Louisiana Supreme Court Decisions 2015
Date: December 8, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-2225
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case presented for the Supreme Court's review centered on whether the email communications of an employee of a public agency, via the public agency's email system, on private political matters with private…
Date: December 8, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-2592
Justia Opinion Summary: This case was brought by the plaintiffs, mineral royalty owners, against defendants, mineral lessees and working interest owners, for unrecovered hydrocarbons after two wells ceased production. Following a lengthy bench…
Date: December 8, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-K-1701
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Christopher Wells was convicted of manslaughter in the 2008 shooting death of Brandon McCue. Defendant met with McCue to purchase marijuana. The two argued when McCue told defendant he had nothing to sell.…
Date: November 23, 2015
Docket Number: 2015-CJ-0585
Justia Opinion Summary: The Louisiana Supreme Court granted certiorari in this child custody matter to review the designation of both parents as “co-domiciliary parents,” a designation which divided the courts of appeal. Both the father and the…
Date: November 20, 2015
Docket Number: 2015-C-0823
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Meiko Prevo was arrested in April 2000 in East Baton Rouge Parish for felony crime against nature. Plaintiff ultimately pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of criminal mischief, a misdemeanor. She was sentenced…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-2607
Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose from a petition filed by vendors of mineral rights, plaintiff John C. McCarthy, individually and as trustee of the Kathleen Balden Trust, and plaintiff Marjorie Moss. Plaintiffs named as defendant…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-CC-1708
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, alleging to be putative class members of multiple class actions, have filed their own individual suits against the defendant, Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (Citizens). Plaintiffs were…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-CK-1996
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Terrence Roberson was charged with armed robbery and attempted second-degree murder for offenses which allegedly occurred in 2012, when the defendant was sixteen years old. The issue this case presented for the…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-K-1172
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Toby Fruge was charged with the forcible rape of two women, R.A. (count 1) and J.H. (count 2), in two separate incidents that occurred approximately two years apart. The State’s petitioned the Supreme Court for…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-K-1511
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was found guilty as charged by a jury of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. By agreement with the state, defendant admitted the allegations in the habitual offender bill of information and was…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-K-1801
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant William Graham was indicted with one count of aggravated incest. After defendant rested his case at trial and it became apparent that the State had failed to carry its burden of proof on this charge, the…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-KP-1214
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court granted the writ application in this case to determine whether La. C.Cr.P. art. 887(A) and La. C.Cr.P. art. 895.1(B) permitted the district attorney and sheriff to impose costs of prosecution and costs…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-KP-2091
Justia Opinion Summary: In 1998, an Orleans Parish jury found respondent Ronald Marshall guilty of armed robbery. Following a habitual offender hearing, the trial court adjudicated respondent a second felony offender and sentenced him to 49 and…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015-C-0087
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court granted the defendants’ writ application in this case to determine whether the lower courts erred by imposing personal liability on the sole member and manager of a limited liability company (“L.L.C.”).…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015-C-0136
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court granted certiorari in this matter to determine whether a retiree of the City of Slidell, plaintiff Dean Born, could continue participating in the City of Slidell's health insurance plan following the…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015-C-0247
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case presented for the Supreme Court's review centered on whether the lessors properly terminated a lease. After review, the Court found the district court was correct in finding the lease was terminated,…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015-C-0324
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2009, plaintiff Dr. Ralph Slaughter retired as president of Southern University System (“Southern”) after thirty-five years of service. Upon retirement, the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System (“LASERS”)…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015-C-0477
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Patricia Thompson was injured when she slipped and fell in a puddle of water while shopping at a Winn-Dixie store. Plaintiff filed suit against Winn-Dixie, which in turn filed a third party demand against…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015-C-0530
Justia Opinion Summary: Whitney and Pamela Smith entered into a residential mortgage contract with Saxon Mortgage Services (“Saxon”), which was secured with a promissory note on the Smiths’ home in Grant Parish. The Smiths later failed to make…
Date: October 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015-C-0536
Justia Opinion Summary: Joseph E. Boudreaux, II and Jennifer Boudreaux were married in 1997, divorced in 2011. The couple had two children during their marriage. The parties entered into a consent judgment with regard to custody, visitation,…
Date: October 2, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-2279
Justia Opinion Summary: In October 2010, Eddie Hoffman was injured when his vehicle was rear-ended by a vehicle driven by Carolyn Elzy. Hoffman filed suit against Ms. Elzy and her insurer, 21st Century North America Insurance Company for…
Date: September 1, 2015
Docket Number: 2013-KA-1631
Justia Opinion Summary: In November 2008, a grand jury indicted defendant Lamondre Tucker for the first degree murder of Tavia Sills. After a trial, the jury found the defendant guilty as charged. At the conclusion of the penalty phase of the…
Date: July 7, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-CA-2090
Date: June 30, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-1899
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this matter presented for the Louisiana Supreme Court's review centered on the “amount in dispute” which determined subject matter jurisdiction of a city court with a jurisdictional limit of $30,000. After…
Date: June 30, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-2362
Justia Opinion Summary: The Louisiana Supreme Court granted certiorari in this case to determine whether Louisiana recognized the tort of "negligent spoliation." On March 15, 2008, a multi-vehicle accident occurred in St. Tammany Parish.…
Date: June 30, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-2371
Justia Opinion Summary: On March 15, 2008, a multi-vehicle accident occurred in St. Tammany Parish. Robert J. Bordelon, III is alleged to have caused the accident when he swerved two separate times from the left lane of traffic to the right…
