Preview:

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA No. 96-CC-0055 CYRUS GARY, ET UX VERSUS CAMDEN FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, ET AL ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, THIRD CIRCUIT, PARISH OF LAFAYETTE, STATE OF LOUISIANA

CALOGERO, C.J.* The issue in this case is whether the payment alone of workers' compensation benefits to an injured employee interrupts prescription with regard to the worker's claims against thirdparty tortfeasors. Cyrus Gary was in the course and scope of employment on March 12, 1992, when the vehicle in which he was a passenger was rear-ended by a Lafayette Parish school bus. Several months

after the accident, Gary's employer commenced voluntary payment of workers' compensation benefits and medical expenses. On July

7, 1993, sixteen months after the accident, Gary and his wife filed a lawsuit for damages against the third-party tortfeasor, Craig Smith (the driver of the school bus), the Lafayette Parish School Board (Smith's employer), and the school board's automobile liability insurer. The defendants filed an exception of prescription, alleging that plaintiffs' claims had prescribed because suit was not filed within the one-year prescriptive period for delictual actions provided by La. Civ. Code art. 3492. disagreed and overruled the exception. The district court The court of appeal

*

Bleich, J., not on panel.

Rule IV, Part 2,

Download 96-CC-0055.pdf

Louisiana Law