Commissioner of Agriculture v. Transylvania Flying Service

493 So. 2d 744, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 7525
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 20, 1986
DocketNo. 17,865-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 493 So. 2d 744 (Commissioner of Agriculture v. Transylvania Flying Service) 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
Commissioner of Agriculture v. Transylvania Flying Service, 493 So. 2d 744, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 7525 (La. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

SEXTON, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the trial court dismissing defendant’s reconven-tional demand on an exception of improper venue. We agree that the demands at issue should be dismissed but on a different basis than that determined by the trial court.

This lawsuit, which started initially as a relatively simple suit for injunctive relief, slowly evolved into the procedural nightmare which we presently find before us. A detailed chronological sequence of the events giving rise to this appeal is necessary in order to review the complex procedural issues raised by this appeal.

On July 26, 1984, plaintiffs-appellees, the Commissioner of Agriculture and the Advisory Commission on Pesticides of the State of Louisiana, filed a petition for in-junctive relief against defendants-appellants, Transylvania Flying Service and Donald M. Johnson, individually and d/b/a Transylvania Flying Service, seeking to enjoin defendants from applying pesticides in violation of the Louisiana Pesticide Law. Plaintiffs prayed for the issuance of a tern-[746]*746porary restraining order, preliminary injunction and, ultimately, for a permanent injunction enjoining defendants from applying pesticides in violation of the Louisiana Pesticide Law.

On July 26, 1984, the trial court issued a temporary restraining order enjoining defendants from the application of any pesticide until such time as a hearing could be held on plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction.

On August 3, 1984, a hearing was held on plaintiffs’ right to cause a preliminary injunction to issue. At this hearing, the parties entered into a stipulated judgment which was signed on August 30, 1984. This judgment, in addition to other relief,1 ordered that a preliminary injunction be issued prohibiting defendants from applying pesticides for a fee until licensed by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture.

On October 24, 1984, defendant Donald M. Johnson filed a petition for injunctive relief in the original injunction proceedings filed by the plaintiffs, complaining that the Department of Agriculture had not complied with the stipulated judgment.2 A temporary restraining order issued on October 23, 1984 enjoining the Commissioner of Agriculture from bringing further proceedings against Mr. Johnson.

On November 2,1984, plaintiffs filed various declinatory, dilatory and peremptory exceptions, including a declinatory exception of improper venue in response to defendants’ claim for injunctive relief. Plaintiffs contended that the parish of their domicile, East Baton Rouge Parish, was the proper parish to file suit, not East Carroll Parish.

On November 8, 1984, defendants filed an answer to plaintiffs’ original petition and asserted a reconventional demand against plaintiffs seeking monetary damages for alleged business losses sustained due to plaintiffs’ harassment. On November 26, 1984, defendants filed a supplemental reconventional demand for the purpose of naming specific individuals as defendants in its claim for monetary damages.

On December 17, 1984, in response to defendants’ reconventional demand, plaintiffs again filed various declinatory, dilatory and peremptory exceptions, together with a motion to strike. The parties subsequently agreed to submit all the exceptions and motions on the basis of written memo-randa.

Thus, in summary, plaintiffs filed for preliminary and permanent injunctions. They subsequently obtained an injunction by stipulation at the hearing on the preliminary injunction. No further action was taken on plaintiffs’ demands. The original defendants subsequently reconvened for in-junctive relief and tort damages. The original plaintiffs then excepted, contending that the original action had been terminated as a result of the previous injunction.

The trial court sustained plaintiffs’ exception of improper venue and as a result dismissed all of the claims of Transylvania Flying Service, Inc. and Donald M. Johnson. Since the trial court determined venue was improper, it did not consider any of the other exceptions and motions filed herein. From this judgment, defendants appeal.

In reaching this decision, the trial court determined that the stipulated judgment of August 30, 1984 was dispositive of the initial proceedings filed herein by plaintiffs, and as such, had become a final judgment. The trial court thus found that defendants’ reconventional demand and claim for in-[747]*747junctive relief in the original proceedings was a filing in a proceeding which had been concluded. As a result, the trial court dismissed defendant’s demands ruling that East Baton Rouge Parish was the court of proper venue because the relief sought was against parties domiciled in East Baton Rouge Parish, citing LSA-C.C.P. Art. 42, our general venue article. In other words, the determination that the original suit was concluded meant that the reconventional demands were actually new demands against parties domiciled elsewhere.

On appeal, defendants contend that the trial court erred in maintaining the exception of improper venue and dismissing their reconventional demand for damages in tort, citing LSA-C.C.P. Art. 74 which allows an action for recovery of damages for a quasi-offense in the parish where the wrongful conduct occurred, or where the damages were sustained. Defendants also argue that the stipulated judgment granting the preliminary injunction did not dispose of the permanent injunction sought by plaintiffs and, therefore, no final definitive judgment was rendered in the instant proceeding. Therefore, defendants argue that they should have properly been allowed to assert their reconventional demand against plaintiffs in the principal action filed by plaintiffs in East Carroll Parish. Plaintiffs have filed peremptory exceptions of res judicata, prescription, and lack of standing with this court, but have not appealed and have not answered the appeal.

Appellants are correct that our scheme of reconventional demand contemplates that a principal defendant may assert by way of reconvention any action he may have against a plaintiff regardless of connexity. LSA-C.C.P. Art. 1061. Additionally, appellant is correct that our in-junctive scheme is such that a cause of action for a permanent injunction is not concluded with the granting of a preliminary injunction. LSA-C.C.P. Art. 3601, et seq. However, the jurisprudence has recognized the parties’ right to agree that the entire case be decided on the merits at the hearing on the application for a preliminary injunction. State ex rel. Guste v. City of New Orleans, 363 So.2d 678 (La.1978); Southwest Sales and Manufacturing Company v. Delta Express, Inc. and D.E. Lester, 342 So.2d 281 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1977), writ denied, 345 So.2d 48 (La.1977); Springlake Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Pecot, 321 So.2d 789 (La.App. 4th Cir.1975).

Indeed, plaintiffs cite Guste in support of their contention that the stipulated judgment of August 31, 1984 was intended to dispense with all of the issues of this case and that since defendants did not appeal that judgment, it thus became a final judgment terminating the original proceedings.

In Guste, the State of Louisiana sought declaratory and injunctive relief against the City of New Orleans, alleging that a city ordinance which permitted parish judges to receive from the city an annual sum equal to one-half their contribution to the State Employee’s Retirement System was unconstitutional.

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Bluebook (online)
493 So. 2d 744, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 7525, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commissioner-of-agriculture-v-transylvania-flying-service-lactapp-1986.