Date: June 30, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-2483
Justia Opinion Summary: This was a legal malpractice case. Defendant Michelle Myer-Bennett filed a peremptory exception of peremption asserting plaintiff Tracy Lomont filed her malpractice claim beyond the three-year peremptive period set forth…
Date: June 30, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-CA-2506
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2007, the City of New Orleans (CNO) enacted a group of ordinances, codified as Sections 154-1701 through 15-1704 of its Code of Ordinances, which created the Automated Traffic Enforcement System (“ATES”). In 2011,…
Date: June 30, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-CK-1410
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court granted the state’s writ application to determine whether a person required to register as a sex offender as a result of an offense committed as a juvenile under La. R.S. 15:542 had to comply with the…
Date: June 30, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-CQ-1598
Justia Opinion Summary: The predecessor(s) of defendant, Union Pacific Railroad Company acquired the right to build a railroad over the property at issue in this case in the late 1880s. The railroad company provided not only public crossings…
Date: June 30, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-K-0945
Justia Opinion Summary: In a cold-case prosecution initiated over 12 years after the victim died, the state charged defendant by grand jury indictment with second degree murder. A jury found defendant guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 40…
Date: June 30, 2015
Docket Number: 2015-CA-0432
Justia Opinion Summary: According to her Petition for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, plaintiff Kasha LaPointe was employed as a tenured public school teacher by defendant Vermilion Parish School Board (“VPSB or the Board”). Jerome Puyau,…
Date: May 5, 2015
Docket Number: 2013-C-2878
Justia Opinion Summary: This case presented a res nova issue for the Louisiana Supreme Court: whether gradual noise induced hearing loss caused by occupational exposure to hazardous noise levels was a personal injury by accident or an…
Date: May 5, 2015
Docket Number: 2013-KH-0072
Justia Opinion Summary: Relator’s convictions stemmed from unrelated attacks on two different women in the 1990s: a 1991 attack on a victim identified as K.T.; and a 1994 attack on a victim identified as A.R. In both cases, the investigations…
Date: May 5, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-1499
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff John Boudreaux filed suit against defendant Paul Cummings seeking recognition of a predial servitude/right of way by virtue of acquisitive prescription and a permanent injunction prohibiting Cummings from…
Date: May 5, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-1964
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2007, Clyde Snider, Jr. was hospitalized for a suspected myocardial infarction. He would later get surgery and be given a pacemaker. Following up on an unrelated issue, Snider's treating doctors found infection at the…
Date: May 5, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-2243
Justia Opinion Summary: Across the state, plaintiffs were filing complaints against health care providers from whom they sought treatment following automobile accidents and with whom their health care insurers had contracted reimbursement rates…
Date: May 5, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-CC-1025
Justia Opinion Summary: In December of 2002 Thomas Lowrie married Melissa Lowrie, who gave birth to two children during the marriage: A.L., born February 2003; and B.W., born May 2009. In October of 2010 the Lowries were divorced. Although the…
Date: May 5, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-CQ-1921
Justia Opinion Summary: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals certified a question of Louisiana law to the Louisiana Supreme Court. The questions stemmed from the claims handling by State Farm Fire & Casualty Company following an automobile…
Date: April 10, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-O-2623
Date: March 17, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-1233
Date: March 17, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-1475
Justia Opinion Summary: Willwoods Community is a non-profit corporation subject to the precepts of the Roman Catholic Church providing ministries in affordable housing, faith and marriage, WLAE-TV and Eucharistic Adoration. Father Thomas…
Date: March 17, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-1539
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2008, plaintiffs Byron and Margo Guillory filed suit against several defendants, including Pelican Real Estate, Inc. and its professional liability insurer, St. Paul Fire and Marine Ins. Co. Essentially, plaintiffs…
Date: March 17, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-CQ-1546
Justia Opinion Summary: The federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals certified a question of Louisiana Law to the Louisiana Supreme Court: did the dismissal of Scott Lemoine's criminal stalking prosecution (pursuant to the state Code of Criminal…
Date: March 17, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-K-0432
Justia Opinion Summary: On March 10, 2010, the Plaquemines Parish Government (PPG) acquired ownership of the state school located at 251 F. Edward Hebert Blvd. in Plaquemines Parish from the Department of Health and Hospitals. In January 2011,…
Date: March 17, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-KD-1526
Justia Opinion Summary: In an interlocutory appeal, defendant David Koederitz stood accused of second degree battery and false imprisonment. He filed a motion to exclude certain portions of the medical records from Ochsner Hospital in New…
Date: March 17, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-KK-1910
Justia Opinion Summary: At a pretrial hearing on the State’s motion to introduce evidence of defendant Gary Layton's 1997 "sexually assaultive behavior," the trial court ruled the evidence was inadmissible because defendant’s alleged conduct…
Date: March 17, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-O-2335
Justia Opinion Summary: This matter stemmed from a recommendation of the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana regarding the failure of respondent Justice of the Peace Lorne L. Landry to comply with the financial reporting requirements of Supreme…
Date: March 17, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-O-2515
Justia Opinion Summary: This matter comes before the court on the recommendation of the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana that Judge Sheva M. Sims of the Shreveport City Court, Caddo Parish, be suspended without pay for 90 days and ordered to…
Date: January 28, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-0969
Justia Opinion Summary: Property owner Crescent City Property Partners, L.L.C., and a builder, Greystar Development and Construction, LP, entered into a contract in March, 2002 for the construction of a mixed-use development in Lafayette.…
Date: January 28, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-1107
Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose on March 14, 2011 when, unbeknownst to school bus driver Harold Thibeaux, six-year-old La'Derion Miller's arm became trapped in the school bus door while he was attempting to board the bus. La'Derion was…
Date: January 28, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-C-1127
Justia Opinion Summary: Based on an agreement, an oilfield operator was authorized to charge certain costs against revenues prior to paying the oilfield owners. After a dispute arose, an auditor examined the oilfield operator's costs charged to…
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