Judgment rendered April 22, 2020. Application for rehearing may be filed within the delay allowed by Art. 2166, La. C.C.P.
No. 53,434-CA
COURT OF APPEAL SECOND CIRCUIT STATE OF LOUISIANA
*****
HUNT GUILLOT AND Appellants ASSOCIATES, LLC versus
TERRY CLARK, JOHN JACK, Appellees GARY EVANS, KIRK TROSCLAIR AND RONALD MCCLUNG
Appealed from the Third Judicial District Court for the Parish of Lincoln, Louisiana Trial Court No. 59,111
Honorable Jeffrey Levance Robinson, Judge
FISHMAN HAYGOOD, LLP Counsel for Appellants By: Brent Bennett Barriere By: Kristen D. Amond
IRWIN, FRITCHIE, URQUHART & Counsel for Appellees, MOORE, LLC Terry Clark and John Jack By: Matthew William Bailey By: Kelly E. Brilleaux
HAYES, HARKEY, SMITH & Counsel for Appellees, CASCIO, LLP Gary Evans, Kirk Trosclair, By: Thomas Moore Hayes, III and Ronald McClung By: Peter Stokes
Before MOORE, COX, and STEPHENS, JJ. COX, J.
This appeal arises out of the Third JDC, Lincoln Parish, Louisiana.
Hunt Guillot and Associates, LLC (“HGA”) brought suit against Terry
Clark, John Jack, Gary Evans, Kirk Trosclair, and Ronald McClung after the
defendants failed to pay for services rendered. HGA seeks review of the
district court’s decision to grant the defendants’ exception of prescription.
The defendants seek review of the district court’s decision to deny their
exception of lack of personal jurisdiction. For the following reasons, we
affirm the district court’s decision.
FACTS
In 2014, Terry Clark, John Jack, Gary Evans, Kirk Trosclair, and
Ronald McClung were all members of a publicly traded company,
GreenHunter Resources, Inc. (“GHR”). At that time, GHR was primarily in
the business of water management solutions for oil and gas companies.
GHR sought to grow its business through building two separate condensate
plants in Ohio and West Virginia. In order to complete this goal, GHR
formed GreenHunter Hydrocarbons, LLC (“GHH”), which negotiated with
and solicited business from HGA. At the time of GHH’s inception, Evans
was the chairman and chief executive officer, Trosclair was the executive
vice president and chief operating officer, and McClung served as senior
vice president and chief financial officer. Additionally, Clark and Jack were
executives of GHH.
HGA alleges that in early June 2014, Clark and Jack reached out to
executives with HGA who were located in Louisiana and placed phone calls to them on telephone numbers with Louisiana area codes.1 On June 6, 2014,
HGA, through Dean Roberts, its project manager in Pennsylvania, reached
an agreement with Clark and Jack whereby HGA would provide engineering
and project management services related to the planning and construction of
the two condensate plants. According to HGA, Clark and Jack requested
that HGA begin work on the project immediately. HGA agreed to begin
work as they believed GHH had the necessary preconstruction funding.2
On March 31, 2014, GHR publicly filed an annual report on Form 10-
K that contained a “going concern” qualification, which auditors require
companies to include when there is a serious risk that a company will run
out of money within a year. Additionally, on August 11, 2014, GHR
included a going concern qualification in its 10-Q quarterly disclosure.
GHH and GHR also publicly filed an Amendment No. 1 to the Form S-3
Registration Statement with the SEC on October 17, 2014, reiterating doubt
that the companies could remain financially solvent.
HGA issued its first invoice on July 10, 2014, in the amount of
$40,403.38. It issued a second invoice on August 5, 2014, in the amount of
$77,319.50. Payments were due within 30 days of the respective invoice
dates. GHH delayed payments for a total of two months before paying them.
After GHH paid these two invoices, Evans instructed Clark and Jack to
1 In the defendants’ affidavits, Evans, Trosclair, Clark, and Jack all state that to the best of their knowledge they had no contact with anyone working for HGA who was physically located in Louisiana during 2014. McClung also stated that he never spoke to or communicated with anyone at HGA nor did he make any decision about whether HGA would be hired or paid. 2 Typically, preconstruction financing is used to pay for services like completing sets of engineering plans and those plans are then used to secure funding for the construction phase. 2 make numerous work requests known as “Project Change Notices”
(“PCNs”). These PCNs greatly increased the cost of the building project.
