Rebecca Cormier and Jennifer Cormier v. Natalie St. Martin, State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co.

NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

STATE OF LOUISIANA COURT OF APPEAL, THIRD CIRCUIT

CA 20-302

REBECCA CORMIER AND JENNIFER CORMIER

VERSUS

NATALIE ST. MARTIN, STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY AND FARM BUREAU INSURANCE CO.

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APPEAL FROM THE FIFTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT PARISH OF LAFAYETTE, NO. C-20176155 HONORABLE JULES DAVIS EDWARDS, DISTRICT JUDGE

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PHYLLIS M. KEATY

JUDGE

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Court composed of Billy H. Ezell, Shannon J. Gremillion and Phyllis M. Keaty, Judges.

REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.

Jeffery F. Speer George A. Wright Doucet-Speer Post Office Drawer 4303 Lafayette, LA 70502-4303 (337) 232-0405 COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFFS/APPELLANTS: Rebecca Cormier Jennifer Cormier

Lauren C. Begnaud Caffery, Oubre, Campbell & Garrison 100 East Vermilion Street, #201 Lafayette, LA 70501 (337) 232-6581 COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLEE: Louisiana Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company

KEATY, Judge.

This court issued a rule ordering Plaintiffs-Appellants, Rebecca Cormier and Jennifer Cormier, to show cause, by brief only, why the appeal should not be dismissed as having been taken from a judgment lacking proper decretal language. Input/Output Marine Sys., Inc. v. Wilson Greatbatch, Techs., Inc., 10-477 (La.App. 5 Cir. 10/29/10), 52 So.3d 909. For the reasons that follow, we suspend the appeal and remand this matter to the trial court with instructions to issue a judgment containing proper decretal language.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The instant case arises from a vehicular accident that occurred on October 29, 2016. As a result of the accident, Appellants filed a Petition for Damages against Defendants, Natalie St. Martin, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and Louisiana Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company. At issue herein is a Peremptory Exception of Res Judicata and Prescription and Declinatory Exception Pleading Insufficiency of Citation and Service of Process filed by Louisiana Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company. Following a hearing, a written Judgment on Rules was signed on January 27, 2020, which provided, in pertinent part, as follows:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the Peremptory Exceptions [sic] of Res Judicata be and is hereby overruled. The exception of Prescription is sustained[.] Costs associated with these proceedings are assessed to plaintiff Rebecca Cormier.

On March 17, 2020, Appellants filed a motion for devolutive appeal of that judgment. When the record was received by this court, we discovered that the judgment did not contain decretal language that dismisses any of Appellants’ claims. Therefore, we ordered Appellants to show cause why the appeal should not be dismissed as having been taken from a judgment lacking proper decretal language. Appellants did not respond to the rule to show cause.

In the instant case, the judgment contains no decretal language dismissing any of Appellants’ claims. Consequently, this court finds that it lacks jurisdiction to consider the merits of the appeal. Accordingly, we will suspend the appeal and remand this matter to the trial court for the limited purpose of rendering a proper final judgment as we did in Mouton v. AAA Cooper Transp., 17-666, 17-667 (La.App. 3 Cir. 1/10/18), 237 So.3d 594.

DECREE

For the reasons given, this court lacks jurisdiction to consider the merits of this appeal because it was taken from a judgment that lacks proper decretal language. This appeal is suspended, and the matter is remanded to the trial court with instructions to sign a judgment containing proper decretal language no later than September 4, 2020. The Clerk of Court for the Fifteenth Judicial District Court shall forward the judgment so signed to this court as a supplement to the appellate record, in duplicate.

REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.

THIS OPINION IS NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION. Uniform Rules―Courts of Appeal, Rule 2-16.3.