John C. Centanni, Jr. Versus Evablanche Mary Centanni

CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 19, 2021
Docket21-CA-30
StatusUnknown

This text of John C. Centanni, Jr. Versus Evablanche Mary Centanni (John C. Centanni, Jr. Versus Evablanche Mary Centanni) 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.

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John C. Centanni, Jr. Versus Evablanche Mary Centanni, (La. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

JOHN C. CENTANNI, JR. NO. 21-CA-30

VERSUS FIFTH CIRCUIT

EVABLANCHE MARY CENTANNI COURT OF APPEAL

STATE OF LOUISIANA

ON APPEAL FROM THE TWENTY-FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT PARISH OF JEFFERSON, STATE OF LOUISIANA NO. 762-635, DIVISION "K" HONORABLE ELLEN SHIRER KOVACH, JUDGE PRESIDING

October 19, 2021

HANS J. LILJEBERG JUDGE

Panel composed of Judges Stephen J. Windhorst, Hans J. Liljeberg, and John J. Molaison, Jr.

REVERSED HJL SJW JJM COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF/APPELLEE, JOHN C. CENTANNI, JR. Jennifer C. Carter

COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLEE, EVABLANCHE MARY CENTANNI Edith H. Morris Bernadette R. Lee Suzanne Ecuyer Bayle Sheila H. Willis

COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLANT, CENTANNI, LLC, CENTANNI LIMITED PARTNERSHIP AND CENTRAL DISPATCH, INC. Timothy Thriffiley George I. Pivach, II LILJEBERG, J.

This matter involves an appeal filed by three non-parties, Central Dispatch,

Inc., Centanni Limited Partnership and Centanni, LLC (“appellants”), from a

judgment requiring them to produce documents in response to subpoenas duces

tecum issued to them by appellee, Evablanche Mary Centanni.1 Ms. Centanni

issued the subpoenas duces tecum as part of an ongoing community property

partition proceeding she is litigating with her former spouse, John C. Centanni, Jr.

In its October 22, 2020 judgment, the trial court ordered appellants to each produce

their state and federal tax returns, Schedule K-1 forms issued to their

shareholders/members/partners, and journal entries in their accounting records for

payments relating to Mr. Centanni from 2008 to 2016. In its oral reasons assigned

at the evidentiary hearing, the trial court stated that good cause existed to require

the production of the requested documents based on Mr. Centanni’s status as a

shareholder and member of the entities. Appellants object to the production of

nine years of their confidential financial information and tax returns, because they

claim Ms. Centanni did not meet her burden of proof to obtain such records from a

non-party. They contend that Mr. Centanni’s interests in the appellant entities are

his separate property, and Ms. Centanni failed to establish good cause exists to

require production of their tax returns and Schedule K-1 forms by showing the

unavailability of the information from other sources and by relating the relevancy

of the requested documents to the claims in dispute in the community property

partition.

We agree that the trial court erred by ordering the blanket production of

appellants’ tax returns and Schedule K-1 forms without requiring Ms. Centanni to

1 Generally, a judgment resolving a discovery issue between a non-party and party is a final appealable judgment because it resolves all issues existing between them. See Gariepy v. Evan Industries, Inc., 06-106 (La. App. 5 Cir. 9/25/07), 968 So.2d 753, 754-55.

21-CA-30 1 relate the relevancy of each request to a claim at issue in the proceedings and to

demonstrate her inability to obtain necessary information from other sources.

Accordingly, we reverse the October 22, 2020 judgment ordering appellants to

produce their tax returns and Schedule K-1 forms in response to the subpoenas

duces tecum served on them by Ms. Centanni.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The underlying litigation involves a contested community property petition

between John C. Centanni, Jr. and appellee, Evablanche Mary Centanni. Mr.

Centanni, along with his three siblings, wholly own the three appellant entities.2

On May 20, 2020, Ms. Centanni issued identical subpoenas duces tecum to each

appellant and sought the production of the following documents:

1) All K-1’s issued by this entity to all shareholders/members from 1989 through 2016;

2) All federal and state tax/information returns filed by this entity from 1989 through 2016;

3) All journal entries in the accounting records of this entity of any and all payments that relate to any and all payments, advances and/or reimbursement of expenses, obligations and/or debts of John C. Centanni, Jr. from 1989 through 2016; and

4) All journal entries in the accounting records of the entity that relate to any payment for which John C. Centanni, Jr. seeks reimbursement from 1989 through 2016.

Ms. Centanni issued these discovery requests in response to Mr. Centanni’s

addition to his sworn detailed descriptive list, shortly prior to the amendment

deadline, to include a reimbursement claim for over $8,000,000 in state and federal

taxes allegedly paid by appellant, Central Dispatch, on behalf of the parties during

their marriage.3 Mr. Centanni subsequently reduced the amount of his claim to

2 According to the parties, Mr. Centanni owns a twenty-five percent (25%) minority interest in each of the entities. It is undisputed that Mr. Centanni’s interests in Central Dispatch and Centanni Limited Partnership are his separate property. As discussed more fully below, after issuing the subpoenas duces tecum, Ms. Centanni raised new allegations claiming that Mr. Centanni’s interest in Centanni, LLC is community property. 3 According to the parties, Central Dispatch is a Subchapter S corporation, which means its profits and losses are not taxed at the corporate level. Rather, the taxes are paid by the shareholders even if the income is not actually

21-CA-30 2 $5,600,000, after limiting the requested reimbursements to tax payments made by

Central Dispatch from 2008 to 2016. Mr. Centanni contends the funds Central

Dispatch used to pay the taxes do not qualify as civil fruits and, therefore, are his

separate property subject to reimbursement by the community. Ms. Centanni

argues, on the other hand, that these payments qualify as distributions of income

from Central Dispatch that are civil fruits of the corporation and qualify as

community property.4

According to the parties, appellants produced the journal entries for

payments relating to Mr. Centanni requested in Items 3 and 4, as well as the

Schedule K-1 forms issued to Mr. Centanni by each of the appellants. These items

are not at issue on appeal. However, as non-parties to the community partition

litigation, appellants objected to the production of the Schedule K-1 forms issued

to the other siblings in Item 1, as well as appellants’ tax returns requested in Item

2, because these documents contain personal and confidential financial

information.5 In response, Ms. Centanni filed a motion to compel arguing that she

needed the requested documents to defend against Mr. Centanni’s tax

reimbursement claim.

Bruce Miller, the special master appointed by consent of the parties, heard

the motion to compel on September 14, 2020. Following the hearing, he issued an

order on September 16, 2020, granting the motion to compel in part and denying it

in part. Mr. Miller ordered Central Dispatch to produce certain schedules and

statements filed with its tax returns from 2008 to 2016, including “Schedules L, M-

1, and M-2 and all statements and supplemental information as shown on IRS

distributed to them. The tax reimbursement claim involves funds Central Dispatch used to pay taxes owed by the parties. Central Dispatch is the only appellant that allegedly paid taxes on behalf of the community. 4 La. C.C. art. 2339 provides that civil fruits of the separate property of a spouse are community property. 5 According to the parties, a Schedule K-1 is a tax form prepared for each individual stakeholder in the entity to report earnings, losses and dividends.

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