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Belwise Aquaculture Systems6/1/2005
Court composed of Ulysses Gene Thibodeaux, Chief Judge, John D. Saunders, Oswald A. Decuir, Marc T. Amy, and Elizabeth A. Pickett, Judges.
WRIT GRANTED AND MADE PEREMPTORY. EXCEPTION OF IMPROPER VENUE MAINTAINED. REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.
SAUNDERS, J., dissents.
The plaintiffs filed suit for legal malpractice in Rapides Parish. The defendant filed an exception of improper venue, asserting that venue was appropriate only in the parish of his legal practice, Catahoula Parish. The trial court overruled the exception. The defendant filed an application for supervisory writs. The matter was designated for the rendition of a writ opinion. For the following reasons, we reverse the trial court, maintain the exception of improper venue, and remand the matter to the trial court for transfer to Catahoula Parish.
Factual and Procedural Background
The submission establishes that the plaintiffs, Belwise Aquaculture Systems, Inc., Jimmie Belgard and Trudy Tyler Belgard, were represented by Paul A. Lemke in a matter filed in December 2000 in the United States District Court, Western District of Louisiana. The petition was filed in Monroe, Louisiana. The case was transferred to the Alexandria Division and was dismissed upon a motion for summary judgment in December 2001.
The plaintiffs filed the instant legal malpractice action in August 2004 in the Ninth Judicial District Court, Parish of Rapides. Mr. Lemke, his law partner, and his malpractice insurer were named as defendants. The plaintiffs alleged that the petition drafted by Mr. Lemke did not include all of the claims that they had wished to pursue. They assert that these omitted claims are prescribed or barred by res judicata.
The defendants filed an exception of improper venue. The trial court overruled the exception of improper venue. The defendants filed the instant writ application, seeking review.
Discussion
The defendants question the overruling of the exception of improper venue and argue that venue was appropriate only in the parish of their law practice and domicile, Catahoula Parish. They contend that insofar as the claim is a malpractice action for failure to file a claim, that the act of omission occurred in Catahoula Parish where the pleading was drafted. The plaintiffs argue that venue is appropriate in Rapides Parish as it is the parish where they live and their business is located; therefore, this is the parish where their damages were incurred.
With regard to venue, La.Code Civ.P. art. 42 provides the general guidelines of venue, stating in Paragraph (1) that an action against an individual domiciled in the state "shall be brought in the parish of his domicile[.]" The general guidelines of Article 42 are subject to the exceptions contained in "Articles 71 through 85 and otherwise provided by law." La.Code Civ.P. art. 43. Relevant to this action is La.Code Civ.P. art. 74, which provides that: "An action for the recovery of damages for an offense or quasi offense may be brought in the parish where the wrongful conduct occurred, or in the parish where the damages were sustained." (Emphasis added.)
The Louisiana Supreme Court considered the issue of venue in a legal malpractice case in Chambers v. LeBlanc, 598 So.2d 337 (La.1992), wherein the legal malpractice action was brought in the plaintiffs' domicile, Livingston Parish. The defendant attorney was domiciled in Iberville Parish and practiced in Ascension Parish. The suit alleged that the defendant failed to file a timely suit in East Baton Rouge Parish. The trial court overruled the exception on the basis that the plaintiffs sustained damages in Livingston
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