Between August 2014 and November 2014, Clark and Jack
communicated regularly with HGA. On August 4, 6, 19, 25, and 26;
September 4, 18, 24, and 29; and, November 7 and 19, HGA memorialized
PCNs that GHH negotiated. During this time, Trott Hunt, a member of
HGA, stated in his affidavit that Trosclair and McClung telephoned either
him, Glenn Mitchell, or Trotter Hunt in Ruston to assure them that GHH
would pay the balance. By January 9, 2015, HGA had $744,751.01 in
outstanding and unpaid invoices for work on the project. GHH’s executives
deflected paying these invoices. As a result of GHH’s inaction, HGA
stopped working.
On January 15, 2015, HGA filed suit in Pennsylvania for a breach of
contract action captioned Hunt Guillot & Associates, LLC v. GreenHunter
Hydrcarbons LLC, et al., Case No. 10-000821. On April 29, 2015, Trosclair
and Evans met with Trott and Trotter Hunt at HGA’s headquarters in
Ruston, Louisiana. At this meeting Trosclair and Evans requested that HGA
drop the litigation against GHH and provide a new set of plans. According
to Trosclair and Evans, GHH had lost the plans that HGA had drafted for
them. In return for the new plans, Evans committed to pay $100,000 in the
next week.
After the meeting, HGA provided a letter to GHH assuring them that
once they received the $100,000 payment, HGA would supply a second set
of drawings. Nobody from GHH responded to the letter nor did GHH pay
the $100,000. Therefore, HGA pressed forward with its suit. On July 7,
2016, HGA secured summary judgment against GHH in the amount of 3 $744,745.01, plus costs and interest. However, on March 1, 2016, GHH and
GHR filed for bankruptcy. HGA failed to perfect its claims in the
bankruptcy case, leaving HGA unable to enforce its claims.
HGA engaged in post-judgment discovery of GHH’s executives to
locate resources and assets to satisfy the judgment. According to HGA,
beginning with the deposition of Trosclair on August 29, 2016, HGA learned
that it was not dealing with a mere breach of contract, but it was the target of
a sophisticated conspiracy to defraud. This deposition of Trosclair was not
included in the record for our review.
On August 18, 2017, HGA filed a suit against the defendants in
Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, alleging that the defendants conspired to make
negligent, or alternatively, intentional misrepresentations that induced HGA
to perform hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of engineering and
project management services for which HGA was never paid. The
defendants filed exceptions of vagueness, prescription, and lack of personal
jurisdiction.
At the district court’s direction, HGA filed an amended petition on
April 10, 2018. The defendants re-urged their exceptions of lack of personal
jurisdiction, prescription, and vagueness. On December 3, 2018, the district
court heard oral arguments on these exceptions. On March 22, 2019, the
district court issued its judgment on the exceptions. In its well-written
reasons for ruling, the district court held that the plaintiff had made a prima
facie showing that the defendants had purposefully availed themselves of
this state through their alleged fraudulent acts. The district court made note
that it did not hold a contradictory hearing, but the matter was submitted on
the pleadings with oral arguments, briefs, and attachments, including 4 affidavits. Therefore, the plaintiff’s burden of proof was light. However,
the district court found that the plaintiff’s claim had prescribed. The district
court made note of the similarities between the plaintiff’s Pennsylvania suit
and the complaint filed in its court as evidence that the plaintiff had
constructive knowledge of the alleged tort no later than March of 2015.
Thus, HGA’s suit was dismissed. From this ruling, HGA now appeals. The
defendants answered the appeal and appealed the ruling on personal
DISCUSSION
HGA argues that the district court erred in granting the exception of
prescription and that the district court was correct in denying the exception
for lack of personal jurisdiction.
Prescription
HGA argues that the district court’s granting of the exception of
prescription based on HGA’s lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania in 2015 was an
error. HGA claims that the doctrine of contra non valentem applies and that
this matter has not prescribed. HGA states that the breach of contract action
is distinct from the current tort action because in Pennsylvania, HGA only
asserted claims against GHH and related entities, not the individual
defendants. HGA urges that during a deposition on August 29, 2016, it
learned that it was not a victim of GHH’s corporate shell game, “but the
subject of a conspiracy theory perpetrated by the individual Defendants
named in this lawsuit.” HGA claims it had no knowledge of this deception
until a deposition on August 29, 2016. As such the claim has not prescribed.
