Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University & Agricultural & Mechanical College v. 2330 Palmyra Street, L.L.C.

80 So. 3d 1234, 2011 WL 6779329
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 27, 2011
DocketNos. 2011-CA-0443, 2011-CA-0499, 2011-CA-0565, 2011-CA-0566
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 80 So. 3d 1234 (Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University & Agricultural & Mechanical College v. 2330 Palmyra Street, L.L.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University & Agricultural & Mechanical College v. 2330 Palmyra Street, L.L.C., 80 So. 3d 1234, 2011 WL 6779329 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

MICHAEL E. KIRBY, Judge.

| ¶ This matter is a consolidation of four separate appeals by 2330 Palmyra Street, L.L.C. (“2330 Palmyra Street”); PFD Two, L.L.C. (Wa Nora Two, L.L.C.) (“PFD Two”); 2226 Canal Street, L.L.C. (“2226 Canal Street”); and 2300 Canal Street, L.L.C. (“2300 Canal Street”). The appellants are four property owners1 whose properties were expropriated by the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College (“Board of Supervisors” or “Board”) for the site of the future LSU-affiliated Academic Medical Center/ United States Veterans Administration2 Hospi[1237]*1237tal Complex (“LSUAMC/VA Hospital Complex”). In response to the Board of Supervisors’ petitions for expropriation, the property owners filed reconventional demands seeking additional compensation for damages allegedly sustained prior to the expropriation of their properties, as a result of a moratorium issued by the City of New Orleans in 2007, and renewed in 2008 and 2009, prohibiting the issuance of any building permits for construction, renovations, repairs or demolition of buildings in the area 1 ^encompassing the site of the future LSU/VA Hospital Complex. The Board of Supervisors responded to each reconventional demand by filing a declina-tory exception of lack of subject matter jurisdiction; dilatory exception of prematurity; and peremptory exceptions of prescription, nonjoinder of a party, and no cause of action. Following hearings in separate divisions in the district court, the trial court in Division G granted all the exceptions while the trial court in Division M granted only the exceptions of no cause of action. The property owners appealed. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the trial court judgments of December 29, 2010 and February 7, 2011, and reverse, in part, both judgments of January 25, 2010.3

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The Board of Supervisors filed their petitions for expropriation in July and August of 2010. Prior to the expropriations, the properties were part of The PFD Group’s real estate investment portfolio, which included a number of residential and commercial properties located in the area designated to be the site of the future LSUAMC/VA Hospital Complex. The PFD Group had planned to renovate and lease the properties to serve as commercial and residential rental properties for persons and businesses returning to the City after Hurricane Katrina.

In 2007, the State of Louisiana, through the Board of Supervisors, commenced its efforts in furtherance of the expropriation by entering into a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (“CEA”) with the City to acquire the property, |3and two formal Mem-oranda of Understanding (“MOU”), one between the State and the City, and one between the State and the VA. According to the expropriation petition, the purpose of the CEA and MOU was to enable the State to expropriate the properties by working in conjunction with the City and the VA.

On November 15, 2007, in furtherance of the MOU and the Board of Supervisors’ efforts to expropriate the property, the New Orleans City Council adopted Ordinance No. 22900, imposing a general moratorium on new building permits in the proposed area of the future LSUAMC/VA Hospital Complex. The City renewed the moratorium with ordinances in 2008 and 2009.

In their reconventional demands, the property owners allege that the Board of Supervisors aided by the MOU, CEA, and resulting moratoria, created and sustained an atmosphere in which the properties within the proposed LSUAMC/VA Hospital Complex site became severely devalued. They contend that from 2007 to the expropriation in 2010, their property values plummeted and investment opportunities ceased, because they were prevented [1238]*1238from developing and/or improving their properties. As a result, the property owners allege the State benefitted by paying a depreciated real estate price for the expropriated properties. Specifically, the property owners argue that the 2007 moratorium constituted a “taking” in violating of Article I, § 4 of the Louisiana Constitution, and that the amount offered by the State for their properties fails to compensate them for the “full extent” of their losses as mandated by the constitution.

Louisiana Const. Article I, § 4 states, in pertinent part:

Section 4. (A) Every person has the right to acquire, own, control, use, enjoy, protect, and dispose of private property. |4This right is subject to reasonable statutory restrictions and the reasonable exercise of the police power.
(B)(1) Property shall not be taken or damaged by the state or its political subdivisions except for public purposes and with just compensation paid to the owner or into court for his benefit....
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(5) In every expropriation or action to take property pursuant to the provisions of this Section, a party has the right to trial by jury to determine whether the compensation is just, and the owner shall be compensated to the full extent of his loss. Except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, the full extent of loss shall include, but not be limited to, the appraised value of the property and all costs of relocation, inconvenience, and any other damages actually incurred by the owner because of the expropriation. [Emphasis added.]

In Coleman v. Chevron Pipe Line Co., 94-1773, p. 8 (La.App. 4 Cir. 4/24/96), 673 So.2d 291, 297, this Court noted that in every expropriation the property owner must be “compensated to full extent of his loss,” quoting La. Const.1974, Art. I, § 4, and stating: “[generally this means, that the owner should be ‘put in as good a position pecuniarily as he would have been had his property not been taken,’ ” quoting State Dept. of Highways v. Bitterwolf, 415 So.2d 196, 199 (La.1982).

The Board of Supervisors refers to the property owners’ reconventional demand as an inverse condemnation claim. This Court has commented on inverse condemnation in City of New Orleans v. Badine Land Ltd., 2007-1066, pp. 4-5 (La.App. 4 Cir. 5/21/08), 985 So.2d 832, 835-836, as follows:

The Louisiana Constitution, Article I, Section 4 provides for compensation to a landowner whose property rights are taken or damaged. When a landowner suffers a taking or damage in the absence of an expropriation proceeding he may seek compensation through an inverse condemnation action. Constance v. State Through Dept. of Transp. and Development, Office of Hwys., 626 So.2d 1151, 1156 (La.1993); and Reymond v. State Through Dept. of Highways, 255 La. 425, 447, 231 So.2d 375, 383 (La.1970). The Louisiana Supreme Court in State, Through Dept. of Transp. and Development v. Chambers Inv. Co., Inc., 595 So.2d 598 (La.1992), acknowledged that under the Constitution compensation is required even though the State has not initiated an expropriation proceeding and physically taken property from the owner. Id. at 602; also see Reymond, supra. The Chambers court went on to set forth a three-prong test to assist in establishing whether a constitutional taking has occurred. The factors for the court to decide are as follows: 1) whether a person’s legal right with respect to a thing or an object has been affected; 2) whether the property, either a right or a thing, has been taken or damaged, in a constitutional [1239]

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Bluebook (online)
80 So. 3d 1234, 2011 WL 6779329, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-supervisors-of-louisiana-state-university-agricultural-lactapp-2011.