Titus v. Wilson

186 So. 3d 255, 2015 La.App. 4 Cir. 0799, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 93, 2016 WL 280964
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 20, 2016
DocketNo. 2015-CA-0799
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 186 So. 3d 255 (Titus v. Wilson) 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
Titus v. Wilson, 186 So. 3d 255, 2015 La.App. 4 Cir. 0799, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 93, 2016 WL 280964 (La. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

MAX N. TOBIAS, JR., Judge.

hThe plaintiff/appellant, Mark J. Titus (“Mr. Titus”), has appealed a judgment that granted a peremptory exception of prescription in favor of defendants /appel-lees, Tim D, Wilson, Sr. and Tim D. Wilson Investigations, Inc. (collectively “Mr. Wilson”), which dismissed Mr. Wilson from [257]*257this litigation. After reviewing the record and the applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. .

Mr. Titus filed this suit against Mr. Wilson by way of . an amended petition in August 2013, to recover damages for alleged economic and personal injuries that he suffered as a result of legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty. Mr. Wilson is a private investigator hired by Mr. Titus to assist with his criminal defense. . The events surrounding this, lawsuit involve Mr. Titus’ guilty plea in a federal criminal suit and the ensuing forfeiture proceedings of his property. Previously named as defendants-in the original petition, were Paul H. Villalobos, Esq., Titus’ criminal counsel; James M. Ardoin, III, Esq.; and Ardoin Law • PLLC, Titus’ criminal co-counsel. Mr.Titus’ ex-wife, Valerie Titus, was originally a plaintiff, but she was dismissed on a peremptory exception of no right of action. This appeal concerns only Mr. Wilson.

In U.S. v. Titus, 547 Fed.Appx. 464, 465-467, 2013 WL 5997824, *1-2 (5th Cir. 2013), the court succinctly, set forth the facts underlying this case. We adopt them accordingly:

The defendant and appellant, Mark Titus, was the Chief Operating Officer of construction contractor Garner Services, Ltd. (“Garner Services”), which he owned with his partners Ed Garner and QCI Marine Offshore LLC. Titus proved to be an untrustworthy partner. He and his brother-in-law, Dominic Faz-zio, created a series of fictitious invoices from supposed sub-contractors for work that was never performed, for which Garner Services paid approximately $925,000. These.payments went to companies Fazzio controlled, which then passed payments to a company that Titus controlled.
The scheme was discovered and a criminal information, plea agreement, and guilty plea followed. The criminal information charged Titus with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Titus agreed to plead guilty and waive his right to indictment in exchange for the Government’s foregoing additional charges against him relating to the Garner Services scheme. Under the agreement, Titus committed to: (1) execute a form used to identify assets for forfeiture purposes; (2) forfeit any proceeds from -the Garner Services fraud; (3) submit to law enforcement interviews “whenever and wherever requested;” and (4) be “completely truthful.” The agreement contained a “merger clause” stating that “statements set ■forth above represent defendant’s entire agreement with the Government; there are not any other agreements, letters, or •notations that will affect this agreement.”
According to Titus’s version of the events, sometime before Titus’s plea agreement was signed, Tim Wilson, a private investigator whom Titus had hired, spoke with two of the. Assistant United States Attorneys (“AUSAs”) for the Eastern District of Louisiana on Titus’s behalf. Wilson stated that the AU-SAs promised not to execute on the forfeiture provision of the plea agreement. The story of the secret deal is contested. The two-AUSAs deny having made such a promise.
laTitus then pleaded guilty. In a Rule 11 colloquy, District Judge Ivan Lemelle asked Titus if anyone had promised him anything outside the written plea agreement. Titus replied no. Judge Lemelle then accepted the plea as knowing and voluntary. Sentencing was postponed pending further investigation. Judge Lemelle: “Did anyone promise you anything other than a written plea agree[258]*258ment with the government to plead guilty?” Titus: “No, sir.”
Several months later, and after beginning to initiate forfeiture proceedings, ■the Government informed Titus through a letter that he was in serious breach of his plea agreement. Titus'was alleged to have engaged in several transactions to shield assets from forfeiture, including having his wife sell his mother-in-law’s real property worth $144,000 for $10. The Government also alleged that he had continued to engage in the bribery and kickback scheme. Because of this alleged breach, the Government stated itself not bound by the plea agreement • and informed Titus that he would be indicted for additional charges. The Government alleged that Titus had also: (1) refused to execute a form used to identify assets for forfeiture purposes; (2) concealed financial information to block forfeiture of certain assets; (3) not been fully forthcoming in meetings with the Government;- and (4) refused to submit to additional interviews. '■
On September 11, 2012, almost a year after pleading guilty, Titus moved to withdraw his guilty plea, his plea agreement, and his waiver of indictment. On ! October 10, the district court denied Titus’s motion and sentenced him to 60 months in prison, three years of supervised release, a $100,000 fine, and $925,320 restitution to Garner Services.
The day after Titus’s sentencing, the Government indicted Titus on additional charges in United States v. Fazzio, No. 2:11-CR-157-HGB-ALC-2 [2011 WL 7100202] (E.D.La. June 24, 2011), a case before District Judge Helen Berrigan. This indictment also charged Fazzio. Titus filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that filing additional charges violated the Government’s plea agreement. Judge Berrigan denied the motion, stating that Titus “breach[ed] the plea agreement in multiple ways.” Later, three weeks before trial was set to begin, the United States withdrew the case before Judge Berrigan. It is our | understanding that no further charges were brought against Titus'. * * ⅝
The'district court concluded that the plea was “very éxpréssed, very knowing, [and] very voluntary.” It did not err in so holding. Neither did it err in determining that Titus’s secret plea deal was likely fictitious. 'In direct opposition to this later story of an anti-forfeiture deal, Titus told Judge Lémelle when pleading guilty that no one had promised him anything outside the written plea agreement. Cf. United States v. Lampazianie, 251 F.3d 519, 524 (5th Cir.2001) (“[s]olemn declarations in open court carry a strong' presumption of verity”) (alteration in original).

With these facts, we turn to the one assignment of error before us:

Whether the trial court was correct in sustaining Mr. Wilson’s Exception of Prescription finding that the causes of action alleged against Mr. Wilson in Mr. Titus’ Amended Petition for Damages sounded in tort rather than in contract and were therefore prescribed.

Mr. Titus argues that he and Mr. Wilson éntered into a contract' for mandate, which is defined by La. C.C: art. 2989 as a “contract by which' a person, • the principal, confers authority on another person, the mandate, to transact one or more affairs for the principal.”1 He further claims that this matter concerns Mr. Wilson’s personal breach of fiduciary duty/contract/mandate, a cause of action with a [259]*259prescriptive period of ten years. See La. C.C. art. 3499. In the alternative, this would be a negligence action governed by La. C.C. art.

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186 So. 3d 255, 2015 La.App. 4 Cir. 0799, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 93, 2016 WL 280964, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/titus-v-wilson-lactapp-2016.