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Paternostro v. Larocca3/28/2002
In this legal malpractice action, plaintiff appeals the trial court's judgment granting defendant's exception raising the objection of prescription and dismissing his claim with prejudice. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
In September 1994, defendant-attorney, Nicholas F. LaRocca, Jr., began representing plaintiff, Brazil Paternostro, in connection with a medical malpractice claim, as well as other legal matters. Over the course of Mr. LaRocca's representation of Mr. Paternostro, the attorney-client relationship eroded to the point that Mr. LaRocca withdrew as Mr. Paternostro's counsel in all matters in early 1999. Thereafter, on April 3, 2000, Mr. Paternostro filed suit against Mr. LaRocca alleging legal malpractice and fraud.
In response to Mr. Paternostro's suit, Mr. LaRocca filed an exception raising the objection of prescription. Mr. LaRocca asserted that any acts, omissions, and/or negligence alleged by Mr. Paternostro were the same acts, omissions, and/or negligence known by and complained about by Mr. Paternostro for more than one year prior to the filing of this suit. The matter proceeded to a hearing on June 13, 2000, at which time the trial court heard testimony from the parties and reviewed various documents that were introduced into evidence. After considering all of the evidence, the trial court ruled in favor of Mr. LaRocca, concluding as follows:
I have to use a reasonable man's standard: Would a reasonable man read all this and say, "Hey, I think something's wrong here." That's what I have to apply. If you personally didn't do that, I don't know that that is the standard I apply. Would a reasonable person faced with these introductions, [exhibits] 1 through 22, conclude that there's something I should be on notice of here. That's the way I see this situation.
In view of the documents 1 through 22 indicating to me the situation as it was then, I would grant the Exception of Prescription, [based on my finding] that there was knowledge more than one year prior to the filing of this suit.
A judgment in accordance with these findings was signed by the trial court on June 13, 2000, dismissing Mr. Paternostro's claim with prejudice. Mr. Paternostro then moved for a new trial, which motion was denied by the trial court following a hearing on September 11, 2000. This appeal by Mr. Paternostro followed, wherein he assigned error to the trial court's judgment granting the exception as to prescription.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
The Louisiana Constitution of 1974 provides that the appellate jurisdiction of the courts of appeal extends to both law and facts. La. Const., art. V, ยง 10(B). A court of appeal may not overturn a judgment of a trial court absent an error of law or a factual finding that is manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong. Stobart v. State, Department of Transportation and Development, 617 So.2d 880, 882, n.2 (La. 1993).
For an appellate court to reverse a trial court's factual finding, it must find from the record that a reasonable factual basis does not exist for the finding of the trial court and that the record establishes that the finding is clearly wrong. Mart v. Hill, 505 So.2d 1120, 1127 (La. 1987). If the findings are reasonable in light of the record reviewed in its entirety, an appellate court may not reverse even though convinced that had it been sitting as the trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently. Furthermore, when factual findings are based on the credibility of witnesses, the fact finder's decision to credit a witness's testimony must be given "great deference" by the appellate court. Rosell v. ESCO, 549 So.2
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