No. 9520 Precedential Processed

Suhor v. Gusse

Louisiana Court of Appeal, First Circuit · Filed November 8, 1978 · 377 So. 2d 1259

Also decided on this docket: La. Ct. App. 1st Cir., June 1, 1961 131 So. 2d 82; La., December 15, 1885 37 La. Ann. 897; La. Ct. App. 4th Cir., July 8, 1981 403 So. 2d 83

Cited by

Suhor v. Gusse 403 So. 2d 83 La. Ct. App. 4th Cir. 1981
Suhor v. Gusse 388 So. 2d 755 La. 1980
Suhor v. Gusse 380 So. 2d 69 La. 1980

Opinion text

GULOTTA, Judge, dissenting. I respectfully dissent. The low jury award in this case was influenced, in my opinion, by evidence of defendant’s inability to pay. The failure to permit evidence of the existence of insurance coverage and of policy limits, where evidence of inability to pay has been introduced, understandably, places a jury in a position of awarding an unreasonably low amount. In my opinion this is what happened in this case. The jury could very well have believed plaintiff’s experts’ and plaintiff himself, of the dire consequences of this accident and awarded $25,000.00, when faced with evidence of defendant’s inability to pay. Although cognizant of the concept of judicial economy, I’m of the opinion that this matter should be remanded for a new trial. Before SAMUEL, REDMANN, GULOT-TA, BOUTALL and BEER, JJ.