Reed v. General Motors Corp.

773 F.2d 660 (5th Cir. 1985)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

On a Saturday night in May 1982, Reed, his wife, Patricia Loretta, his mother, and his brother were on Interstate 10 in Reed's Chevy Monza. Near Lafayette, La., his mother began to suffer from cramps, and Reed pulled over to adjust her seat and ease her comfort. The car was parked on the right shoulder of the highway with its blinkers on when it was violently struck in the rear by a Pontiac Trans Am driven by Brent Boudreaux. All of the passengers in the car were seriously injured. At the time of the accident, Brent and his friend, John Fontenot, were returning home to Kaplan when they were passed by a pickup driven by a Gerard Meche on the right shoulder of the road and at a high rate of speed. Brent, with John's encouragement, followed the pickup onto the shoulder and at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour, the race was on. At times Brent's car had passed Meche. When they came upon Reed's car Meche was able to return to the road in time, but Brent was not so lucky nor was the passenger of Reed's car. At trial, the jury awarded the verdict in favor of all of the Ps against all of the Ds. Damages awarded were $470,000 with 70% of the fault to Brent and 30% of the fault to Meche. During trial, Brent sought to introduce evidence of the limits of his insurance policy being $5000 per person and $10,000 per accident. This was done under the Louisiana inability to pay doctrine. The Court then allowed evidence of Meche's coverage at $500,000.