Johnson v. Orleans Parish School Board

938 So. 2d 219, 5 La.App. 4 Cir. 1488, 2006 La. App. LEXIS 1921, 2006 WL 2521582
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 9, 2006
Docket2005-CA-1488
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 938 So. 2d 219 (Johnson v. Orleans Parish School Board) 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
Johnson v. Orleans Parish School Board, 938 So. 2d 219, 5 La.App. 4 Cir. 1488, 2006 La. App. LEXIS 1921, 2006 WL 2521582 (La. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

938 So.2d 219 (2006)

John JOHNSON, et al.
v.
ORLEANS PARISH SCHOOL BOARD, et al.

No. 2005-CA-1488.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

August 9, 2006.

*220 John Y. Pearce, Lawrence G. Pugh, III, Michaela E. Noble, Montgomery Barnett Brown Read Hammond & Mintz, New Orleans, LA, for Edward Levy Metals, Inc. and Delta By-Products, Inc.

Thomas M. Nosewicz, Jones Walker Waechter Poitevent Carrere & Denegre, L.L.P., NEW ORLEANS, LA, for Third Party Defendant/Appellee, BFI Waste Systems of North America, Inc.

Nannette V. Jolivette, Douglas L. Grundmeyer, Jonathan C. McCall, Katherine L. Young, Chaffe McCall, L.L.P., New Orleans, LA, for Defendant/Appellant, Orleans Parish School Board.

Michael A. Chernekoff, Jones Walker Waechter Poitevent Carrere & Denegre, L.L.P., New Orleans, LA, for Third Party Defendant-Appellee, Public Belt Railroad Commission of The City of New Orleans.

(Court composed of Chief Judge JOAN BERNARD ARMSTRONG, Judge JAMES F. McKAY III and Judge LEON A. CANNIZZARO JR.).

JOAN BERNARD ARMSTRONG, Chief Judge.

The Orleans Parish School Board (the School Board), defendant and third party plaintiff, appeals from a judgment granting Exceptions of No Cause of Action and No Right of Action filed by third-party defendants, Edward Levy Metals, Inc. (Levy), Delta By-Products, Inc. (Delta), BFI Waste Systems of North America, Inc. (BFI) and the Public Belt Railroad Commission of the City of New Orleans (the Public Belt)[1]. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court judgment.

The factual background of this case is fully detailed in this Court's earlier opinions in Johnson v. Orleans Parish School Board, XXXX-XXXX, XXXX-XXXX (La.App. 4 *221 Cir. 11/3/04), 890 So.2d 579 [Johnson II[2]] and in the class certification appeal, Johnson v. Orleans Parish School Board, XXXX-XXXX (La.App. 4 Cir. 6/27/01), 790 So.2d 734 [Johnson I]. The original plaintiffs in these consolidated cases are current and former residents of three housing developments in New Orleans, certain current and former owners and employees of neighboring businesses and certain current and former students and employees of Moton School, an elementary school operated at all relevant times by the School Board. The plaintiffs filed suit against the City of New Orleans, the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) and the School Board alleging damages resulting from the construction of a community on a former municipal landfill site known as the Agriculture Street Landfill (ASL). According to the suit, in the 1960s and 1970s, the defendants developed the site without first having removed hazardous substances from the site and warned the plaintiffs of the existence of the hazard. By Second Amended Petition, the plaintiffs alleged that the School Board's liability devolved upon its having selected the ASL as the site for development of Moton School, an elementary school. The class plaintiffs allege that the School Board proceeded to grant construction contracts for the school "despite receiving information from engineering and soil analysis firms that soil sampling studies had confirmed the presence in the soil of numerous heavy metals, several known carcinogens and other organic materials in concentrations exceeding recommended levels for any use, including construction and operation of a school." The Second Amended Petition describes the School Board's breach of its duty to see that the ASL site was properly and adequately remediated and prepared for use as an elementary school. The class plaintiffs also claim that the School Board failed adequately to monitor and supervise its employees and contractors to ensure that soil excavated during the school's construction was completely and properly removed from the neighborhood.

Nearly ten years after the plaintiffs filed the original suit, the defendants, including the School Board, filed third party demands for direct damages, indemnity and contribution against BFI, the Public Belt, CFI Industries, Inc. (CFI), IPC, Inc., and the Port of New Orleans alleging that they or their corporate antecedents improperly hauled and disposed of hazardous materials at the landfill site prior to closure of the landfill decades prior to development of the ASL site as a school.

All third party defendants filed exceptions, inter alia, of no cause of action and no right of action that were granted by the trial court and affirmed by this Court in Johnson II. Having found that the trial court correctly granted the exceptions, this Court then considered the School Board's opportunity to amend its third party demands pursuant to La.C.C.P. art. 934, holding:

While some of the third party defendants in this case argue persuasively that the objections to the third party demands cannot be cured by amendment, out of an abundance of caution, we will allow the third party plaintiffs the opportunity to amend their third party demands. We do so with the admonition that speculating on unwarranted facts will not defeat an exception of no cause of action. [Emphasis added; citation omitted.]

*222 We then remanded the case with instructions to permit amendments of the third party demands within thirty days of this judgment and pretermitted the issue of no right of action.

Subsequently, Levy and Delta adopted and urged CFI's exceptions of no cause of action, no right of action and prescription. The trial court heard and granted the exceptions of no cause of action and no right of action. On appeal, this Court held:

We find that there is nothing material to this appeal to distinguish the allegations made against the third party defendants in Johnson II from those made against Levy Metals and Delta in the instant appeal. Accordingly, we adopt the standards regarding review of the exception of no cause of action set forth in Johnson II . . .
In the instant case, as in Johnson II and for the same reasons, "we conclude that the trial court did not err in granting the exceptions of no cause of action because the third-party demands do not allege facts sufficient to identify a legal duty owed by the third-party defendants to the plaintiffs or the third party plaintiffs." As was the case in Johnson II, there are no allegations that the third-party defendants in the instant appeal, Levy Metals and Delta, knew or should have known that an area designated as a landfill would years later become the site of a residential neighborhood and school.
Also, as was stated in Johnson II, we need not reach the issue of whether Levy Metals or Delta fall within the definition of proprietor under La.C.C. art. 667 because there is no allegation that any of the plaintiffs lived in the vicinity of the landfill during its operation.

Johnson v. Orleans Parish School Board, XXXX-XXXX, pp. 4-5 (La.App. 4 Cir. 2/16/05), 897 So.2d 812, 815-16 [Johnson III]. We remanded with the same instructions as in Johnson II.

In response to our opinions, the School Board alone filed an amended third party demand against CFI Industries, Inc., Public Belt, BFI, the Port of New Orleans, Levy, Delta and Metals Detroit, Inc.[3] On March 18, 2005, the School Board alone filed a second amended third-party demand against Levy and Delta.

In reviewing the judgment of the district court relating to an exception of no cause of action, appellate courts should conduct a de novo

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Related

Johnson v. Orleans Parish School Board
219 So. 3d 452 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)
Johnson v. Orleans Parish School Bd.
975 So. 2d 698 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2008)

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Bluebook (online)
938 So. 2d 219, 5 La.App. 4 Cir. 1488, 2006 La. App. LEXIS 1921, 2006 WL 2521582, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-orleans-parish-school-board-lactapp-2006.