Weber v. Metropolitan Community Hospice Foundation, Inc.

131 So. 3d 371, 2013 La.App. 4 Cir. 0182, 2013 WL 6923660, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2656
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 18, 2013
DocketNo. 2013-CA-0182
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 131 So. 3d 371 (Weber v. Metropolitan Community Hospice Foundation, Inc.) 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
Weber v. Metropolitan Community Hospice Foundation, Inc., 131 So. 3d 371, 2013 La.App. 4 Cir. 0182, 2013 WL 6923660, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2656 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

MADELEINE M. LANDRIEU, Judge.

hThe plaintiff, Chinita Weber, appeals the trial court’s judgment that dismissed her petition upon the granting of exceptions of no right of action and prescription filed by the defendant, Metropolitan Hospice, Inc. (“Metropolitan”). For the rea[373]*373sons that follow, we reverse the trial court’s judgment in part and remand the matter to that court.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

On August 4, 2006, Ms. Weber filed suit alleging wrongful death and survival claims on behalf of her aunt, Mary London, one of eight people who died at Metropolitan Hospice during the week following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on August 29, 2005.1 Ms. Weber alleged that Metropolitan was negligent in failing to evacuate the residents of its facility and in failing to provide an adequate source of backup electrical power, thus exposing those in the facility to extreme heat and unsanitary conditions, which ultimately caused her aunt’s death. Ms. Weber’s suit, originally pled as a class action, was consolidated in the trial court with | ¡.similar actions filed against Metropolitan by families of the other deceased individuals.

Metropolitan raised an exception of no right of action asserting that Ms. Weber was not the proper party to file an action on behalf of her aunt. The exception was based upon the Louisiana Civil Code articles that specify which parties have the right to bring a wrongful death action and a survival action, respectively, on behalf of a deceased person. According to Article 2315.2, the right to bring a wrongful death action inures successively to: 1) the deceased’s surviving spouse and/or children; 2) the deceased’s surviving father and/or mother; 3) the deceased’s surviving brothers and/or sisters; and 4) the deceased’s surviving grandfather and/or grandmother. Article 2315.1 provides that the right to recover damages for injury to the deceased person or his property (the survival action) is granted to the same classes of beneficiaries listed above in the same successive order, and that in the absence of any of these classes, the right to bring the action is granted to the deceased’s succession representative.

The trial court granted the exception of no right of action and dismissed the case. Ms. Weber filed a motion for new trial asking that she be afforded time to amend her petition to state a right of action. The trial court gave her thirty days to amend.2 On February 24, 2011 Ms. Weber filed an amending petition in her new capacity as the representative of her aunt’s succession.3 [.¡Metropolitan then filed an exception of no right of action as to the wrongful death claim asserted by Ms. Weber and an exception of prescription as to the survival claim. The trial court granted both exceptions from the bench without an evidentia-ry hearing and signed a written judgment to this effect on July 15, 2011. Ms. Weber filed a motion for new trial and a request for written reasons for judgment in early August, 2011. The trial court denied the motion without a hearing on August 11, 2011. On August 30, 2011, the trial court issued written Reasons for Judgment that addressed only the court’s basis for denying the new trial, not its reasons for the underlying judgment granting the exceptions. Ms. Weber now appeals the July 15, 2011 judgment dismissing her action [374]*374upon the granting of Metropolitan’s exceptions.

ISSUES

In her appellant brief Ms. Weber states that she has listed “multiple possible Errors and corresponding Issues for review due to a lack of knowledge of any reason(s) that the district court granted the exceptions ....”4 In our view, the issues that warrant discussion are as follows:

(1) Whether the trial court erred by granting the exception of no right of action as to the survival claim;
(2) Whether the trial court erred by finding that Ms. Weber’s amended petition, filed in her capacity as succession representative, does not “relate back” to Cher timely filed original petition, and that, therefore, her survival action is prescribed.

