Articles Posted in Business Dispute

It is no secret that lawsuits are expensive creatures. It is perhaps baffling then that a party would retain an attorney, file a lawsuit, and maintain that lawsuit for over thirteen years without sufficiently actively pursuing that lawsuit.  Yet, that is exactly what happened in a recent case out of Livingston Parish.  And as the case explains, such inactivity within a case subjects the lawsuit to dismissal for abandonment.  Money and time wasted for all parties involved.  

In 2001, R.L. Hall and Associates, Inc. (“R.L. Hall”) filed a lawsuit against Brunt Construction, Inc. (“Brunt”) and Fidelity Deposit Company of Maryland (“Fidelity”) over a lien arising out of a construction contract.  The next action on record does not occur until 2005 when R.L. Hall filed a motion to compel discovery.  Then, in 2007,  R.L. Hall filed the first motion to set a scheduling conference. After the 2007 telephone conference between the parties, nothing else appeared in the record until the plaintiff filed a second motion to set a conference in December of 2010. After the court established discovery deadlines following the 2010 conference, nothing appeared in the record again until the plaintiff filed a third motion to set a conference on June 4, 2014. During 2011 however, counsel for R.L. Hall did send letters to lawyers for the defendants in an attempt to schedule depositions.  The informal correspondence, however, was not filed and does not appear in the court record.  The defendants then filed a motion to dismiss R.L. Hall’s claim because there were no steps taken to further the action in over three years.   The Judicial District Court for the Parish of Livingston dismissed the matter as abandoned.  

R.L. Hall appealed the dismissal to the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal.  Pursuant to La. C.C.P. art. 561 an action “is abandoned when the parties fail to take any step in its prosecution or defense in the trial court for a period of three years[.]”  Upon the passage of three years without any steps taken in the case, the case is automatically dismissed without the need for a court order.  To maintain a case, a party needs only to take some step within three years of the last action toward the prosecution or defense of the action and the step must be in the proceeding and on the record. See Clark v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Corporation, 785 So.2d 779 (La. 2001).   Attempting to schedule a deposition through informal correspondence without a filed formal notice of deposition does not constitute a “step” which would interrupt the abandonment clock.   

Whistleblowers play a controversial role in the United States. Without Mark Felt, also known as Deep Throat, the world would have never known about the corruptions in the Nixon Administration and without Edward Snowden, the world would have never known the extent of the NSA’s surveillance on both U.S. citizens and foreign individuals. Congress recognized the importance of whistleblowers when it passed the False Claims Act. The False Claims Act allows individuals to bring lawsuits (called a qui tam action) on behalf of the United States when an individual or entity defrauds the United States Government. See 31 U.S.C. § 3729 (2015). The purpose of the False Claims Act is to incentivize individuals to monitor and prevent fraud against the United States by enabling the individuals to get a portion of any damage award that the court gives.

Gregory D. Guth brought a qui tam action against a law firm (RP) arising from the firm’s representation of Louisiana State University (“LSU”) in an expropriation proceeding against him. An expropriation proceeding is an action by a governmental authority where the governmental authority takes property from its owner for public use or benefit.

This case arose after Hurricane Katrina. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development made federal funds available to the City of New Orleans (“the City”) in the form of Community Development Block Grants. The City set aside a portion of the block grants to build a medical center for the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs and a teaching hospital for LSU. The City and the State of Louisiana entered an agreement assigning LSU the power and funds to acquire or expropriate property for the medical facilities. LSU then hired RP to acquire the necessary property.

Contractual relationships can advance or dissolve as time passes, often turning sour when promises are not kept.  One or both parties may attempt to break the relationship but the underlying contract is not so easily terminated.  As a result, the parties may find themselves in a court battle over seemingly small details.  In this recent Louisiana case before the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, the presumably costly break-up came down to one little word.   

Spencer Franchise Services of Georgia, Incorporated (“Spencer”) and WOW Café and Wingery Franchising Account, L.L.C. (“WOW”) contracted to develop restaurants in Georgia.  Spencer agreed to open, manage, and provide for WOW restaurants in Georgia as well as to provide reports to WOW regarding the franchise locations.  WOW granted Spencer the exclusive right to open WOW restaurants in Georgia (excepting two counties) and the right to receive royalty and other fees associated with franchise operations.  The parties’ relationship began to deteriorate with Spencer failing to inspect franchise locations and furnish WOW with reports.  Spencer claimed that WOW also breached the contract by failing to sell a minimum number of franchise agreements as arguably required by the contract.  The legal dispute centered on the contract language which stated the “Franchisor” was required to sell franchise agreements.  WOW asserted “Franchisor” was a typographical error meant to read “Developer” which would obligate Spencer to franchise sales.  Spencer argued that obviously the contract’s wording of “Franchisor”  was accurate since it obligated WOW to open franchises.  Spencer reasoned that language to the contrary would not have been worth its investment.

Spencer and WOW filed numerous lawsuits against each other asking the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana for summary judgment. A court may award a party summary judgment when there is no genuine dispute about any material fact.  FED. R. CIV. P. 56(a).  When the court grants summary judgment, the judge is deciding the case according to the law, no fact-finders (usually a jury) are required.  The District Court found “Franchisor” as written was a clear mutual error and determined there were no facts remaining in dispute. The District Court granted summary judgment in WOW’s favor and rescinded the contract.  Spencer appealed arguing summary judgment was not proper in this case as it was not clear from all the evidence that “Franchisor” was a mistake and thus there were still questions requiring resolution by a jury.  

