Santopadre v. Pelican Homestead & Savings Ass'n

749 F. Supp. 124, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14498, 1990 WL 163166
District Court, E.D. Louisiana·Decided October 19, 1990·No. Civ. A. No. 89-4340·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

ORDER AND REASONS

CHARLES SCHWARTZ, Jr., District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the Motion of Pelican Homestead And Savings Association (Pelican) for Preliminary and Permanent Injunction against the plaintiffs, enjoining them, their attorneys, agents or employees from taking any steps in prosecution of the matter entitled “John V. Santopadre v. Pelican Homestead and Savings Association,” Case No. 90-17541, Division “B” of the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, including the filing of a Notice of Lis Pendens, and representing to anyone that the plaintiffs are owners of an undivided interest of any nature in the “Avenue Plaza” property, a certain piece of real estate known as Municipal No. 2113 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs brought suit before this Court on October 2, 1989 based on the conduct of Gulf Federal Savings Bank (GFSB) during the period 1982 to 1986. GFSB was placed in receivership in November 1986, with FSLIC as the Receiver. FSLIC then entered into an acquisition agreement with Gulf Federal Savings and Loan Association (GFSL) whereby GFSL acquired certain assets and liabilities of GFSB from FSLIC. In 1987, GFSL merged with Pelican. Plaintiffs claimed, inter alia, that Pelican was liable for the alleged breach of their settlement agreements with GFSB regarding disposition of their “Avenue Plaza” property. On the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment, the Court granted Pelican’s motion for summary judgment, dismissed plaintiffs’ claims with prejudice, but enforced the terms of the 1986 settlement agreements. This Court found that the [125]*125assumption of GFSB by GFSL was nothing more than a form of liquidation, and that GFSL did not assume any undisclosed and unliquidated liabilities from GFSB when it was acquired via FSLIC. However, the Court found that GFSL and Pelican were aware that GFSB had agreed to pay plaintiff John Santopadre a stipulated salary of $104,000 over a one-year period, and to cancel various notes regarding the Avenue Plaza property as part of the 1986 settlement agreements, and found the settlement agreements (relinquishing the Avenue Plaza property, with the management fee payable to Santopadre) enforceable as to these parties. This Court’s Order and Reasons of August 9, 1990 specifically stated that plaintiffs had no claim, ordered the Recorder of Mortgages to Cancel The Lis Pendens filed by plaintiffs with the Recorder of Mortgages and Registrar of Conveyances in connection with their action in the Civil District Court for the Parish of New Orleans (# 86-186000), and directed the Clerk of Court to enter final judgment dismissing plaintiffs’ complaint with prejudice.

FACTS

Following these August 6, 1990 and August 9, 1990 Orders and Reasons issued by this Court, the plaintiffs again filed an action in the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans (# 90-17541), claiming a 12.5% ownership interest in the Avenue Plaza property, alleging that the mortgage to GFSB securing indebtedness of $17,000,-000, executed by Santopadre in the name of the Avenue Plaza partnership and ratified by Mrs. Santopadre, was invalid on the grounds that the partnership had ceased to exist, and further that this mortgage should be held invalid as to Santopadre and his wife individually even though Santopa-dre was a general partner and his wife a partner in their Avenue Plaza endeavor. These pleadings are essentially identical to those contained in the “Facts” portion of plaintiffs’ Complaint filed in this Court on October 2, 1989, in which the ownership interests of the Avenue Plaza property were clearly at issue. Plaintiffs sought recovery under these pleadings under theories of, inter alia, “Breach of Joint Venture Agreement,” “Extortion,” “Recision, Dissolution and/or Annulment,” and “Imposition of Constructive Trust.” Upon finding that the 1986 settlement agreements were valid and enforceable as to the current parties, and that Pelican was not liable for the alleged conduct of its predecessor, plaintiffs’ Complaint was dismissed with prejudice.

Defendant Pelican moves now for preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, alleging that the plaintiffs’ current Petition for Petitory Action in the Civil District Court is a frivolous, thinly disguised attempt to evade the orders of this Court in a matter already fully adjudicated in this Court, and that injunctive relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2283 is appropriate under these circumstances. Pelican requests that the Court enter an Order enjoining Lorraine Aucoin, wife of/and John V. Santopadre from representing to anyone that they have an ownership interest in the Avenue Plaza property, as this issue was wholly resolved by the adjudication in this Court, and that they be ordered to dismiss their current Petition (# 90-17541) in the Civil District Court.

THE LAW

Federal courts have the authority, under 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a)1, to enjoin a party appearing before it from attempting to litigate the same issues in another court. Toledo Scale Co. v. Computing Scale Co., 261 U.S. 399, 43 S.Ct. 458, 67 L.Ed. 719 (1923); Kinnear-Weed Corporation v. Humble Oil & Refining Company, 441 F.2d 631, (5th Cir.1971), reh. den., 404 U.S. 996, 92 S.Ct. 532, 30 L.Ed.2d 549 cert. denied, 404 U.S. 941, 92 S.Ct. 285, 30 L.Ed.2d 255 (1971).

[126]*126In Kinnear-Weed, the leading case in the Fifth Circuit on the application of § 1651(a), the plaintiffs petition to set aside judgment against it was denied, with the district court also enjoining Kinnear-Weed from further litigating in any court the patent infringement claims which had been the subject of the suit. Included in the § 1651(a) order were additional claims by the plaintiff regarding allegedly altered physical evidence in the case, which the plaintiff later conceded were baseless but which the court would not then allow plaintiff to withdraw from the record of the case. In upholding the action of the district court in this instance, the Fifth Circuit, per Judge Clark, stated

Certainly one factor that the district court could and did take into account in exercising its discretion to issue the injunction was the harassing and vexatious character of this litigation. We cannot say that the district court abused its discretion in this regard. Kinnear-Weed asserts that the injunction is too broad because it will be prevented from asserting new and additional factual matters not adjudicated in this proceeding. The injunction does no more than embody the principles of res judicata and collateral estoppel. Kinnear-Weed has had its day in court on the present issues — not once, but several times. We interpret this injunction to preclude Kinnear-Weed from raising any of the issues presented in its original patent infringement suit ...
Id. at 637.

Judge Clark then assessed the costs of the appeal, including reasonable attorney’s fees incurred by Humble, against Kinnear-Weed, citing Fed.Rule Civ.P.Rule 38 and 28 U.S.C. § 1912. Id.

In Harrelson v. United States,

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Santopadre v. Pelican Homestead & Savings Ass'n, 749 F. Supp. 124, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14498, 1990 WL 163166 (E.D. La. 1990).

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