Dufrene v. Avondale Industries, Inc.

795 So. 2d 456, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 2365, 2001 WL 1255736
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 22, 2001
DocketNo. 2001-C-1474
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 795 So. 2d 456 (Dufrene v. Avondale Industries, Inc.) 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
Dufrene v. Avondale Industries, Inc., 795 So. 2d 456, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 2365, 2001 WL 1255736 (La. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

| Judge STEVEN R. PLOTKIN.

Defendants, Avondale Industries, Inc., Peter Territo, Abert Bossier, Jr., and Steven Kennedy (hereinafter referred to collectively as “Avondale”), seek this court’s supervisory review of a trial court judgment denying their exception of no right of action/no cause of action against the claim filed by plaintiff, Corky Dufrene. For the reasons discussed below, we grant the writ, reverse the trial court judgment, grant the exception of no cause of action/no right of action, and dismiss Corky Dufrene as a plaintiff in this case.

FACTS

The instant case arises out of a petition for personal injury damages filed by the plaintiffs, Gerald and Shirley Dufrene, in February 2000, alleging that Mr. Dufrene contracted mesothelioma as a result of his [457]*457exposure to asbestos while employed by Avondale Shipyard from 1970 to 1975. On October 12, 2000, following Mr. Dufrene’s death on October 3, 2000, a second amending petition asserting survival and wrongful death claims was filed. The petition amended the suit to substitute as plaintiffs Mrs. Dufrene, the decedent’s six major children, and Corky Dufrene, the decedent’s son-in-law. Corky Dufrene appeared as plaintiff in |¡>his capacity as administrator and tutor of the estate of Tiffany Dufrene. Tiffany Dufrene is the daughter of Mr. Dufrene’s pre-deceased child, Charmine Dufrene, meaning that she is Mr. Dufrene’s grandchild.

Avondale responded with an exception of no right of action/no cause of action to all the wrongful death claims asserted by the plaintiffs in the amended petition, and an exception of no right of action/no cause of action in response to Corky Dufrene’s claims on behalf of Tiffany Dufrene. The wrongful death claims were dismissed on March 16, 2001, pursuant to applicable law relative to Avondale’s workers’ compensation immunity at the time of the decedent’s death. See Walls v. American Optical Corp., 98-0455 (La.9/8/99), 740 So.2d 1262. The plaintiffs did not seek supervisory writs regarding the dismissal of the wrongful death claim.

On July 3, 2001, the trial court denied Avondale’s exception of no right of action/no cause of action filed in response to Corky Dufrene’s survival claims as administrator and tutor of the estate of Tiffany Dufrene. This application for supervisory writ followed.

Disposition of this writ application depends on the interplay of two different codal schemes. The applicable jurisprudence on this issue is sometimes confusing. The first question to be decided is whether the issue presented by this writ application is controlled by the survival actions article under general tort law, La. C.C. art. 2315.1, or by the general abatement of actions articles, La. C.C.P. arts. 426-428, combined with the substitution of parties articles, La. C.C.P. arts. 801 et seq.

The survival action article under general tort law, La. C.C. art. 2315.1, in part, provides:

| r>A. If a person who has been injured by an offense or quasi offense dies, the right to recover all damages for injury to that person, his property or otherwise, caused by the offense or quasi offense, shall survive for a period of one year in favor of:
(1) The surviving spouse and child or children of the deceased, or either the spouse or the child or children.
(2) The surviving father and mother of the deceased, or either of them if he left no spouse or child surviving.
(3) The surviving brothers and sisters of the deceased, or any of them, if he left no spouse, child, or parent surviving.
(4) The surviving grandfathers and grandmothers of the deceased, or any of them if he left no spouse, child parent, or sibling surviving.
B. In addition, the right to recover all damages for injury to the deceased, his property or otherwise, caused by the offense or quasi offense, may be urged by the deceased’s succession representative in the absence of any class of beneficiary set out in Paragraph A.
C. The right of action granted under this Article is heritable, but the inheritance of it neither interrupts nor prolongs the prescriptive period defined in this Article.

On the other hand, the general abatement articles provide as follows:

Art. 426. Transmission of action and of right to enforce obligation
[458]*458An action to enforce an obligation is the property of the obligee which on his death is transmitted with his estate to his heirs, universal legatees, or legatees under a universal title, except as otherwise provided by law. An action to enforce an obligation is transmitted to the obligee’s legatee under a particular title only when it relates to the property disposed of under the particular title.
These rules apply also to a right to enforce an obligation, when no action thereon was commenced prior to the obligee’s death.
Art. 427. Action against obligor’s heirs or legatees
An action to enforce an obligation, if the obligor is dead, may be brought against the heirs, universal legatees, or general legatees, who have accepted his succession, except as otherwise provided by law. The liability of these heirs and legatees is determined by the provisions of the Civil Code.
|4Art. 428 No abatement on death of a party
An action does not abate on the death of a party. The only exception to this rule is an action to enforce a right or obligation which is strictly personal.

The substitution of parties articles provide, in pertinent part, as follows:

Art. 801. Voluntary substitution for deceased party; legal successor
When a party dies during the pen-dency of an action which is not extinguished by his death, his legal successor may have himself substituted for the deceased party, on ex parte written motion supported by proof of his quality.

As used in Articles 801 through 804, “legal successor” means:

(1) The survivors designated in Article 2315.1 of the Civil Code, if the action survives in their favor; and
(2) Otherwise, it means the succession representative of the deceased appointed by a court of this state, if the succession is under administration therein; or the heirs and legatees of the deceased, if the deceased’s succession is not under administration.

(Emphasis added.) Because La. C.C.P. art. 801 lists the survivors designated in La. C.C. art. 2315.1 as the persons given preference for substitution purposes, La. C.C. art. 2315.1 beneficiaries, if they exist, are the preferred parties both for purposes of substitution in a tort case filed by a decedent prior to death, and for purpose of filing a survival action.

The interplay between the two codal schemes quoted above has been explained by this court in Hellpenstell v. Bonnabel Hospital, 523 So.2d 887 (La.App. 4 Cir.1988), as follows:

Only where the victim has instituted a proceeding against the tortfeasor prior to his death is the right to continue that action upon his death governed by the abatement articles, C.C.P. Arts. 426 — 428 and the substitution articles, C.C.P. Arts. 801 et. seq.

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Bluebook (online)
795 So. 2d 456, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 2365, 2001 WL 1255736, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dufrene-v-avondale-industries-inc-lactapp-2001.