Gaudin v. Nguyen

609 So. 2d 834, 1992 La. App. LEXIS 3349, 1992 WL 320100
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 27, 1992
DocketNo. 92-CA-362
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 609 So. 2d 834 (Gaudin v. Nguyen) 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
Gaudin v. Nguyen, 609 So. 2d 834, 1992 La. App. LEXIS 3349, 1992 WL 320100 (La. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

BOWES, Judge.

Appellants, Lisa T. Nguyen and Automotive Casualty Insurance Company (hereinafter “Automotive”), appeal two judgments of the district court which dismisses their petition for nullity and which set court costs. We affirm as follows.

FACTS

Plaintiff/appellee, Laurie Gaudin (wife of and Jack A. Hertz) (hereinafter “Ms. Gau-din”), initially filed suit against Lisa Nguyen and Old Hickory Casualty Insurance Company (hereinafter “Old Hickory”) for injuries allegedly sustained by Ms. Gaudin in an automobile accident. Also made defendant in that original lawsuit was Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (hereinafter “Liberty Mutual”), Ms. Gaudin’s uninsured/underinsured motorist carrier. Automotive was later substituted as the proper insurer for Lisa Nguyen, in lieu of Old Hickory. Liberty Mutual filed a cross claim against Nguyen and her insurer for indemnity and contribution.

Prior to trial of the matter, Automotive avers that Liberty Mutual made an'unconditional tender of $18,000.00 to Ms. Gaudin. Liberty Mutual cross claimed against Ms. Nguyen and Automotive for reimbursement of those sums.

The matter proceeded to trial by jury, after which the jury rendered its verdict in favor of plaintiffs, in the full sum of $7,097.00. A judgment, which was prepared for the court’s signature, was incorrectly drawn to mistakenly award the sum of $7,097.00 to both plaintiffs and to Liberty Mutual on its cross claim. From this judgment, dated June 22, 1990, all parties appealed.

In the original appeal of this matter, Gaudin v. Nguyen, 573 So.2d 269, (an unpublished opinion) on the docket of this Court, appellants, Automotive and Ms. Nguyen, asserted that the judgment, as written, was erroneous. The judgment as written appeared to condemn Automotive to pay the same judgment twice, once to Laurie Gaudin in the amount of $7,097.00 and also to Liberty Mutual in the sum of $7,097.00.

This Court in its decision in case No. 90-CA-604 amended the original judgment of the trial court to delete the judgment in favor of Liberty Mutual, thus allowing the judgment in favor of plaintiffs to stand. The Louisiana Supreme Court denied writs of certiorari in the matter.

Thereafter, Automotive deposited the amount of the judgment, plus interest, into the registry of the district court contemporaneously filing this petition to annul the original judgment of June 22, 1990. Following a hearing, the district court on December 17, 1992 rendered the judgment appealed herein denying Automotive’s petition to annul the judgment.

Additionally, on January 23, 1992, the trial judge rendered another judgment condemning Automotive to pay all taxable court costs in the amount of $3,148.46. It is from these judgments of December 17, 1991 and January 23, 1992 that Automotive now appeals.

Appellant avers that the attorney for plaintiffs Ms. Gaudin, et al. was guilty of an “ill practice” under LSA-C.C.P. art. 2004, infra, sufficient to entitle her to annul that judgment; and that the trial court improperly assessed appellant with all [836]*836court costs despite the decision rendered in the Court of Appeal that each party would bear its own costs.1

ANALYSIS — PETITION FOR NULLITY

LSA-C.C.P. art. 2004 reads as follows:

A final judgment obtained by fraud or ill practices may be annulled.
An action to annul a judgment on these grounds must be brought within one year of the discovery by the plaintiff in the nullity action of the fraud or ill practices.

LSA-C.C.P. art. 2005 states:

A judgment may be annulled prior to or pending an appeal therefrom, or after the delays for appealing have elapsed.
A judgment affirmed, reversed, amended, or otherwise rendered by an appellate court may be annulled only when the ground for nullity did not appear in the record of appeal or was not considered by the appellate court.
An action of nullity does not affect the right to appeal.

In the petition to annul, and at the trial court level, Automotive alleged that the “ill practice” which entitles it to have the judgment of June 22, 1990 annulled consisted of the failure of counsel for plaintiffs to timely obtain a transcript of the original trial for purposes of the original appeal. Automotive contends that such a transcript would have proven to this Court, on appeal, that Liberty Mutual had previously tendered to the plaintiff the sum of $18,000.00 as plaintiffs UM carrier; therefore, Automotive urges that the $7,097.00 judgment would have been rendered in favor of Liberty Mutual as subrogors of plaintiff and not in favor of Ms. Gaudin, as this Court actually decreed.

In brief to this Court, Automotive now contends for the first time that plaintiff deliberately mislead this Court in the original appeal by stating in brief that there was no record of the $18,000.00 tender.

We find that appellant's argument fails on several grounds.

In seeking to annul the judgment of June 22, 1990, appellant urges that some action or inaction taken by appellee subsequent to that judgment should be grounds for annulment. We disagree.

The June, 1990 judgment obviously could not have been obtained through fraud or ill practices allegedly committed subsequent to its rendition.

Nullity is an appropriate remedy only when the judgment is obtained by fraud or ill practice. There must be a causal relationship between the fraud or ill practice and the obtaining of the judgment. Ward v. Pennington, 523 So.2d 1286 (La.1988). [Emphasis supplied].

Further, the failure of appellee to obtain a transcript which would allegedly tend to prove a point in favor of appellant is neither fraud nor ill practice.

As the Louisiana Supreme Court has stated:

The action provided by this article is not a substitute for an appeal from a judgment that might be erroneous due to insufficiency of evidence or misinterpretation of substantive law, but, rather, is a separate remedy designed to afford relief against a judgment procured by methods viewed with disdain by the judiciary.
Smith v. Cajun Insulation, Inc., 392 So.2d 398, 401 (La.1980). Therefore, although the definition of ‘ill practice’ is broad, there clearly must be some improper practice or procedure involved to invoke a nullity action. See Phillips v. Patin, 517 So.2d 190, 192 (La.App. 1st Cir.1987) and cases cited therein.
Wilson v. Central Gulf Lines, Inc., 583 So.2d 1164 (La.App. 4 Cir.1991). [Emphasis supplied].

We find no impropriety in the failure of appellee’s counsel to obtain a transcript which would have perhaps or ostensibly proven appellant’s point on appeal. Appel[837]*837lant’s remedy was to obtain the transcript herself. She is not entitled to rely on the assumption that the appellee (her opponent) will prove her case for her or even assist her in doing so.

Evidence introduced at the trial of the action for nullity established that during the appeal process, appellant, Automotive, specifically informed the Clerk of Court that it would not

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Bluebook (online)
609 So. 2d 834, 1992 La. App. LEXIS 3349, 1992 WL 320100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gaudin-v-nguyen-lactapp-1992.