The defendants argue that HGA’s pleadings from Pennsylvania
indicate that HGA was aware that GHH was running out of money at least 5 by the time of its suit in Pennsylvania. In their brief, the defendants cite the
following language directly from the plaintiff’s original complaint:
• Plaintiff believes and therefore avers that all important financial and business decisions for all Defendants had to be sent and approved by Gary Evans, CEO of all the Defendant entities, and Kirk Trosclair, COO of GHR.
• Plaintiff believes and therefore avers that GHW’s bank account was the only bank account being used to pay for work performed for multiple or all the Defendants and that all checks drawn against this GHW bank account had to first be approved by Gary Evans… and Kirk Trosclair…
• Plaintiff believes and therefore avers that at all times relevant hereto, GHH did not have the financial wherewithal to pay for the work it requested HGA to perform and that Defendants’ representatives involved with the Projects were aware of this fact.
• Plaintiff believes and therefore avers that there was no existing plan for GHH to obtain the money necessary to pay for this work.
• Because GHH was not even in existence until after the Projects began, Defendants intentionally deceived HGA regarding which entity it was actually contracting with for work.
• Defendants also intentionally deceived HGA because by contracting with HGA, Defendants’ representatives implied and held out GHH as an entity that would be able to pay for the work when they knew this was not the case.
• Additionally, GHH intentionally deceived HGA regarding what property interests it had in the property where the work for these projects was to be performed. Plaintiff believes and therefore avers that GHH does not have any leasehold or ownership interest in the [Warwood or Benwood] Site.
• These intentional deceptions by Defendants show that Defendants were ultimately attempting to prevent HGA from being able to collect the money owed to it for the work performed from any other entity besides GHH.
Based on HGA’s initial complaint, the defendants believe that HGA
possessed “information sufficient to incite curiosity, excite attention or put a
6 reasonable person on guard to call for inquiry,” no later than March 15,
2015.
Delictual actions are subject to a liberative prescription period of one
year. La. C.C. art. 3492. Prescription commences when a plaintiff obtains
actual or constructive knowledge of facts indicating to a reasonable person
that he or she is the victim of a tort. Campo v. Correa, 2001-2707 (La.
6/21/02), 828 So. 2d 502; Watson v. Glenwood Reg’l Med. Ctr., 49,661 (La.
App. 2 Cir. 4/15/15), 163 So. 3d 817, writ denied, 2015-0945 (La. 8/28/15),
176 So. 3d 404. A prescriptive period will begin to run even if the injured
party does not have actual knowledge of facts that would entitle him to bring
a suit as long as there is constructive knowledge of the same. Constructive
knowledge is whatever notice is enough to excite attention and put
the injured party on guard and call for inquiry. Such notice is tantamount to
knowledge or notice of everything to which a reasonable inquiry may lead.
Such information or knowledge as ought to reasonably put the alleged victim
on inquiry is sufficient to start running of prescription. Campo, supra; Ledet
v. Miller, 459 So. 2d 202 (La. App. 3 Cir. 1984), writ denied, 463 So. 2d 603
(La. 1985); Opelousas General Hospital v. Guillory, 429 So. 2d 550 (La.
App. 3 Cir. 1983); Bayonne v. Hartford Insurance Co., 353 So. 2d 1051 (La.
App. 2 Cir. 1977).
Although La. C.C. art. 3467 provides that “prescription runs against
all persons unless exception is established by legislation,” the Louisiana
Supreme Court has applied the jurisprudential doctrine of contra non
valentem as an exception to this statutory rule. The Supreme Court has
recognized four factual situations in which contra non valentem prevents the
running of liberative prescription: 7 (1) where there was some legal cause which prevented the courts or their officers from taking cognizance of or acting on the plaintiff's action;
(2) where there was some condition coupled with the contract or connected with the proceedings which prevented the creditor from suing or acting;
(3) where the debtor himself has done some act effectually to prevent the creditor from availing himself of his cause of action; or
(4) where the cause of action is neither known nor reasonably knowable by the plaintiff even though plaintiff's ignorance is not induced by the defendant.
Marin v. Exxon Mobil Corp., 2009-2368 (La. 10/19/10), 48 So. 3d
234, citing, Plaquemines Parish Com’n Council v. Delta Development
Co., Inc., 502 So. 2d 1034 (La. 1987).