DISCUSSION

I. Exception of No Right of Action

The exception of no right of action tests whether the plaintiff has a real and actual interest in the action. La. C.C.P. art. 927(5); Indus. Companies, Inc. v. Durbin, 2002-0665, p. 11 (La.1/28/03), 837 So.2d 1207, 1216. The function of the exception is to determine whether the plaintiff belongs to the class of persons to whom the law grants the cause of action asserted in the lawsuit. Id. (citing Louisiana Paddlewheels v. Louisiana Riverboat Gaming Com’n, 94-2015, p. 5 (La.11/30/94), 646 So.2d 885, 888). The exception of no right of action assumes that the petition states a valid cause of action for some person and questions whether the plaintiff in the particular case is a member of the class that has a legal interest in the subject matter of the litigation. Id., p. 12, 837 So.2d at 1216. Evidence is admissible on the trial of an exception of no right of action to “support or controvert any of the objections pleaded, when the grounds therefor do not appear from the petition.” La.Code Civ. Proc. art. 931. Id.

Whether a party has a right of action is a question of law. Brednich v. Bourbon Nite-Life, LLC, 2012-1209, p. 3 (La.App. 4 Cir. 12/19/12), 108 So.3d 235, 238, writ denied, 2013-0168 (La.3/1/13), 108 So.3d 1182 (citing Acorn Community Land Ass’n of Louisiana, Inc. v. Zeno, 05-1489, p. 3 (La.App. 4 Cir. 6/21/06), 936 So.2d 836, 838). An appellate court reviews questions of law by 15making a determination as to whether the trial court was legally correct or legally incorrect. Id., p. 4, 108 So.3d at 238.

On appeal, Ms. Weber does not challenge the dismissal of her wrongful death claim, only the dismissal of her claim for the damages suffered by her aunt while she remained alive in the Metropolitan facility (the survival action). Because the trial court correctly dismissed the wrongful death claim on the basis that Ms. Weber does not have a right of action under Louisiana Civil Code article 2315.2, we affirm the judgment insofar as it dismissed that claim.

The trial court erred, however, by granting the exception of no right of action with regard to the survival claim. As noted previously, Louisiana Civil Code article 2315.1 provides that in the absence of a surviving spouse, child, sibling or grandparent of the deceased, a claim alleging injury to the deceased or his property may be urged by the deceased’s succession representative. Because Ms. London died without a surviving relative in any of the categories listed in article 2315.1, only her [375]*375succession representative would have a right of action. Because Ms. Weber’s amended petition was filed in her capacity as Ms. London’s succession representative, the exception of no right of action was wrongly granted as to the survival claim. We therefore reverse the judgment in that respect.

II. Exception of Prescription

Prescription is a peremptory exception. La. C.C.P. art. 927. When the exception of prescription is raised in the trial court prior to trial of the case, evidence may be introduced to support or controvert it. La. C.C. P. art. 931. If evidence is introduced, the trial court’s findings of fact are reviewed according to |fithe manifest error standard.

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

Related

Robert Alexander v. Dresser, LLC
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2025
Taxicab Insurance Store, LLC v. American Service Insurance Co.
224 So. 3d 451 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)
Roubion Shoring Co. v. Crescent Shoring, L.L.C.
222 So. 3d 921 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)
Bourbon Investments, LLC v. New Orleans Equity LLC
207 So. 3d 1088 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016)
Clayton v. Cannizzaro
197 So. 3d 238 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016)
Zeigler v. Housing Authority of New Orleans
192 So. 3d 175 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016)
Johnson v. Allen
158 So. 3d 852 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)
Petivan v. City of New Orleans
154 So. 3d 631 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2014)
Rondeno v. Yun-How Lee
143 So. 3d 1285 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
131 So. 3d 371, 2013 La.App. 4 Cir. 0182, 2013 WL 6923660, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2656, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weber-v-metropolitan-community-hospice-foundation-inc-lactapp-2013.