Shahla v. City of Port Allen

601 So. 2d 746, 1992 WL 117208
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 22, 1992
DocketCA 91 0634
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 601 So. 2d 746 (Shahla v. City of Port Allen) 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
Shahla v. City of Port Allen, 601 So. 2d 746, 1992 WL 117208 (La. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

601 So.2d 746 (1992)

Adib SHAHLA and Alemar Corporation
v.
CITY OF PORT ALLEN, et al.

No. CA 91 0634.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

May 22, 1992.

*747 Michael R. Connelly, Baton Rouge, for plaintiffs Adib Shahla and Alemar Corp.

Nelson M. Lee, Bunkie, for defendant George E. Antie.

Moise W. Dennery, New Orleans, for defendant Dr. Isidore Cohn, Jr.

Robert L. Freeman, Lisa Freeman Koch, Baton Rouge, for defendants Robert A. Rayford and John N. Gum, Jr.

Bradley C. Myers, Baton Rouge, for defendant City of Port Allen.

Before SHORTESS, LANIER and CRAIN, JJ.

LANIER, Judge.

This suit cumulates an action for damages in tort under La.C.C. art. 2315 and 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 with an action for reimbursement for unjust enrichment.[1]

PROCEDURAL FACTS

The plaintiffs are the Alemar Corporation (Alemar), a Louisiana business corporation, and Adib Shahla, the principal stockholder in Alemar. The plaintiffs allege in their petition that Alemar purchased two tracts of land in the City of Port Allen (City) and were thereafter unlawfully forced by the City to construct a new public street (15th Street) for access to this and other property. They further assert that owners of immovable property on the new street, namely Dr. Isidore Cohn, Jr., George Antie, Robert A. Rayford and John N. Gum, Jr., were unjustly enriched by the construction of the street and should be required to pay the plaintiffs their pro rata share of the construction cost.

Antie filed peremptory exceptions raising the objections of no right of action and no cause of action. Rayford and Gum filed (1) a dilatory exception raising the objection of failure to join a necessary party (the Rayford-Gum Partnership) and (2) a peremptory exception raising the objections of (a) failure to join an indispensable party (the Rayford-Gum Partnership), (b) no cause of action and (c) no right of action. The City filed a peremptory exception raising the objections of prescription, no cause of action and no right of action. Dr. Cohn filed (1) a dilatory exception raising the objection of failure to join necessary parties (Linda G. Gilmore, Babette C. Golden and Elise C. Rosenthal who are co-owners in indivision) and (2) a peremptory exception raising the objections of (a) failure to join indispensable parties (Linda G. Gilmore, Babette C. Golden and Elise C. Rosenthal who are co-owners in indivision), (b) no cause of action and (c) no right of action.

*748 On July 19, 1990, the trial for all of these exception was held. At the conclusion of the trial, the trial judge rendered judgment from the bench that (1) sustained the dilatory exceptions raising the objection of failure to join necessary parties filed by Rayford, Gum and Dr. Cohn; (2) sustained the peremptory exceptions raising the objection of failure to join indispensable parties filed by Rayford, Gum and Dr. Cohn; (3) sustained the peremptory exceptions raising the objections of no cause of action and no right of action filed by all defendants against Shahla; (4) sustained the peremptory exceptions raising the objection of no cause of action filed by all defendants against Alemar; (5) granted Alemar fifteen days to file an amended petition (Shahla was not granted an opportunity to file an amended petition); and (6) cast Shahla and Alemar with all costs associated with these exceptions. These rulings were reduced to a written judgment that was signed on July 31, 1990. No appeal was taken from this judgment.

Also, on July 19, 1990, on joint motion of the City and Shahla, the trial court rendered and signed a judgment which partially sustained the peremptory exception raising the objection of prescription filed by the City.[2] This judgment states that (1) "the plaintiff is asserting and is pursuing as the basis for recovery only the theory of unjustified enrichment and is not asserting a claim under any other theory of law", (2) "the City of Port Allen's Exception of Prescription is granted as to all theories of law or recovery, except unjustified enrichment", and (3) "the City's exception of prescription as to the plaintiff's claim for unjustified enrichment is denied." No appeal was taken from this judgment.

On August 2, 1990, Alemar and Shahla filed a supplemental and amended petition. In this pleading Linda Golden, Babette C. Golden, Elise C. Rosenthel and Rayford-Gum Partnership were added as parties defendant to the suit, and Paragraph 7 of the original petition was amended to provide as follows:

Petitioners allege that defendants have been unjustly enriched by the projects petitioner was forced to construct, and petitioners are entitled to compensation from defendants on a pro-rated basis for the costs of construction. The specific elements of said unjust enrichment are as follows:
A. All defendants have had their property values enhanced as a direct and proximate result of the plaintiffs' construction of an access road i.e. Fifteenth Street, which provided paved access not only to the property of plaintiffs, but also to the property of defendants. Defendants further had their property values enhanced and were personally enriched by the constructions of utility tie-ins to properties owned by certain of the defendants which heretofore had not had utility tie-ins.
B. Plaintiff Alemar Corporation was impoverished by having to expend considerable funds in the amount of approximately TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND ($200,000.00) DOLLARS to pave Fifteenth Street to provide access and utility tie-ins to property other than its own.
C. Plaintiff Adib Shahla was personally impoverished by having to provide considerable funds of his own to Alemar Corporation to pay for construction of said road and utility tie-ins, as well as providing his expertise and personal supervision as a civil engineer in the construction of the property for which he was never reimbursed by Alemar Corporation or defendants.
D. There was no legal justification for the defendants, City of Port Allen, to force plaintiffs to construct all of Fifteenth *749 Street and provide utility tie-ins to properties other than that owned by plaintiffs in that there were no legal requirements for said action and further said Fifteenth Street had been previously dedicated to the City by a prior land owner, and the City used the threats of denying necessary permits for use of plaintiffs' property to plaintiffs if they fail to comply with the requirements imposed by the City.
E. Due to the fact that plaintiffs were under intense pressure from the City to construct Fifteenth Street and would have suffered a considerable financial loss had they complied with the requirements of the City as soon as possible, plaintiffs had no immediate legal remedy available to them at the time and are therefore entitled to bring this suit for unjust enrichment.

Subsequently, Linda G. Gilmore, Babette C. Golden, Elise C. Rosenthal and the Rayford-Gum Partnership filed declinatory exceptions raising the objections of insufficiency of citation and lack of personal jurisdiction because the plaintiffs attempted to serve them through the counsel of record for Dr. Cohn, Rayford and Gum. Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
601 So. 2d 746, 1992 WL 117208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shahla-v-city-of-port-allen-lactapp-1992.