Under the fourth category, contra non valentem is applied when
a cause of action is not known or reasonably knowable by the plaintiff
even though his ignorance is not induced by the defendant. Wimberly
v. Gatch, 1993-2361 (La. 4/11/94), 635 So. 2d 206; Alexander v.
Fulco, 39,293 (La. App. 2 Cir. 2/25/05), 895 So. 2d 668, 672, writ
denied, 2005-0781 (La. 5/6/05), 901 So. 2d 1107. This fourth
category is commonly known as the discovery rule, and it provides
that prescription commences on the date the injured party discovers or
should have discovered the facts upon which his cause of action is
based. Alexander, supra. The contra non valentem “discovery rule”
is only to be applied in extreme cases and prescriptive statutes are to
be interpreted broadly in favor of maintaining a party’s claim. Marin,
supra. The Supreme Court has also stated that “this principle will not
exempt the plaintiff’s claim from the running of prescription if his
ignorance is attributable to his own willfulness or neglect; that is, a 8 plaintiff will be deemed to know what he could by reasonable
diligence have learned.” Marin, supra, citing, Renfroe v. State ex rel.
Dept. of Transp. & Dev., 2001-1646 (La. 2/26/02), 809 So. 2d 947.
When a party has enough information to incite curiosity, or put a
reasonably minded person on guard and call for inquiry, he has the
constructive knowledge necessary to start the running of prescription.
Campo, supra; Abbot v. Louisiana State Univ. Med. Ctr.-Shreveport,
35,693 (La. App. 2 Cir. 2/27/02), 811 So. 2d 1107, writ denied, 2002-
0952 (La. 5/31/02), 817 So. 2d 104.
On the trial of a peremptory exception pled at or prior to the
trial of the case, evidence may be introduced to support or controvert
any of the objections pled, when the grounds thereof do not appear
from the petition. La. C.C.P. art. 931. The party raising the exception
of prescription ordinarily bears the burden of proof at the trial of the
peremptory exception. Alexander, supra; Spott v. Otis Elevator Co.,
601 So. 2d 1355 (La. 1992). However, when the plaintiff’s petition
reveals on its face that prescription has run, the plaintiff bears the
burden of showing why the claim has not prescribed. Alexander,
supra; Lima v. Schmidt, 595 So. 2d 624 (La. 1992). If evidence is
introduced in support or contravention of the exception, the ruling on
the exception of prescription is reviewed by an appellate court under
the manifest error standard of review. Carter vs. Haygood, 2004-
0646 (La. 01/19/05), 892 So. 2d 1261, citing, Stobart v. State, through
DOTD, 617 So. 2d 880 (La. 1993); Collins Asset Grp., LLC v.
Hamilton, 53,209 (La. App. 2 Cir. 11/20/19), 284 So. 3d 1201.
9 The district court correctly found that HGA’s claim had
prescribed on its face, and as such, HGA bore the burden of proving
that its claim had not prescribed. To do so, HGA relies on the
doctrine of contra non valentem. We find this argument unpersuasive.
There are several similarities between the Pennsylvania
complaint and the Louisiana petition. In its Pennsylvania complaint,
HGA stated claims for breach of contract and piercing the corporate
veil. HGA also alleged that GHH did not maintain separate status
from its defendants and that it was undercapitalized. HGA claimed
that “GHH did not have the financial wherewithal to pay for the work
requested HGA to perform and that Defendants’ representatives
involved with the Projects were aware of this fact.”
Based on the original allegations in the Pennsylvania complaint,
as of March 2015, HGA was aware that: 1) GHH was
undercapitalized; 2) GHH did not have the financial capacity to pay
HGA; 3) the defendants listed in the present complaint were aware
that GHH did not have the money to pay HGA; and, 4) the defendants
had made misrepresentations with respect to the funding of the
project. As the district court correctly stated in its written reasons,
“the Petitioners knew the project was unfunded, that
misrepresentations had been made with respect to the funding, and
that GHH did not have the ability to pay for the work by at the latest,
March of 2015.”
Louisiana courts have held that a claim is prescribed when a
person possesses information sufficient to incite curiosity, excite
attention, or put a reasonable person on guard to call or inquiry more 10 than one year before filing a tort suit. Campo, supra; Abbot, supra.
