Glasgow v. PAR Minerals Corp.

43 So. 3d 1093, 10 La.App. 3 Cir. 64, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1086, 2010 WL 2925009
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 28, 2010
DocketNo. 10-64
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 43 So. 3d 1093 (Glasgow v. PAR Minerals Corp.) 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
Glasgow v. PAR Minerals Corp., 43 So. 3d 1093, 10 La.App. 3 Cir. 64, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1086, 2010 WL 2925009 (La. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

SAUNDERS, Judge.

11 Herein, we address whether a suit instituted by the Appellant, Mitchell Glas-cow, against his statutory employer, PAR Minerals, Inc. (PAR), interrupted prescription as to the Appellee, Pipe Services Unlimited, Inc. (Pipe Services). We find that it did not, and we affirm the ruling of the trial court.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY:

The case before us arises out of an oilfield explosion and fire at a wellsite near Kinder, Louisiana in September of 2007. The Appellant, a direct employee of Ther-ral Story Well Service (TSWS), sustained severe burns in the fire.

PAR entered into a contract to undertake the drilling of a well for oil and gas operations. It in turn contracted some of the drilling work to TSWS and Pipe Services. On September 4, 2008, the Appellant filed a tort suit against PAR as the sole defendant. This original petition alleged that Avery Graves was the on-site supervisor for PAR. Appellant mistakenly believed that Graves was an employee of PAR when, in fact, he was the president and sole-shareholder of Pipe Services. Appellant would, thereafter, file two supplemental and amended petitions where PAR remained the sole defendant named. It was not until May 4, 2009, that the Appellant filed a third supplemental and amended petition where Pipe Services was added as a defendant along with its insurer, Colony Insurance Company, and PAR.

In June of 2009, PAR filed a motion for summary judgment seeking dismissal from the suit on the grounds that it was Appellant’s statutory employer, thereby enjoying tort immunity. The trial court granted the motion and dismissed PAR from the suit as a statutory employer. Pipe Services followed by filing an exception of prescription. It asserted that the Appellant was required to file his tort claim within one year of the time of the accident and that more than one year had elapsed between 12the time of the accident in September of 2007, and the time the third amended petition in May of 2009. The Appellant countered this argument by claiming that prescription had been interrupted against Pipe Services when the initial lawsuit was filed against PAR. On December 9, 2009, the trial court sustained the exception of prescription. It is from this judgment that the Appellant now appeals.

APPELLANT’S ASSIGNMENTS OR ERROR:

1. The trial court erred when it decided that [Appellant’s] timely tort suit against PAR, a statutory employer, [1095]*1095failed to interrupt prescription as to other solidary obligors.
2. The trial court erred in granting Pipe Services’ exception of prescription.

LAW AND DISCUSSION ON THE MERITS:

Before we address the merits of the case, the court notes that the Appellant has arguably mistakenly appealed the wrong judgment. In its motion and order for devolutive appeal, the Appellant states that he has been aggrieved by the ruling rendered and signed on December 28, 2009, and that he wishes “to devolutively appeal the Court’s ruling, which granted defendant’s, Pipe Services Unlimited’s, exception of prescription.” We note, however, that the ruling signed on December 28, 2009, did not address the issue of prescription. Instead, it sustained an exception of improper venue and transferred this case to the 26th Judicial District Court of Bossier Parish. The ruling sustaining the exception of prescription was rendered and signed on December 5, 2009.

We find this problem to be resolved by our supreme court’s ruling in the case of Kirkeby-Natus Corp. v. Campbell, 250 La. 868, 199 So.2d 904 (1967), as it seems to be directly on point.

In Kirkeby-Natus, the defendant had a money judgment of $414,200.00 rendered Ragainst him on March 25, 1965. He moved for a new trial, and the motion for new trial was denied on July 6, 1965. Thereafter, the defendant perfected a de-volutive appeal noting that he was appealing the judgment taken against him on the 6th day of July, 1965. This, of course, was the judgment denying the motion for new trial — not an appealable judgment. The preamble to the appeal bond stated that appeal was against the judgment rendered by the trial court in the amount of $414,200.00, clearly indicating the defendant’s intent to appeal the money judgment.

On these nearly identical facts, the court stated the following:

On many occasions in our jurisprudence we have declared that appeals are favored by the courts; that they should be dismissed only for substantial causes; and that unless the grounds urged for dismissal are free from doubt appeals will be maintained. See Emmons v. Agricultural Insurance Company et al., 245 La. 411, 158 So.2d 594 and the cases cited therein. With these principles in mind we have considered the circumstances surrounding the taking of the appeal involved here, and we have concluded that the defendant is correct in his assertion that he intended to, and did, appeal from the March 25, 1965 judgment.
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Finally, both the Appellant and the appellee treated the appeal as one taken from the March judgment which became final in July. Both briefed and argued the case in the Court of Appeal on its merits. No motion to dismiss was ever filed by the appellee. Nor was the alleged defect ever mentioned until the rendition of that court’s judgment.
Under the circumstances it is obvious to us that it was not the intention of the defendant to appeal from the judgment overruling his motion for a new trial. Rather, it is apparent that the allegation in the petition relating to the judgment rendered on July 6, 1965 was an inadvertent error which was neither misleading nor prejudicial to to [sic] anyone involved in the litigation.
Id. at 905-06.

In both cases, we see that the appellant was clearly intending to appeal from a [1096]*1096judgment different from the one identified in the petition for appeal, each of the | ¿parties treated the appeal as if it were taken against the intended judgment, and it is apparent that the error was neither misleading nor prejudicial to either party.

After considering the supreme court’s holding in Kirkeby-Natus, this court finds that the Appellant’s motion and order for appeal was sufficient, and we will continue with our analysis on the merits of the case.

Delictual actions are subject to a libera-tive prescription of one year. This prescription commences to run from the day injury or damage is sustained. La.Civ. Code art. 3492. Prescription is interrupted by the filing of suit in a court of competent jurisdiction. La.Civ.Code art. 3462. “When prescription is interrupted against a solidary obligor, the interruption is effective against all solidary obligors and their successors.” La.Civ.Code art. 3503.

In the matter before us, because the Appellant’s suit was brought against Pipe Services more than one year after the date of the accident, the action has prescribed on its face. As such, the burden of proving that the one-year prescriptive period was interrupted must be carried by the Appellant. Lima v.

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Related

Glasgow v. PAR MINERALS CORP.
70 So. 3d 765 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2011)

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Bluebook (online)
43 So. 3d 1093, 10 La.App. 3 Cir. 64, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1086, 2010 WL 2925009, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glasgow-v-par-minerals-corp-lactapp-2010.