Naquin v. Bollinger Shipyards, Inc.

147 So. 3d 207, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 1638, 2014 WL 3610772, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 1139
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 2, 2014
DocketNo. 2013 CA 1638
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 147 So. 3d 207 (Naquin v. Bollinger Shipyards, Inc.) 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
Naquin v. Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., 147 So. 3d 207, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 1638, 2014 WL 3610772, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 1139 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

CRAIN, J.

|Jn this suit seeking to cancel a lease of immovable property, the lessee filed a re-conventional demand asserting that the plaintiffs’ suit was a disturbance of the lessee’s peaceful possession of the property. The trial court sustained an exception of no cause of action and dismissed the reconventional demand. We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The plaintiffs, Lorise M. Naquin, Lucy Nguyen Naquin, and Grantly, LLC (collectively referred to hereinafter as “the Na-quins”), filed this proceeding seeking to cancel several leases of immovable property granted to Bollinger Shipyards, Inc. based upon allegations that Bollinger breached its obligation to act as a prudent administrator by causing environmental damage to the leased property.1 Bollinger’s response to the suit included a recon-ventional demand asserting that the “Na-quins’ act of filing and prosecuting this legal action against Bollinger, and assert-[209]*209mg the right to cancel the [leases], implies a right of ownership in derogation of the provisions of the [leases], each of which provide Bollinger the exclusive right to renew said leases through 2087.” Bollinger further alleged that as a “result of the Naquins’ disturbance of Bollinger’s peaceful possession of the [leases], Bollinger has suffered actual damages, including but not limited to attorneys’ fees and court costs, the full extent of which will be shown at the trial of this matter.”

In response to the reconventional demand, the Naquins filed exceptions of prematurity and no cause of action contending, in pertinent part, that Bollinger failed to state a cause of action because it did not allege any eviction or physical acts by the Naquins that prevented the use and enjoyment of the leased property by Bollinger. In opposition to the exceptions, Bollinger maintained that the |sreconventional demand asserted a breach of the lessors’ warranty of peaceful possession under Louisiana Civil Code article 2700 based upon a disturbance in law as defined by Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 8659.

At the conclusion of the hearing of the exceptions, the trial court found that the Naquins’ suit was not a breach of the warranty of peaceful possession. The trial court recognized that Louisiana Civil Code article 2686 grants the lessor the right to seek dissolution of the lease if the lessee uses the thing in a manner that may damage it; however, if the enforcement of that right constitutes a disturbance, “then no landlord would ever be able to sue their tenant for anything.” The trial court concluded, “A lawsuit by a landlord under [Article] 2686 is not a disturbance as defined in Code of Civil Procedure Article 3659 in the third paragraph^] I don’t think it’s a disturbance in law.” In light of that ruling, the trial court found the exception’ of prematurity to be moot. A judgment was then signed that sustained the exception of no cause of action, dismissed Bollinger’s reconventional demand with prejudice, and declared the exception of prematurity to be moot.

Bollinger now appeals the judgment and assigns as error the granting of the exception of no cause of action, specifically contending that the trial court erred in finding that a “baseless lawsuit” cannot be a disturbance in law of a lessee’s peaceful possession and that a lessor cannot itself be responsible for breaching the lessee’s peaceful possession.

LAW AND ANALYSIS

The purpose of the peremptory exception raising the objection of no cause of action is to test the legal sufficiency of a pleading by determining whether the law affords a remedy on the facts alleged. Pierrotti v. Johnson, 11-1317 (La.App. 1 Cir. 3/19/12), 91 So.3d 1056, 1062. The exception is triable on the face of the pleading, and for the purpose of determining the issues raised by the exception, the well-pleaded facts must be accepted as true. Ourso v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 08-p7804 (La.App. 1 Cir. 11/14/08), 998 So.2d 295, 298, writ denied, 08-2885 (La.2/6/09), 999 So.2d 785. Because the exception of no cause of action raises a question of law, and the district court’s decision is based solely on the sufficiency of the petition, review of the district court’s ruling on an exception of no cause of action is de novo. Scheffler v. Adams and Reese, LLP, 06-1774 (La.2/22/07), 950 So.2d 641, 647.

Bollinger’s reconventional demand seeks to enforce the warranty of peaceful possession set forth in Article 2700, which provides in pertinent part:

The lessor warrants the lessee’s peaceful possession of the leased thing against any disturbance caused by a per[210]*210son who asserts ownership, or right to possession of, or any other right in the thing.

As used in Article 2700, the term “disturbance” of possession is intended to have the same meaning as in Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article. 3659. La. Civ.Code art. 2700, Revision Comment (e); Sheets Family Partners-Louisiana, L.T.D. v. Inner City Refuge Economic Development Corporation, 47,156 (La.App. 2 Cir. 6/20/12), 94 So.3d 964, 969.

Article 3659 distinguishes between a “disturbance in fact” and a “disturbance in law,” and defines the latter as follows:

A disturbance in law is the execution, recordation, registry, or continuing existence of record of any instrument which asserts or implies a right of ownership or to the possession of immovable property or of a real right therein, or any claim or pretension of ownership or right to the possession thereof except in an action or proceeding, adversely to the possessor of such property or right.

In reliance upon this definition, Bollinger contends that the Naquins’ suit seeking to cancel the leases is a disturbance in law under Article 3659 because the suit “implies the Naquins have a right of ownership in derogation” of the leases. Therefore, according to Bollinger, the suit constitutes a breach of the warranty of peaceful possession under Louisiana Civil Code article 2700.

| ^Bollinger’s argument ignores the fact that Article 3659’s definition of a disturbance in law expressly excludes “an action or proceeding [filed] adversely to the possessor of such property.” Citing that exception, our courts have consistently held that an eviction proceeding is not a disturbance that gives rise to a possessory action. Horrell v. Matthews, 10-1694 (La.App. 1 Cir. 5/6/11), 2011 WL 1941588 (unpublished opinion), writ denied, 11-1848 (La.11/4/11), 75 So.3d 925; Ciolino v. Castiglia, 446 So.2d 1366, 1371, n. 6 (La.App. 1 Cir.1984); Jackson v. Campco of Monroe, Inc., 623 So.2d 1380, 1383 (La.App. 2 Cir. 1993); Karst v. Ward-Steinman, 469 So.2d 440, 443 (La.App. 3 Cir.1985); Bodcaw Company v. Enterkin, 273 So.2d 325 (La.App. 3 Cir.1973).

In Jackson, a lessee in an eviction proceeding filed a reconventional demand requesting that the proceeding be enjoined because the eviction suit was a disturbance of the lessee’s possession of a leased residence. Jackson, 623 So.2d at 1383. After quoting Article 3659 and the pertinent exception for claims filed adversely to the possessor, the court of appeal found:

The problem with [the lessee’s] contention is that the sole and only disturbance alleged by him in the district court is the city court eviction suit. An eviction proceeding falls within the exception in Art.

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147 So. 3d 207, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 1638, 2014 WL 3610772, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 1139, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/naquin-v-bollinger-shipyards-inc-lactapp-2014.