Suhren v. Gibert

55 So. 3d 941, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 0767, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 25, 2011 WL 117233
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 12, 2011
Docket2010-CA-0767
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 55 So. 3d 941 (Suhren v. Gibert) 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
Suhren v. Gibert, 55 So. 3d 941, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 0767, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 25, 2011 WL 117233 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

CHARLES R. JONES, Judge.

hThe Appellant, Adolph Charles Suhren, III, seeks review of the district court judgment granting summary judgment in favor of Appellees Cheryl Gibert, Eugene Gi-bert, III, and Joel Suhren Gibert, and finding that the claims of Mr. Suhren were perempted. Under our de novo review, we reverse, finding that the claims of Mr. Suhren are not perempted. Furthermore, we remand this matter to the district court to determine whether any of the claims of Mr. Suhren are not prescribed.

This case involves an inter-family dispute between Mr. Suhren and his relatives regarding the administration of a family owned and run business, Nerhus Properties, Inc. (“Nerhus”). Mr. Suhren owns a portion of the shares of stock in Nerhus. His half-sister Sarah Suhren Hamblin, and his two first cousins Cheryl Gibert and Eugene J. Gibert, III, (“Mr. Gibert”), also each own shares of stock in Nerhus. 1 Since 1987 to the present, Ms. Hamblin, Ms. Cheryl Gibert, Mr. Gibert, and Mr. Gibert’s mother, Joel Suhren Gibert (who is also Mr. Suhreris aunt), have comprised the Board of Directors of Nei'hus. Mr. Suhren has a strained relationship with the above referenced members of the Board of Directors, and became suspicious of their management of Nerhus by the late 1990s.

|2In November 2004, Mr. Suhren sued Cheryl Gibert, Mr. Gibert, and Joel Suh-ren Gibert — in their capacities as directors of Nerhus — for allegedly breaching their fiduciary duties as administrators over Nerhus. Mr. Suhren also sued Nerhus . itself. All four defendants will be referred to as the “Appellees” herein. Mr. Suhren specifically alleges the following: that the Appellees purposely tried to dilute the value of his share of stock; that they paid themselves for jobs they were not performing; that they collaborated to force him out of Nerhus; and that they diverted a corporate opportunity in Colorado from Nerhus. Mr. Suhren further alleged that the Appellees breached duties of care and loyalty, and sought a ruling to set aside the issuance of unauthorized shares of stock by the Appellees. Mr. Suhren maintains that the alleged wrongdoing by the Appellees continues to the present.

*943 Mr. Suhren amended his petition for damages twice. Initially, he amended his petition for damages to include additional claims against Mr. Gibert, alleging that Mr. Gibert usurped business opportunities which belonged to Nerhus. Furthermore, Mr. Suhren sought a declaratory judgment arguing that the Appellees’ efforts to allegedly “ratify” their alleged prior illegal stock issuances were null and void. In his second amended petition, Mr. Suhren added additional facts and alleged usurpation of an investment opportunity in Colorado by the Giberts, and added Ms. Hamblin as a defendant.

The Appellees filed a joint motion for a peremptory exception of prescription, and Nerhus filed a separate exception of prescription, peremption, no cause of action, and no right of action, which the district court deferred consideration of until trial on the merits.

| ¡Additionally, in response to being sued in the second amended petition, Ms. Ham-blin filed an exception of prescription, which was granted on July 20, 2008. The claims against Ms. Hamblin were dismissed with prejudice. Subsequently, Mr. Suhren filed a Motion for New Trial. Additionally, Mr. Gibert individually and the Appellees filed a motion for summary judgment, raising an exception of peremption against Mr. Suhren in September of 2008. The district court heard both the motion for summary judgment and the motion for new trial on the same date in March 2009.

The district court rendered judgment granting the Appellees’ Motion for Summary Judgment, finding, sua sponte, that Mr. Suhren’s claims were perempted under La. R.S. 12:1502. The motion for summary judgment of Mr. Gibert was granted as well. Furthermore, the court denied Mr. Suhren’s Motion for New Trial as moot. The district court dismissed all of the claims of Mr. Suhren with prejudice, and ordered the parties to bear their own costs. A signed judgment was rendered by the court in April 2009.

Thereafter, the Appellees filed a “Motion to Tax Costs and Expenses Based on Offer of Judgment Ordering Each Party to Bear Its Own Costs”, which the district court treated as a motion for new trial. The district court denied the motion.

Mr. Suhren timely filed the instant appeal and seeks review of the April 2009 judgment. Additionally, the Appellees have filed a cross-appeal seeking a reversal of the determination of the district court that they were to pay their own costs, and requesting that this court award them damages for the costs of the instant appeal.

|4Mr. Suhren raises five issues on appeal:

1. Is the limitation period contained within La. R.S. 12:1502 a hybrid li-berative prescriptive period, as was determined by the First Circuit in Wooley v. Lucksinger, 2006-1140 (LaApp. 1 Cir. 12/30/08); 14 So.3d 311, writ granted, 2009-0571 (La.12/18/09); 23 So.3d 953, or is that limitation period peremptive in nature?
2. If this Court disagrees with the First Circuit’s finding that La. R.S. 12:1502 is not peremptive, are claims against the Appellees which arose within three years of the filing of the Petition, and those which arose after the filing of suit, still viable?
3. Do genuine issues of material fact exist with respect to Mr. Suhren’s claims that the Appellees have engaged in a scheme whereby they have taken excessive salaries and personal benefits to drain Nerhus of all its profits, while also engaging in *944 sham stock offerings designed solely to dilute his interest in the corporation and usurping business opportunities that rightfully belonged to Nerhus?
4. Under Louisiana law, is the intentional breach of a fiduciary duty a tort?
5. Should the district court have allowed him the opportunity to amend his suit under La. C.C.P. art. 934 after granting an exception of prescription, where the grounds for granting the exception can be cured by amendment?

Appellate courts review of a summary judgment is de novo. Dominio v. Folger Coffee Co., 2005-0357 (La.App. 4 Cir. 2/15/06), 926 So.2d 16. Furthermore, a motion for summary judgment will be granted if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to material fact, and that the mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. La. C.C.P. art. 966(B). However, if the mov-ant will not bear the burden of proof at trial, the movant’s burden on the motion does not require him to negate all essential elements of the |sadverse party’s claim, action, or defense, but rather to point out to the court that there is an absence of factual support for one or more elements essential to the adverse party’s claim, action, or defense. La. C.C.P. art. 966(C)(2). Thereafter, if the adverse party fails to produce factual support sufficient to establish that he will be able to satisfy his evidentiary burden of proof at trial, there is no genuine issue of material fact. Id.

Albeit that Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
55 So. 3d 941, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 0767, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 25, 2011 WL 117233, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/suhren-v-gibert-lactapp-2011.