington v. Gusman

  • 2015 La.App. 4 Cir. 0177
  • 183 So. 3d 510
  • 2015 La. App. LEXIS 2034
  • 2015 WL 5974546
Court
Louisiana Court of Appeal
Filed
Oct 14, 2015
Status
Published
Author
Bonin
On the bench
Bonin, Love, Tobias
Cited by
3 cases
Authority
More cited than 17.4%

The opinion

BONIN, J.,

concurs in the result with reasons.

I concur in the opinion of Judge Love with respect to the finding that the Sheriff as an employer is liable to Mr. Washington’s survivors because of the negligence of his employees and those for whom he is responsible and to the finding that the Sheriff is not liable to them for civil rights damages and attorneys’ fees. I also concur in her opinion to the ’extent that she finds no abuse of discretion in the amount of the damages awarded by the trial judge.

I disagree, however, with the conclusion that the trial judge was not clearly .'wrong when she failed to apportion any fault to Mr. Washington. He was clearly not free from any fault and was partly responsible for his injuries and unfortunate death. See La. Civil Code art. 2323. Thus I would have adjusted the award of damages “but only to the extent of lowering or raising it to the highest or lowest point respectively which is reasonable within the trial court’s discretion.” Clement v. Frey, 95-1119, pp. 7-8 (La.1/16/96), 666 So.2d 607, 611 . But here, even after reducing the overall damages award by the appropriate percentage of comparative fault, the actual amount of recoverable damages (i,e. statutory cap, La. R.S. 13:5106) is unaffected. See Hall v. Brookshire Bros., Ltd., 02-2404, p. 23 (La.6/27/01), 848 So.2d 559, 573 .

Accordingly, I concur in the result.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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