Esclovon v. Fondel

890 So. 2d 770, 2004 WL 2953182
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 22, 2004
Docket2004-280
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 890 So. 2d 770 (Esclovon v. Fondel) 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
Esclovon v. Fondel, 890 So. 2d 770, 2004 WL 2953182 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

890 So.2d 770 (2004)

Mabron ESCLOVON, et al.
v.
Officer F. FONDEL, et al.

No. 2004-280.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

December 22, 2004.

*771 Rudie R. Soileau, Jr., Lake Charles, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellant, Mabron Esclovon, et al.

Ronald Richard, Lake Charles, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellant, Mabron Esclovon, et al.

Christopher Ieyoub, Plauche', Smith & Nieset, Lake Charles, LA, for Defendant/Appellee, City of Lake Charles.

Christopher Trahan, Frederick L. Cappel, Raggio, Cappel, Chozen & Berniard, Lake Charles, LA, for Defendant/Appellee, Southwest Louisiana Hospital Assoc. d/b/a Lake Charles Memorial Hospital.

Court composed of SYLVIA R. COOKS, JOHN D. SAUNDERS and OSWALD A. DECUIR, Judges.

COOKS, Judge.

Plaintiff, Mabron Esclovon, appeals the trial court's judgment granting Lake Charles Memorial Hospital's motion for summary judgment. For the following reasons, we reverse the judgment and remand for further proceedings.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On the evening of August 8, 1998, Mabron Esclovon accompanied friends to visit a patient in the emergency room at Lake *772 Charles Memorial Hospital. After visiting with the patient, Esclovon and his friends were walking through the parking lot to depart the hospital grounds. Esclovon and his friends were ordered to stop by two Lake Charles City Police Officers who were accompanied by a hospital security guard. They stopped as ordered and were told by the officers they were to immediately leave the hospital premises or face arrest. Esclovon asked why he was being ordered to leave the hospital grounds. He was not given any explanation by the officers, who simply reiterated the order to leave. Esclovon declined to comply with what he believed was a baseless request and was arrested by the officers for trespassing.

Earlier that evening, Robert Janice, a security guard at the hospital, was asked to report to the emergency room because of a disturbance. Upon arriving at the emergency room, Janice was told a dispute had arisen between the father and the uncle of a female patient being treated at the facility. Janice overheard the uncle state he was "going to call somebody and get a gun." Janice contacted the police, who arrived and discussed the situation with persons at the scene. The officers told Janice to call them if anything further occurred.

Shortly thereafter, Janice was approached at his desk by a female member of the patient's family and was told the "family member — the ones that they called for the gun are here." Janice immediately contacted the police for assistance. He then went to the emergency room where Esclovon was standing in a group. That group was pointed out to Janice as being the ones that had been called for the gun.

Janice waited for the police, and informed them of the situation. When the officers and Janice went to the lobby of the emergency room, they saw Esclovon and his friends walking in the parking lot area. The officers and Janice then approached the group and the confrontation which resulted in Esclovon's arrest occurred. According to Janice, the officers asked him if he wanted the family members to leave, and he said "yes." Janice stated he did not specifically ask anyone to leave the premises. The officers maintained they were asked by Janice to remove plaintiff and his group from the hospital grounds.

Esclovon filed suit against the City of Lake Charles and the individual officers. The City and officers defended their actions on the basis that the hospital's security guard had requested that the officers order Esclovon to leave the premises. Thus, they argued, the officers were empowered to act by the hospital's employee. As stated earlier, Janice's testimony differs from the testimony of the officers as to who initiated the order directing Esclovon leave the premises. Esclovon testified he did not hear the security guard ask the officers to remove him from the premises. Given the conflicting testimony, Esclovon amended the original petition to also name Southwest Louisiana Hospital Association d/b/a Lake Charles Memorial Hospital (hereafter the Hospital) as a defendant in its capacity as the employer of the security guard.

The Hospital filed an answer and a motion for summary judgment. Esclovon filed a request for additional time to take the deposition of Larry North, the Hospital's Chief of Security. That request was granted. A hearing on the motion for summary judgment was held on October 23, 2003. At the hearing, the Hospital's attorney conceded the existence of a "truckload of factual disputes and all these depositions that have been submitted concerning just what happened out at the hospital that evening ..." Realizing the presence of these disputed facts would *773 preclude the granting of summary judgment, the Hospital's attorney argued as follows:

... the resolution of the Motion doesn't depend on what factual scenario you would choose to believe. Our argument, and perhaps its not stated in the brief, is that I don't see that the plaintiff has stated a cause of action against the hospital.
...
As I read the petition, I cannot myself determine what cause of action is stated against the hospital. I do not know if the plaintiff is alleging that the hospital was negligent through Robert Janis [sic] or through his actions in telling the police officers that he wanted Mr. — he wanted the plaintiff off the premises. I do not know if its in the nature of a slander suit against the hospital, a wrongful eviction. I simply do not know what cause of action, if any, he stated against the hospital.
So my argument is simply this, that I don't think a cause of action has been stated, and I think a Motion for Summary Judgment would be a proper vehicle to have the suit dismissed against the hospital.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court issued the following oral reasons for granting the Hospital's motion for summary judgment:

Although I don't have a whole bunch of history to draw on here inasmuch as I've only been on the bench in less than ten months, historically I want to say that I am against — I'm going to favor not granting Motions for Summary Judgment because I think a trier of fact in most situations should be the party to ultimately make the decision. However, in this situation, while I agree with Mr. Soileau that what Mr. Janis did or what the policy of Lake Charles Memorial Hospital is is maybe not good policy, but I just fail to see where there's an actionable cause of action if what was done was done.
It's terrible, they should not ask people to leave when there's guilt by association, but then that was a call that they made, and I just don't see an actionable cause of action right there.
I'm granting the Motion for Summary Judgment.

Although the trial court granted the motion for summary judgment (and the signed final judgment dismissed plaintiff's case on a motion for summary judgment), his reasons for ruling indicate the plaintiff's case was dismissed for failure to state a cause of action. Plaintiff has appealed the judgment contending it was improper to dismiss his case on either a motion for summary judgment or an exception of no cause of action.

ANALYSIS

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
890 So. 2d 770, 2004 WL 2953182, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/esclovon-v-fondel-lactapp-2004.