Ellis v. Professional Management Providers, Inc.

923 So. 2d 1, 2005 La. App. LEXIS 1869, 2005 WL 1765691
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 27, 2005
DocketNo. 2004 CA 1507
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 923 So. 2d 1 (Ellis v. Professional Management Providers, 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
Ellis v. Professional Management Providers, Inc., 923 So. 2d 1, 2005 La. App. LEXIS 1869, 2005 WL 1765691 (La. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

PETTIGREW, J.

| ¡¡This appeal stems from the denial by a district court in Louisiana of a motion to make two Texas judgments executory in this state. Following the subsequent denial of plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial, plaintiffs have appealed.

PRIOR TEXAS COURT PROCEEDINGS

Nelda Ellis, Donna Dryden, and Wava Cherry (“plaintiffs-appellants”) previously filed suit in Hardin County, Texas, naming Professional Management Providers, Inc., Comtech Consolidation Group, Inc., and William Dickerson, as defendants therein. This suit, number 38,964 on the docket of the 356th Judicial District Court of Hardin County, Texas (“Texas court”), set forth allegations of negligence and fraud resulting from an unfulfilled contract by defendants to purchase plaintiffs-appellants’ healthcare business. The judgment returned by the Texas court against defendant William Dickerson indicated that after filing an answer, Dickerson, despite being duly notified of the court date, failed to appear at trial. A trial on the merits commenced before a jury on June 4, 2001, and concluded with a verdict in favor of plaintiffs-appellants on June 6, 2001.

Thereafter, on June 26, 2001, the Texas court rendered a judgment in accordance with the jury verdict against William Dickerson (“defendant-appellee”) individually in the amount of $668,300.00, together with pre-judgment interest of $153,820.00, and post-judgment interest in the amount of ten (10%) percent per annum on the damages awarded. A second judgment was rendered against Professional Management Providers, Inc., Comtech Consolidation Group, Inc., and William Dickerson in the amount of $668,300.00, together with pre-judgment interest of $153,820.00, plus exemplary damages in the amount of $387,000.00, plus post-judgment interest in the amount of ten (10%) percent per an-num on the damages awarded.

On September 4, 2001, plaintiffs-appellants filed an ex-parte petition in the 19th Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge, Louisiana (“Louisiana court”), seeking to have their Texas judgments made executory in Louisiana. In accordance with the provisions of La. R.S. 13:4243, certified copies of the judgments from the Texas court together with an affidavit from plaintiffs-appellants’ Texas attorney setting forth the |scorrect names and last known addresses of the judgment creditors and judgment debtors were attached to plaintiffs-appellants’ original petition. In addition, plaintiffs-appellants also set forth a demand for additional costs and reasonable attorney fees from defendants for the filing and enforcement of this action.

ACTION OF THE DISTRICT COURT IN LOUISIANA

The record reflects that the judgments attached to the ex-parte petition filed by plaintiffs-appellants were denied by the Louisiana court on November 7, 2001, based upon the initial showing made. Thereafter, counsel for plaintiffs-appellants requested and was granted a status conference for the purpose of receiving direction from the court as to how to proceed. Counsel for plaintiffs-appellants was allegedly instructed by the court to amend the petition and direct the defendants to appear and show cause as to why the Texas judgments should not be made exec-utory in Louisiana.

On January 3, 2002, plaintiffs-appellants [3]*3filed a Judgment Nunc Pro Tunc1 in the Texas court ostensibly to correct certain errors made in the original Texas judgments. The caption of the original Texas judgments incorrectly referred to one of the plaintiffs as Nelda “Harris” rather than Nelda “Ellis” and also the language contained in the body of the judgments incorrectly referred to the multiple plaintiffs singularly as “plaintiff.” These judgments were not appealed in the Texas courts.

In accordance with the instructions of the Louisiana court, plaintiffs-appellants filed, on January 22, 2002, a First Supplemental and Amending Petition and asserted a right to recover costs and reasonable attorney fees as said costs and fees accrue based only upon a specific showing that such fees and costs are supported by law, judgment, contract, or statute. In addition, plaintiffs-appellants re-averred the allegations set forth in their original petition, and resubmitted the exhibits attached thereto.

A Memorandum in Opposition to Petition to Make Foreign Judgment Executory was apparently filed with the Louisiana court on behalf of defendant-appellee Dickerson; 14 however, a copy of said memorandum is not contained within the record. In a short supplemental memorandum filed with the Louisiana court on May 20, 2002, Dickerson’s attorneys attached the cover sheet of a Petition for Bill of Review 2 that was purportedly filed with the Texas court on behalf of defendant-appel-lee Dickerson on May 8, 2002.3

On July 2, 2002, plaintiffs-appellants filed a Motion and Order Seeking Leave of Court to Submit Additional Evidence. In their motion, plaintiffs-appellants asserted that at the April 29, 2002 hearing to make judgments executory, they introduced into evidence certified copies of Writs of Attachment executed against defendants by the court in Texas ordering seizures against defendants’ assets within the State of Texas based upon the Texas judgments. Plaintiffs-appellants also asserted that they were granted permission by the court to submit a post-trial memorandum, along with additional evidence from the Texas court record for the purpose of demonstrating to the Louisiana court that defendants had received service prior to the trial in Texas on June 4, 2001, that resulted in the judgments now sought to be made executory in Louisiana.

Attached to the aforementioned motion and order by plaintiffs-appellants were (1) a copy of the original answer filed on behalf of defendants in the Texas court on April 28, 1999, that included an attached verified affidavit executed by defendant-appellee Dickerson; (2) a copy of the Motion to Withdraw filed by defendants’ attorneys in the Texas litigation on January 18, 2000; and (3) a copy of the envelope containing the June 4, 2001 jury trial order that was directed to defendant-appellee Dickerson’s last known address, and subsequently returned undeliverable to the Clerk of the Texas court on May 1, 2001. On September 9, 2002, the Louisiana court issued a judgment granting plaintiffs-appellants’ motion to expand the record. [4]*4The Louisiana court further granted opposing counsel an opportunity to traverse the newly-submitted evidence.

|sBy virtue of an order signed by the Louisiana court on November 12, 2002, the Texas judgments in favor of plaintiffs-appellants were made executory in Louisiana, and plaintiffs-appellants were empowered to initiate collection procedures within Louisiana. On November 19, 2002, defendant-appellee Dickerson filed a motion seeking a new trial citing fatal jurisdictional problems along with allegations of ill-practices by plaintiffs-appellants that resulted in defendant-appellee Dickerson failing to receive proper notice of the earlier trial in Texas and the judgments now sought to be made executory.4 Defendant-appellee Dickerson further claimed that the effect of the original Texas judgments that plaintiffs-appellants sought to make executory in Louisiana had been superseded by the subsequently rendered Judgment Nunc Pro Tunc, and that said judgment was the true final judgment in this matter.5

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923 So. 2d 1, 2005 La. App. LEXIS 1869, 2005 WL 1765691, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ellis-v-professional-management-providers-inc-lactapp-2005.