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Boudreaux v. State6/10/2005
R NUMBER 8
The lower court erred in awarding damages for mental anguish, in fixing the quantum of such awards, in not requiring adequate proof, in awarding damages to persons who made no claims, and in awarding damages to persons who legally have no claims.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER 9
The lower court awarded damages for certain business losses that were not supported by the record and are contrary to law.
The class plaintiffs answered the appeal seeking an increase in the awards for mental anguish and lost wages.
DISCUSSION
In its first assignment of error, the State contends that the trial court erred in denying the peremptory exception raising the objection of prescription pursuant to La. R.S. 49:112. That statute provides:
No claim or debt against the state shall be allowed by the state auditor or paid by the state treasurer after the lapse of ten years from the happening of the event or of the facts upon which any suit is founded or judgment rendered or of the execution of the contract under which the claim is made. No interruption or suspension whatsoever of this prescription shall be allowed. The provisions of this Section shall not apply to the claims, or the judgment rendered thereon, listed in Section 2 of Act No. 110 of 1946.
The trial court overruled the exception, finding that pursuant to La. R.S. 13:5108, the State was not entitled to file a plea of prescription or preemption barring the suit if the claim was filed within the time fixed by law for such suits against private persons. See Tenorio v. Automotive Casualty Insurance, 04-0393 (La.App. 4th Cir.1/5/05), 893 So.2d 115.
A plain reading of the statute in question reveals that it is not directed at the authority of a court to hear and decide an action filed against the State; rather, the statute is clearly directed to the state auditor and state treasurer, expressly proscribing their authority to allow or pay a claim or debt against the State "after the lapse of ten years from the happening of the event or of the facts upon which any suit is founded or judgment rendered ... under which the claim is made." See Church Point Wholesale Beverage Co., Inc. v. Tarver, 614 So.2d 697, 707 n. 20 (La.1993). In so observing, we find no error in the trial court's decision to overrule the exception.
In assignments of error numbers two, three, and four, the State again raises arguments that it urged in a motion to compel filed with this court. In both instances, the State contends that the special master failed to examine and evaluate each individual claim form, and based on this failure, awarded damages to individuals who submitted invalid, incomplete, or multiple claim forms, or who did not request the specified relief granted, such as for mental anguish. Although we find merit in the State's contention that the trial court erred in the calculation of the total number of individual claimants in the class, based on the Damages Procedure Order agreed to by the parties, we find no error in the special master's failure to examine and evaluate each of the individual claim forms.
By the plain wording of the Damages Procedure Order, the necessity of the special master to personally examine and evaluate each individual claim form was eliminated. Instead, the agreement (the substance of which is quoted below) allowed the special master to establish a percentage or average amount to award based on evidence presented by 30 randomly selected family representatives and any exceptions presented by either side:
On joint motion of the parties, the following agreed to procedure is adopted for the trial and the damag
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