Based on the record, and specifically the Pennsylvania suit, the district
court was correct in finding that HGA had sufficient facts to inquire
further no later than March of 2015. Therefore, we affirm the district
court’s decision as it relates to prescription.
Personal Jurisdiction
The defendants argue that while this Court may simply presume
jurisdiction and affirm based on the district court’s prescription analysis,
they also state that this Court can affirm the dismissal based on a lack of
personal jurisdiction. The defendants claim that the district court did not
have specific personal jurisdiction over the defendants. The defendants
believe that they did not have the necessary minimum contacts with
Louisiana. They argue that the bulk of the parties’ relationship occurred out-
of-state so there is no jurisdiction for suit in Louisiana.
More specifically, the defendants argue that Evans did not have any
communications with anyone in Louisiana at any time before the unpaid
work was performed. Evans contends that courts have consistently rejected
using conspiracy as a basis to establish jurisdiction over one nonresident
through the alleged contacts of other defendants in furtherance of the alleged
conspiracy. Further, the defendants argue that McClung’s and Trosclair’s
only contacts within the state came through limited telephone and email
communications with HGA executives in Louisiana. As such, the state does
not have jurisdiction over them.
HGA contends that the district court correctly found that it had
jurisdiction over the defendants because their alleged tortious acts caused
11 monetary damages in Louisiana arising out of their minimum contacts with
Louisiana.
The Louisiana long arm statute, La. R.S. §13:3201, provides in
relevant part:
A. A court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident, who acts directly or by an agent, as to a cause of action arising from any one of the following activities performed by the nonresident:
(1) Transacting any business in this state.
(2) Contracting to supply services or things in this state.
(3) Causing injury or damage by an offense or quasi offense committed through an act or omission in this state.
(4) Causing injury or damage in this state by an offense or quasi offense committed through an act or omission outside of this state if he regularly does or solicits business, or engages in any other persistent course of conduct, or derives revenue from goods used or consumed or services rendered in this state.
B. In addition to the provisions of Subsection A, a court of this state may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident on any basis consistent with the constitution of this state and of the Constitution of the United States.
Personal jurisdiction may be asserted over a nonresident defendant
only if that defendant has certain “minimum contacts” with the forum such
that the maintenance of the suit does not offend “traditional notions of fair
play and substantial justice.” International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326
U.S. 310, 66 S. Ct. 154, 90 L. Ed. 95 (1945). A state has specific
jurisdiction over a defendant when the suit arises out of or is related to the
defendant’s contacts with the forum state. Helicopteros Nacionales de
Columbia, S.A. v. Hall, 466 U.S. 408, 104 S. Ct. 1868, 80 L. Ed. 2d 404
(1984).
12 The minimum contacts prong is satisfied by a single act or actions by
which the defendant “purposely avails itself of the privilege of conducting
activities within the forum state, thus invoking the benefits and protections
of its laws.” Lewis v. Pine Belt Multipurpose Cmty. Action Acquisition
Agency, Inc., 48,827 (La. App. 2 Cir. 4/9/14), 138 So. 3d 776, writ denied,
2014-0965 (La. 8/25/14), 147 So. 3d 1119 citing, Burger King Corp. v.
Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. 462, 105 S. Ct. 2174, 85 L. Ed. 2d 528 (1985). By its
actions, the nonresident defendant should reasonably anticipate being haled
into court in the forum state. This requirement ensures that a nonresident
defendant “will not be haled into a jurisdiction solely as a result of a random,
fortuitous or attenuated contact, or by the unilateral activity of another party
or a third person.” Lewis, supra, citing, SteriFx, Inc. v. Roden, 41,383 (La.
App. 2 Cir. 8/25/06), 939 So. 2d 533.
The fairness prong arises once the plaintiff meets the burden of
proving minimum contacts, at which point jurisdiction is presumed
reasonable and the burden shifts to the defendant to prove that the “assertion
of jurisdiction would be so unreasonable in light of traditional notions of fair
play and substantial justice as to overcome the presumption of
reasonableness created by the defendant’s minimum contacts with the
forum.” Lewis, supra, citing, SteriFx, supra.
For specific jurisdiction, the defendant must have purposefully
directed activities at the forum and/or its residents, and the litigation must
result from alleged injuries that arise from or relate to those activities.
