Demetrice Underwood and Shannon Underwood, Husband and Wife v. Geico Secure Insurance Company, Mack A. Hill, and Jesse C. Eldridge, 56,095-CA

Plaintiffs Demetrice and Shannon Underwood were injured in a car accident caused by Mack Hill, who stole Jesse Eldridge’s car and crashed into their vehicle during a police chase.
Eldridge’s vehicle was parked at his workplace, Sparks Nissan Kia, left running and unlocked, with a loaded pistol in the console; Eldridge reported the theft promptly.
Hill, the thief, was intoxicated during the incident and had already been in one collision before hitting the Underwoods’ car.
Plaintiffs sued Eldridge (vehicle owner), Geico (Eldridge’s insurer), and Sparks (Eldridge’s employer), advancing theories of negligence based on how the car and gun were left.
The trial court granted summary judgment dismissing claims against these three defendants, based on existing Louisiana precedent, and plaintiffs appealed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Liability for injuries caused by thief's driving	Leaving car running, unlocked, and with keys and gun makes owner liable	Louisiana precedent: owners not liable for unauthorized use/theft, even w/ keys inside	Owners/Custodians not liable under settled law
Distinguishing factor of loaded pistol in console	Presence of gun makes case unique and increases foreseeability of harm	Gun did not empirically or legally cause the crash; no evidence thief knew/used gun	Gun's presence irrelevant absent causal connection
Need to revisit or overrule existing precedent	Existing line of cases (Racine, Humphrey, Knicely) should be overruled or distinguished	Precedent is binding and applies directly to these facts	Court will not overrule or distinguish binding precedent
Applicability of negligence per se (La. R.S. 32:145)	Leaving keys in car on public road constitutes negligence per se	Statute applies only to vehicles parked on public roads, not private property	Statute does not apply; precedent governs

Rando v. Anco Insulations Inc., 16 So. 3d 1065 (La. 2009) (sets out duty/risk analysis for negligence actions)
Racine v. Moon’s Towing, 817 So. 2d 21 (La. 2002) (owner not liable for injuries caused by unauthorized use of vehicle, even with keys inside)
Humphrey v. Balsamo, 914 So. 2d 1217 (La. App. 2 Cir. 2005) (reaffirms owner's non-liability for thief's actions in similar context)
Knicely v. XYZ Ins. Co., 997 So. 2d 8 (La. App. 2 Cir. 2008) (owner not liable for injuries caused by stolen dealership inventory vehicle)
Blanchard v. Hicks, 244 So. 3d 875 (La. App. 3 Cir. 2018) (rejected negligence per se application under La. R.S. 32:145 in stolen vehicle cases)