Simeon v. Board of Levee Com'rs

124 So. 853, 12 La. App. 21, 1929 La. App. LEXIS 716
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 18, 1929
DocketNos. 13,226, 13,230, 13,235, 13,250
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 124 So. 853 (Simeon v. Board of Levee Com'rs) 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
Simeon v. Board of Levee Com'rs, 124 So. 853, 12 La. App. 21, 1929 La. App. LEXIS 716 (La. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

HIGGINS, J.

These are a series of suits commonly called “reparations cases.” In some of these cases the same points of law are at issue, and for the convenience of the court they have been consolidated into groups for the purpose of decision.

Plaintiffs entered separate suits against the defendant under the provisions of a constitutional amendment embodied in Act No. 2 of the Extra Session of the Louisiana Legislature of September, 1927. The petition in each instance claims loss or damage, first, for trapping, and, second, for loss of revenue, such as labor, fishing, etc., on account of the artificial crevasse caused by the cutting of the Mississippi river levee, by the officials of the state of Louisiana, at Caernarvon, Plaquemines parish, in this state. Plaintiffs also seek to recover attorney’s fees for the filing of these suits under the provisions of the constitutional amendment.

The defendant in each case filed an exception of no cause of action against the claims for loss or damage for labor, fishing, etc., and a plea of prescription against the claims for attorney’s fees. These exceptions of no . cause of action and pleas of prescription were maintained in each case and a- judgment duly rendered and signed by the district court. This left only the item of trapping losses still pending before the trial court.

The plaintiffs in each case then sold, transferred, and assigned their trapping claims to one William A. Walsingham, agent, who compromised these claims, and motions were then filed to discontinue the suits in so far as the trapping items were concerned, and judgment was accordingly entered discontinuing the suits as to the trapping claims.

Plaintiffs in each case then appealed the judgments sustaining the exception of no cause of action, and dismissing the labor, fishing, etc., claims, and the pleas of prescription as to attorney’s fees. Upon the transcript being filed in this court, in due time, defendant filed motions in each case to dismiss the appeals upon grounds, which are common to the respective groups of cases classified as follows:

Class 1. In the following two cases, to-wit, No. 13240 Patrick Peat, No. 13249 James Purnell, defendant contends the only judgment appealed from was signed more than 30 days prior to the filing of the petition for the appeal, and there is still pending undisposed of, in the lower court, a claim for attorney’s fees.

Class 2. In the following five cases, to-wit, No. 13226 Joseph Simeon, No. 13227 James Williams, No. 13228 Tony Fernandez, No. 13229 Vincent Almoso, No. 13230 Manuel Perez, defendant contends the only judgment appealed from was signed more than 30 days prior to the filing of the petition for the appeal. The last judgment disposing of the last issue in the suit was signed within 30 days of the date of the filing of the petition for the appeal, but no appeal was taken from that judgment, and, moreover, the claim disposed of by the court in this last judgment had been assigned by the original plaintiff and present appellant and was dismissed voluntarily on the motion of the assignee.

Class 3. In the following fifteen cases, to-wit, No. 13235 Louis Blaise, No. 13236 Edward Daniel, No. 13237 Louis Encalade, [23]*23No. 13238 Jordan Freeman, No. 1323-9 Bennie Gonzales, No. 13241A Sam Smith, Jr., No. 13241B Steven Steward, No. 13242 Toney Mones (for Mike Mones), No. 13243 Domingo Campo, No. 13244 Jacob Hamilton, No. 13245 Sam Hill, No. 13246 Paul Perez, No. 13247 John Joseph Ruiz, No. 13248 Edwin Richaux, No. 13250 Rufus B. Moran, defendant contends that the judgments appealed from were signed more than 30 days prior to the date of the filing of the petitions for appeals, and the final judgments disposing of the last issue in the cases were also signed more than 30 days prior to the filing of the petitions •for appeals.

We shall now dispose of these cases in the above order.

Class 1.' In these two cases plaintiffs and appellants agree and concede that, as there is still pending in the lower court a claim for attorney’s fees, the judgment sustaining the exception of no cause of action is still interlocutory, as all issues in the case have not been disposed of, and that the appeal is therefore premature. Bossier’s Heirs vs. Hollingsworth & Jackson, 117 La. 221, 41 So. 553.

The motion to dismiss the appeal in these two cases is therefore maintained and the appeals dismissed.

Class 2. In these cases the record shows that the judgments sustaining the exceptions of no cause of action and pleas of prescription in three of these cases were signed on May 29, 1929, and in two of them on July 11, 1929. The judgments dismissing the suits in so far as trapping claims are concerned, upon joint motion of the assignee and plaintiffs, were signed on August 1, 1929, and on August 27, 1929, plaintiffs filed- their petitions for appeals from the judgments sustaining the exceptions of no cause of action, and the pleas of prescription on May 29, 1929. Thus, it appears that the appeals were taken within 30 days from the last judgments disposing of the remaining issues in the cases, i. e., trapping claims, but more than 30 days after the judgments sustaining the exceptions of no cause of action and pleas of prescription on May 29, 1929, and July 11, 1929. 1

It is the contention of the defendant in each case under its motion to dismiss the appeal that, as the judgments from which the plaintiffs have appealed were signed more .than 30 days before the appeal was taken, plaintiff’s right of appeal was prescribed under the provisions of the constitutional amendment under which the suits were filed.

The relevant part of the constitutional amendment applicable to this controversy reads as follows:

“The suit which either the claimant or the Levee Board may bring to determine the right to and the amount of said compensation shall be filed by. or against said Levee Board by petition in the Civil District Court for- the Parish of Orleans and shall be tried without intervention of a jury. The judgment of said Civil District Court shall be final unless an appeal be taken within thirty days from the date of the signing of said judgment. * * *” (See Act No. 2 of Ex. Sess. 1927, sec. 4.)

Counsel for the defendant further contends that the appeal by the plaintiffs should have been from the ultimate decision rendered in the case dismissing the remaining issues involved in the cases, and not a direct appeal from the judgments sustaining the exceptions of no cause of action and the pleas of prescription. In support of this contention they cite the case of Bossier’s Heirs vs. Hollingsworth & Jackson, 117 La. 221, 41 So. 553, 555, in [24]*24■which the court, discussing the right of appeal from an interlocutory judgment, where there were other issues undisposed of, pending in the lower court, said:

“It can be reviewed, on the appeal from the judgment which may ultimately be rendered in the case (provided the plaintiffs take such appeal or answer it, as the case may be); but we do not think that it would conduce to an orderly .administration of justice to review it at this time. * * * ”

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Bluebook (online)
124 So. 853, 12 La. App. 21, 1929 La. App. LEXIS 716, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simeon-v-board-of-levee-comrs-lactapp-1929.