Joel W. Martin v. City of New Orleans and David Michell

I respectfully dissent. In my opinion the trial court committed reversible error in refusing defendant’s request for an instruction on sudden emergency. It is undisputed that the requested instruction was a fair and correct statement of the applicable Louisiana law, and it is clear from the facts recited in the majority opinion that the question of sudden emergency was raised by the evidence.1

*1328The majority opinion rests on the theory that the general charge adequately covered the matter because it contained the standard definitions that negligence was “the failure to use ordinary care under…