Burger King Corp., supra. When the cause of action does not arise out of
the defendant’s purposeful contacts with the forum state, the defendant’s
contacts with the forum must be “continuous and systematic” to support the 13 exercise of general jurisdiction. Helicopteros, supra; Perkins v. Benguet
Consol. Mining Co., 342 U.S. 437, 72 S. Ct. 413, 96 L. Ed. 485 (1952); De
Reyes v. Marine Mgmt. & Consulting, Ltd., 586 So. 2d 103 (La. 1991);
Greenway Leasing L.P. v. Star Buffet Management, Inc., 45,753 (La. App. 2
Cir. 1/26/11), 57 So. 3d 397.
When a nonresident defendant commits a tort within the state, or an
act outside the state that causes tortious injury within the state, that tortious
conduct amounts to sufficient minimum contacts with the state by the
defendant to constitutionally permit courts within that state, including
federal courts, to exercise personal adjudicative jurisdiction over the
tortfeasor and the causes of actions arising from its offenses or quasi-
offenses. Guidry v. U.S. Tobacco Co., 188 F.3d 619 (5th Cir. 1999). Even
an act done outside the state that has consequences or effects within the state
will suffice as a basis for jurisdiction in a suit arising from those
consequences if the effects are seriously harmful and were intended or
highly likely to follow from the nonresident defendant’s conduct. Guidry,
supra.
An appellate court conducts a de novo review of a trial court’s legal
ruling on an exception of lack of personal jurisdiction, but any factual
findings underlying the decision are reviewed under the manifest error
standard. Lewis, supra, citing, Maguire Plastic Surgery Cent., LLC v.
Booker, 47,929 (La. App. 2 Cir. 5/22/13), 117 So. 3d 239; SteriFx, supra.
When an exception is decided on the pleadings, memoranda, and
depositions, the plaintiff, as the nonmoving party, bears a relatively slight
burden and all reasonable inferences from the record and the allegation of
the complaint are to be drawn in the nonmoving party’s favor. Lewis, supra. 14 In its written reasons, the district court cited to Lifecare Hospitals,
Inc, supra. There, this Court held that although the defendant’s contact with
the state were a limited number of telephone calls, a hospital’s mere
economic loss within the state was sufficient to support exercise of personal
Furthermore, in Guidry, supra, a Louisiana tobacco consumer brought
a suit against several tobacco trade associations alleging that associations
created a false impression in Louisiana that addictive effects of tobacco
products were much less than the associations knew them to be, and that
consumers suffered injuries in Louisiana as a result of relying on the false
representation. The U.S. Fifth Circuit held that the plaintiffs made a prima
facie showing that each of the tobacco associations had engaged in acts and
omissions that included intentionally negligent misrepresentations that
caused the plaintiff to suffer injury, and that this constituted sufficient
minimum contacts with Louisiana to confer personal jurisdiction. Guidry,
In their brief, defendants cite federal cases like Delta Brands Inc. v.
Danieli Corp., 99 Fed. App’x. 1 (5th Cir. 2004). There, a domestic
manufacturer of steel-processing equipment sued an Italian competitor, its
domestic representative, and Swedish steel-sheet manufacturer, alleging
fraud. The U.S. Fifth Circuit held that the plaintiff failed to show that the
Swedish manufacturer individually, and not as part of the conspiracy, had
minimum contacts with Texas. Delta Brands Inc., supra.
Here, HGA, a Louisiana-based company, suffered economic loss
within the state as it was allegedly defrauded out of over $745,000 worth of
work. According to affidavits supplied by the plaintiff, the defendants had 15 contacts with HGA executives in Louisiana in which misrepresentations
were made in furtherance of the alleged conspiracy. Therefore, the
defendants purposefully availed themselves of this state’s jurisdiction by
allegedly committing these intentional acts.
Given the slight burden placed on the plaintiff in such cases, we defer
to the district court’s finding that the plaintiff has met its burden of making a
prima facie showing of minimum contacts necessary for the exercise of
personal jurisdiction over the defendants. Although it would have been
proper for the district court to analyze each individual defendant’s contact
with the state, as the U.S. Fifth Circuit did in Delta Brands Inc., supra, any
error created by that is harmless, given that the claim has prescribed. As
such, we affirm the district court’s decision.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court’s granting of
the exception of prescription and the denial of the exception of lack of
personal jurisdiction. Costs of this appeal are divided evenly between the
appellant and appellees.
AFFIRMED.