Slayter & Slayter, LLC v. Ryland

953 So. 2d 1000, 6 La.App. 3 Cir. 1385, 2007 La. App. LEXIS 404, 2007 WL 675870
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 7, 2007
Docket2006-1385
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 953 So. 2d 1000 (Slayter & Slayter, LLC v. Ryland) 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
Slayter & Slayter, LLC v. Ryland, 953 So. 2d 1000, 6 La.App. 3 Cir. 1385, 2007 La. App. LEXIS 404, 2007 WL 675870 (La. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

953 So.2d 1000 (2007)

SLAYTER & SLAYTER, LLC
v.
Bruce RYLAND.

No. 2006-1385.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

March 7, 2007.

*1001 Henry H. Lemoine, Jr., Pineville, LA, for Plaintiffs/Appellants, Slayter & Slayter, LLC, Slayter LLC, Aaron Slayter, Sr.

Charles S. Weems, III, Trevor S. Fry, Michael J. O'Shee, Gold, Weems, Bruser, Sues & Rundell, Alexandria, LA, for Defendant/Appellee, Bruce Ryland.

Court composed of JIMMIE C. PETERS, MARC T. AMY, and ELIZABETH A. PICKETT, Judges.

PETERS, J.

In this litigation, Slayter & Slayter Limited Liability Company, Slayter Limited Liability Company, and Aaron Slayter, Sr. brought suit against Bruce Ryland, seeking to recover a money judgment against him under various theories of recovery. They now appeal the trial court's grant of a peremptory exception of prescription in favor of Mr. Ryland, dismissing all of their claims against him. For the following reasons, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand this matter to the trial court for further proceedings.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This litigation began as a suit by Slayter & Slayter Limited Liability Company (Slayter & Slayter LLC) filed against Mr. Ryland on May 30, 2003. In that initial suit, Slayter & Slayter LLC asserted that Mr. Ryland, as a former employee, owed the company $124,451.50. The petition asserted that this total included $47,777.00, which Mr. Ryland took from the company by writing unauthorized checks and overdrawing his personal capital account, and $76,674.50 in unpaid loans from the company. Mr. Ryland responded to the suit on July 7, 2003, with an answer and reconventional demand wherein he named Slayter & Slayter LLC, Slayter Limited Liability Company (Slayter LLC) and Mr. Slayter as defendants in reconvention.[1]

Slayter LLC and Mr. Slayter only became party plaintiffs in the litigation on September 30, 2005, when they joined with Slayter & Slayter LLC in filing a cross-claim[2] against Mr. Ryland. In the cross-claim, the three plaintiffs sought to recover $41,756.75 from Mr. Ryland because of his alleged negligent failure to timely cancel certain insurance policies when instructed to do so. The amount sought to be recovered represented the cost of the insurance premiums paid after the policies were thought to have been cancelled.

*1002 On May 2, 2006, Mr. Ryland filed a peremptory exception of prescription as to all claims asserted against him by Slayter & Slayter LLC, Slayter LLC, and/or Mr. Slayter. After a June 12, 2006 hearing, the trial court granted the exception and dismissed all of the plaintiffs' claims. The trial court executed a judgment to that effect on June 20, 2006, and the three plaintiffs perfected this appeal.

FACTUAL HISTORY

The trial court based its decision on the testimony of Mr. Ryland, the deposition testimony of Mr. Slayter,[3] and a number of documentary exhibits. Although the trial court did not elaborate on its factual findings in granting the exception, there is little dispute concerning the factual background needed to resolve the issues now before us.

The trial record establishes that Slayter LLC and Slayter & Slayter LLC are member-managed Louisiana limited liability companies[4] with Mr. Slayter as the sole manager of Slayter LLC, and his son, Aaron Slayter, Jr., as the sole manager of Slayter & Slayter LLC. Mr. Ryland was one of the original members of Slayter & Slayter LLC and, sometime after its organization, obtained an ownership interest in Slayter LLC.[5]

Mr. Slayter was married to Mr. Ryland's mother[6] when Mr. Ryland began working for one of the interrelated companies in the mid 1980's.[7] Mr. Ryland's initial employment amounted to nothing more than performing "odd jobs." However, he ultimately became office manager/comptroller[8] in September of 1992. He held that position in one or more of the interrelated companies until his employment was terminated on July 6, 2001. On that day, Mr. Slayter forwarded Mr. Ryland a letter informing him that, effective that date, he was "relieved and dismissed from all [his] responsibilities and duties from Slayter LLC, Slayter and Slayter LLC, and all companies and properties associated."

Mr. Ryland's office manager/comptroller position did not include the duties imposed on the "manager" as named in the organizational documents of the two limited liability companies[9] although it did include personal services to Mr. Slayter. According to Mr. Slayter, "[Mr. Ryland] was in charge of my personal insurances, my personal bills, paying the company bills, seeing that the companies were properly insured, seeing that the taxes were computed correctly." Additionally, he was responsible for "[p]reparing paperwork for the people that prepared the taxes [for the companies]." Mr. Ryland *1003 had check-writing authority for both Mr. Slayter and Slayter & Slayter LLC. Despite this long list of responsibilities, Mr. Slayter strongly suggested that Mr. Ryland's job performance was less than satisfactory and that Mr. Ryland had no true responsibility. In his testimony, Mr. Ryland agreed with Mr. Slayter's description of his duties, but suggested that he had a number of other non-administrative duties not normally expected of a true office manager/comptroller.[10] The $124,451.50 claimed by Slayter & Slayter LLC in the initial pleading is derived from five separate transactions involving Mr. Ryland while he worked for the company. Slayter & Slayter LLC asserts that in 1996, Mr. Ryland borrowed $50,000.00 from the company and never repaid the loan; that in the early part of 1999, he borrowed $26,674.50 from the company to purchase a horse trailer and never repaid the loan; that in April of 2000, he wrote and negotiated a $6,900.00 company check without authorization; that in April of 2001, he wrote and negotiated a $7,300.00 company check without authorization; and that at some point during his employment, he overdrew his personal capital account by $33,577.00.

Mr. Ryland admits receiving the funds at issue, but denies the nature of all but one of the transactions as described by Slayter & Slayter LLC. According to Mr. Ryland, the $50,000.00 was a gift from Mr. Slayter and the two company checks and the withdrawal from his personal capital account were salary related and completely authorized. He does admit that the $26,674.50 at issue was a loan, but asserts that he paid it back, in cash, to Mr. Slayter.

The claim asserted against Mr. Ryland by Slayter & Slayter LLC, Slayter LLC, and Mr. Slayter in the subsequently filed cross-claim has as its origins Mr. Slayter's divorce from Mr. Ryland's mother. According to the pleadings, Mr. Slayter and Mr. Ryland's mother were divorced on August 7, 1997, but before the divorce they had entered into certain agreements wherein Mr. Slayter agreed to maintain certain insurance policies to the benefit of his estranged spouse. The pleadings further assert that after Mr. Slayter had completed his obligations under the agreements and was no longer required to provide that insurance coverage, he instructed Mr. Ryland to cancel the appropriate insurance policies, but Mr. Ryland did not follow those instructions. The three plaintiffs argue that, because of Mr. Ryland's "negligence," Mr. Slayter and the two companies lost $41,756.75 in premiums for unnecessary insurance.[11] Mr. Ryland did not address this issue in his testimony at the hearing on the prescription exception.

OPINION

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
953 So. 2d 1000, 6 La.App. 3 Cir. 1385, 2007 La. App. LEXIS 404, 2007 WL 675870, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slayter-slayter-llc-v-ryland-lactapp-2007.