Miller v. Desoto Regional Health System

128 So. 3d 649, 13 La.App. 3 Cir. 639, 2013 WL 6492243, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2530
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 11, 2013
DocketNo. 13-639
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 128 So. 3d 649 (Miller v. Desoto Regional Health System) 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
Miller v. Desoto Regional Health System, 128 So. 3d 649, 13 La.App. 3 Cir. 639, 2013 WL 6492243, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2530 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

KEATY, Judge.

| TPIaintiff appeals the trial court’s judgment granting exceptions in favor of Defendants. For the following reasons, we affirm;

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Defendant, Desoto Regional Health Systems, and Plaintiff, Dr. Garland Miller, entered into an employment contract and office management arrangement. Plaintiff alleges that after his contract terminated, Desoto Regional, Sabine Parish Sheriffs Deputies, and others illegally entered Plaintiffs office with the intention of seizing records and information to be used in a criminal case against Plaintiff. Miller was arrested and charged with state felony theft and other criminal offenses on September 29, 2005.

In 2007, Plaintiff was indicted on federal charges, and, in 2008, Plaintiff was convicted of two counts of tax evasion by failing to timely file tax returns, failing to pay tax on income, converting payments to himself and his wife to cash and money orders, and embezzling payments due to Desoto Re[654]*654gional which he then converted to cash and money orders. Failing to report as income and pay taxes on money he embezzled from Desoto Regional were the subjects of the state law theft charges. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Plaintiffs conviction. As part of the sentence, Plaintiff was ordered to pay Desoto Regional restitution in the amount of $55,470.94.

In the federal case, Plaintiff filed a motion to suppress, alleging that evidence had been seized without a search warrant, that Desoto Regional employees seized records with the implicit authorization of law enforcement officials, and that patient records and computer records were accessed and removed without his consent. The magistrate judge held that the evidence established |2Desoto Regional employees were not acting as government agents, they entered the clinic which they leased and had a right to enter, and they searched and removed property Desoto Regional owned pursuant to the contracts between the parties. The magistrate judge determined that neither the district attorney nor any other governmental, official had a hand in Desoto Regional’s decision to search the clinic but were present only to keep the peace. The magistrate judge concluded that Desoto Regional’s “employees simply entered a building that Desoto owned” and recommended denial of his motion to suppress evidence. The federal district court reviewed the report and recommendations and the record, concurred with the findings of the magistrate judge, and denied the motion to suppress.

After his conviction, but prior to his appeal, Plaintiff filed a Motion for Judgment of Acquittal or, Alternatively, for a New Trial. The federal district court denied the motion. The Fifth Circuit affirmed Plaintiffs conviction. Plaintiff subsequently filed a Motion to Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence. The federal district court denied the motion. Thereafter, the federal district court denied Miller’s writ where he argued that he was forced to make restitution for embezzlement.

The state criminal case, which was instituted in 2005, was dismissed in 2011 after Plaintiff was released from prison on federal charges. Plaintiff subsequently filed a petition in the state trial court naming as Defendants Desoto Regional, Sabine Parish District Attorney Don Burkett, Sheriff Guffey Lynn Pattison, Ron Wolfe, and unknown defendants A-Z. Plaintiff alleged Defendants were liable to him for malicious prosecution, false arrest, unlawful search and seizure, defamation, interference with a contract, and breach of contract. Desoto Regional and Sheriff Patti-son filed exceptions of prescription and no cause of action. | ^Burkett filed an exception of no cause of action. The trial court denied Desoto Regional’s and Sheriff Pat-tison’s exceptions of prescription but granted the exceptions of no cause of action as to all Defendants. The trial court granted Plaintiff leave to cure his petition by amendment to include factually based allegations that, when assumed true, establish at law a cause of action for the offense(s) pled.

Plaintiff thereafter filed an amended petition. Defendants, Desoto Regional and Sheriff Pattison, again filed exceptions of no cause of action and added exceptions of res judicata/issue preclusion. Burkett also again filed an exception of no cause of action. The trial court granted Defendants’ exceptions of no cause of action and res judicata/issue preclusion and dismissed Plaintiffs claims against those Defendants. The trial court also found that Plaintiff failed to state a cause of action for malicious prosecution on the face of his original and amended petition against Burkett and [655]*655dismissed Plaintiffs claims against him. It is from these rulings that Plaintiff has appealed.

Plaintiff is now before this court asserting that: (1) the trial court erred in ruling that there was no cause of action because there was no bona fide termination of the proceedings since no trial was held; (2) the trial court erred in granting the exception of prescription and dismissing the claims for defamation, slander, and libel; and (3) the trial court erred in granting a motion for no cause of action as it relates to breach of contract and interference with a contract.1

J4LAW

“In reviewing the judgment of the district court relating to an exception of no cause of action, appellate courts should conduct a de novo review because the exception raises a question of law and the lower court’s decision is based solely on the sufficiency of the petition.” Ramey v. DeCaire, 03-1299, pp. 7-8 (La.3/19/04), 869 So.2d 114,119.

DISCUSSION

I. Exception of No Cause of Action

As mentioned above, Plaintiff contends that the trial court erred in ruling that there was no cause of action because there was no bona fide termination of the proceedings since no trial was held. In opposition, Defendants contend that Plaintiff failed to state a cause of action for malicious prosecution, false arrest, unlawful search and seizure, defamation, interference with a contract, and breach of eon-tracVindemnity claims.

“ ‘The function of the peremptory exception of no cause of action is to question whether the law extends a remedy against the defendant to anyone under the factual allegations of the petition.’ ” Washington Mut. Bank v. Monticello, 07-1018, p. 7 (La.App. 3 Cir. 2/6/08), 976 So.2d 251, 256 (quoting Cleco Corp. v. Johnson, 01-175 (La.9/18/01), 795 So.2d 302), 'writ denied, 08-530 (La.4/25/08), 978 So.2d 369. “A ‘cause of action,’ when used in the context of the peremptory exception of no cause of action, refers to the operative facts that give rise to the plaintiffs right to judicially assert the action against the defendant.” Bogues v. Louisiana Energy Consultants, Inc., 46,434, p. 3 (La.App. 2 Cir. 8/10/11), 71_[^So.3d 1128, 1130 (citing White v. St. Elizabeth B.C. Bd. of Dirs., 45,213 (La.App. 2 Cir. 6/2/10), 37 So.3d 1139). “‘The petition must set forth the material facts upon which a cause of action is based; the allegations must be ultimate facts; conclusions of law [or] fact, and evidentiary facts will not be considered.’ ” Sparks v. Donovan, 04-388, p. 4 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/13/04), 884 So.2d 1276, 1279 (quoting Parish of Jefferson v. City of Kenner, 95-266 (La.App. 5 Cir. 10/31/95), 663 So.2d 880).

A. False Arrest

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Bluebook (online)
128 So. 3d 649, 13 La.App. 3 Cir. 639, 2013 WL 6492243, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2530, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-desoto-regional-health-system-lactapp-2013.