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Reed v. Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections9/28/2001
Velbert M. Reed, Sr. appeals a judgment sustaining an exception of improper venue and transferring his tort suit from the Twentieth Judicial District Court, Parish of West Feliciana, where his injuries allegedly occurred while he was incarcerated at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, to the Nineteenth Judicial District Court, pursuant to the provisions of Louisiana Revised Statute 15:1177. We reverse in part, vacate in part, and remand.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Reed was an inmate in the custody of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPSC) and was confined to the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Parish of West Feliciana, Louisiana. According to his petition, on November 18, 1998, during repairs to the roof of a prison dormitory, an object fell from the roof and struck him in his right eye, causing severe injury and requiring medical attention from several physicians. On November 15, 1999, he filed suit against DPSC, Warden Burl Cain, and the company that was performing the repairs, State Roofing & Metal Company, Inc., claiming damages for the injuries allegedly caused by their negligence, carelessness, and reckless disregard for his safety.
In response to his petition, DPSC and Cain filed exceptions alleging improper venue, lack of subject matter jurisdiction in the Twentieth Judicial District Court, and "abandonment" of the claim due to Reed's failure to exhaust the corrections administrative remedy procedure before filing suit. Following a hearing, at which Reed appeared and presented evidence of his efforts to pursue an administrative remedy within the prison, the court ruled on the exception of venue and ordered the transfer of the suit to the Nineteenth Judicial District Court. The written opinion of the court stated:
According to Louisiana Revised Statute 15:1177A, the corrections administrative remedy procedure law, when an offender is aggrieved by a decision rendered pursuant to an administrative remedy procedure, he may seek judicial review only in the Nineteenth Judicial District Court. Therefore, venue is improper in the Twentieth Judicial District Court and the Court need not address the [defendants'] exception of abandonment.
ANALYSIS
Reed contends in this appeal that the court erred in maintaining the exception of improper venue on the basis of Louisiana Revised Statutes 15:1177(A) and (B), and in ordering the transfer of his tort suit to the Nineteenth Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge. In light of the supreme court's recent decision in Pope v. State of Louisiana, 99-2559 (La. 6/29/01), 2001 WL 744011, ____ So.2d ____, holding the provisions of Louisiana Revised Statutes 15:1171-79 unconstitutional as applied to tort actions, we must agree.
In Pope, a former inmate brought a personal injury action against DPSC, alleging he was seriously injured while incarcerated. As in Reed's case, DPSC filed exceptions of improper venue and lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the inmate had not first presented his claim to the warden via the corrections administrative remedy procedure.
Pope then supplemented his petition, asking for judicial review of the rejection of his administrative procedure, if that were determined to be applicable to his case, and claiming the corrections administrative remedy procedure was unconstitutional as applied to his personal injury action. DPSC filed an exception of "abandonment," claiming Pope had abandoned his claim by failing to timely present it in accordance with the corrections administrative remedy procedure. The district court overruled the exception of abandonment, finding the thirty-day limit for as
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