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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA NO. 98-C-2431

SANDRA M. LUDWIG AND WALTER A. LUDWIG V. JEFFERSON PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, FIFTH CIRCUIT, PARISH OF JEFFERSON

PER CURIAM*
We granted certiorari in this case to determine whether the trial court's finding that an obstruction on defendant's premises did not constitute an unreasonable risk of harm to plaintiff is manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY On November 4, 1994, Sandra Ludwig accompanied her daughter's middle school class to the Jefferson Performing Arts Center to see a performance of Peter Pan. During the second act of the play, Mrs. Ludwig went into the lobby to use the restroom. As she returned to her seat in the darkened auditorium, Mrs. Ludwig struck her leg on the protruding metal base of an "acoustical shell," a large piece of equipment which was being stored near the rear aisle of the theater during the performance in question.1 Several months later, Mrs. Ludwig and her husband, Walter, filed suit against the Jefferson Performing Arts Society ("JPAS"), the non-profit organization that presented the play.2 The case was tried as a bench trial in February 1997. At the close of the evidence, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of defendant and dismissed plaintiffs' suit with prejudice, finding that Mrs. Ludwig's own negligence was the sole

*

Johnson, J., not on panel. Rule IV, Part II,

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