It is not uncommon for a victorious party in a lawsuit to seek attorneys’ fees upon their win.  There is no guarantee however the judge will agree an award of attorneys’’ fees are warranted.   In some cases filed in state court, the defendant can remove the case be heard in federal court.  If the federal court lacks jurisdiction, however, the case will be sent back to state court.  Whether the attorneys’ fees associated with the removal process can be recouped by the winning party is the subject of a recent lawsuit out of New Orleans.

CamSoft Data Systems, Inc. (“CamSoft”)  teamed up with Active Solutions (“Active”) and Southern Electronics Supply (“Electronic”) to install video surveillance systems in New Orleans. Just before the trio submitted their proposal for their joint venture for the future sale of the video surveillance system, Dell, Inc. (“Dell”) used their existing contract concerning the sale of technology to the state of Louisiana to halt the proposal. Moreover, Dell then sought to oust CamSoft from its joint venture with Active and Southern, who both then sold proprietary information that belonged to CamSoft. Later, in another business dealing, Dell ousted Southern and Active and replaced them with NetMethods, and cut Southern and Active out of the agreed arrangement.

CamSoft filed a lawsuit against Dell in Louisiana State Court, seeking its rights in the video surveillance system recognized and a share of the proceeds of the suit Active and Southern had against Dell. Using state law instead of federal patent law, CamSoft alleged breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract.

Most of us probably owe money to someone.  Whether it be for our home, a vehicle, a credit card or even just to a friend.  A common legal tool called a garnishment is one way of using the civil court system to help recover money owed to you when someone is not paying their debts. Garnishment is explained in a recent case out of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.  

In this case, the original lawsuit was between Foundation Materials, Inc. (“FMI”) and Harmon Construction, L.L.C. (“Harmon”).  FMI obtained a money judgment against Harmon in the amount of $102,475.42.  At the time of this case, Harmon was working on an unrelated project with D.F. Chase, Inc. (“Chase”) as a subcontractor.  Chase allegedly owed $98.510.00 to Harmon for its work.  In order to collect upon the judgment against Harmon, FMI filed a garnishment naming Chase as garnishee and issued interrogatories, sets of questions, to Chase to determine the amount of money that Chase owed to Harmon.  Chase contended it only arguably owed $98,510.00 to Harmon and refused to turn over the money to FMI.

A garnishment is a legal process for obtaining property of a judgment debtor in the hands of a third party. Covington Pontiac-Buick-GMC Trucks, Inc. v. AAA Sewer & Water Fabrication & Serv., LLC, 873 So.2d 56 (La. Ct. App. 2004).  The test of a garnishee’s liability to the judgment creditor is whether the garnishee has in his hands the debtor’s property, funds, or credits for the recovery of which the debtor has a present subsisting cause of action. Houma Mortg. & Loan, Inc. v. Marshall, 664 So.2d 1199 (La. Ct. App. 1995). A garnishment judgment is entered and the garnishee required to pay the creditor if the garnishee admits to having property belonging to the debtor pursuant to La. C.C.P. art. 2415.

A person may seek help from the federal court system when that person feels that they have been cheated or wronged.  However, one needs to make sure that the federal court can actually help the situation. Personal jurisdiction is the ability of a court to exercise power over a person or a specific case.  Subject matter jurisdiction is the court’s authority to hear cases that revolve around the certain subject matter. Generally, lawsuits end up in the federal courts in one of two ways. The first occurs when the parties are from different states and the amount of the claim is over $75,000, regardless of the type of claim. The second occurs when the nature of the claim is specific to a federal statute or law. This is usually an attempt to get a federal court to enforce a right granted by federal law. A claim that would get in court under one of these two theories must be stated in the plaintiff’s complaint. 28 U.S.C. § 1332.

The United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal recently demonstrated the need to properly establish a federal claim.  In 2012, Landry Dixon sued Lakeside Toyota and the Toyota Motor Credit Corporation (TMCC).  Mr. Dixon believed that the Sales Manager of the dealership had lied to him by allowing him to assume that since he was leasing an automobile on behalf of the nonprofit organization of which he was the CEO, the lease would be tax-exempt, leading to a lower monthly payment. Mr. Dixon paid the lower amount stated on the lease agreement, which ultimately turned out to be almost thirty dollars below what he should have been paying as a nontax-exempt customer.  His lower payments added up, causing the Toyota Motor Credit Corporation to make collections and damage his credit rating.  Mr. Dixon brought this lawsuit in federal district court on a claim of common law fraud, which is a state law claim.

Since he did not claim anything about what states the parties were from nor did he bring a claim under federal law, the District Court dismissed it for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.  Mr. Dixon attempted to file various motions to fight this dismissal.  He also made a separate lawsuit against the TMCC only, stating a claim under the Consumer Leasing Act (CLA), which is a federal law that governs certain leases. 15 U.S.C. §§ 1667–1667f.  However, even this was not enough to establish a claim in federal court and the District Court dismissed the case once again.