Sean Michael Breen v. Kacie Magee Breen and ABC Insurance Company

NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

VVI L STATE OF LOUISIANA

COURT OF APPEAL

9( FIRST CIRCUIT

2019 CA 1687

BRIDGET MARIE BREEN DUNBAR, PATRICK VERNON BREEN,
RYAN MICHAEL BREEN, AND DEVIN THOMAS BREEN

VERSUS

KACIE MAGEE BREEN AND FEDERAL INSURANCE COMPANY

C/ W

KIRX6101 SM.,
11 .

SEAN MICHAEL BREEN

VERSUS

KACIE MAGEE BREEN AND ABC INSURANCE COMPANY

NO' 0 6 2020
Judgment Rendered:

Appealed from the 22nd Judicial District Court

In and for the Parish of St. Tammany
State of Louisiana
Suit No. 2015- 13096 c/ w 2015- 11809

The Honorable August J. Hand, Judge Presiding

Antonio Letson Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellant
Covington, Louisiana Aaron Dylan Knapp

Michelle Leigh Rees Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellee
New Orleans, Louisiana Sean Michael Breen

Richard Ducote Counsel for Defendant/Appellee

Covington, Louisiana Kacie Magee Breen

B. Wesley Pitts Counsel for Defendants/ Appellees

Alex J. Peragine Renee Paul Frederick, Amanda
Covington, Louisiana Sansonne, Mark J. Mansfield,

Frank P. Tranchina, Jr., Amy C.
Cowley

Edward J. Walters, Jr. Counsel for Plaintiffs/ Appellees
Baton Rouge, Louisiana Bridget Marie Breen Dunbar,
Rene Paul Frederick Patrick Vernon Breen, Ryan
Amanda Sansonne Michael Breen, and Devin Thomas
Mark J. Mansfield Breen
Frank Tranchina
Amy C. Cowley
Covington, Louisiana

James E. Moorman, III Counsel for Defendant/Appellee
Covington, Louisiana Mary Grace Knapp

Joseph Maselli, Jr. Counsel for Defendant/Appellee

Conrad C. Rolling Federal Insurance Company
New Orleans, Louisiana

Brian F. Trainor Counsel for Defendant/Appellee
Covington, Louisiana St. Tammany Parish Sheriff' s
Office -Sheriff Jack Strain, Jr.

Emily Couvillon Counsel for Intervenor/Appellee
Covington, Louisiana Warren Montgomery, 22 Judicial

BEFORE: GUIDRY, McCLENDON, AND LANIER, JJ.

2

LANIER, J.

The plaintiff/appellant, Aaron. Dylan Knapp, challenges the judgment of the

22r1 Judicial District Court which maintained a peremptory exception raising the

objection of res.judicata and set for contradictory hearing a motion for attorney' s

fees, costs, and expenses filed by the defendant/appellee, Kacie Magee Breen. For

the following reasons, we dismiss the appeal.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On March 1, 2015, Ms. Breen fatally shot her husband, Dr. Wayne Breen

the decedent). The St. Tammany Parish Sheriffs Office determined that the

shooting was in self-defense, and on April 7, 2016, a St. Tammany Parish grand

jury returned a " no true bill" with respect to the shooting. Ms. Breen has not been

charged or convicted for the shooting of her husband.

On May 1, 2015, Sean Michael Breen, a son of the decedent, filed a petition

for damages against Ms. Breen for the wrongful death of his father.' On February

21, 2018, the petition was amended to include as a plaintiff Aaron Dylan Knapp,

Sean' s half-brother and biological son of the decedent. Aaron was subsequently

made a party in the instant case by court order.

On August 5, 2015, a federal interpleader complaint was filed in the United

States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana by Pruco Life Insurance

Company against Ms. Breen and the estate of the decedent. During her marriage to

the decedent, Ms. Breen had been named the beneficiary of two of the decedent' s

life insurance policies. The decedent' s adult children, excluding Aaron, were

named as claimants to the insurance funds, which were placed in the registry of the

1 Sean, as well as all the other adult children of the decedent in the instant case, are not the
children of Ms. Breen.

2 The other adult children of the decedent, along with Federal Insurance Agency, filed a separate
petition for damages on July 30, 2015, in which they also alleged Ms. Breen to be responsible for
the wrongful death of the decedent. That action was subsequently consolidated with the instant
case, but was then dismissed with prejudice.

3

federal court.' The federal court entered judgment in favor of Ms. Breen on June

9, 2017, finding she was the sole claimant to the insurance funds and dismissing all

the competing claims of the adult children.

On June 27, 2017, Ms. Breen filed a peremptory exception raising the

exception of res judicata and a motion for attorney' s fees and costs pursuant to La.

R.S. 9: 2800. 19( B). 4 The basis of the exception of res judicata was the judgment of

the federal court in the interpleader action, where the federal court determined that

Ms. Breen acted in self-defense in the shooting and killing of the decedent.

Further, Ms. Breen argued that pursuant to La. R.S. 9: 2800. 19( B), she is entitled

attorney' s fees, costs, and expenses, as the federal court' s judgment rendered her

immune to suit for the wrongful death of the decedent.

The June 2017 exception and motion were originally denied by the trial

court for prematurity, since the interpleader judgment of the federal court was still

subject to appeal. The re -urged exception and motion were again denied by the

trial court, as the court at that time did not find the federal interpleader judgment

precluded judgment on the wrongful death claim. On August 15, 2018, Ms. Breen

filed a second supplemental peremptory exception raising the objection of res

judicata and motion for attorney' s fees and costs pursuant to La. R.S.

9: 2800. 19( B), after the U.S. Court of Appeal, Fifth Circuit, affirmed the

interpleader judgment of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

3 Aaron moved to intervene in the interpleader action, but his motion was denied by the federal
court for untimeliness.

4 Louisiana Revised Statutes 9: 2800. 19 states:

A. A person who uses reasonable and apparently necessary or deadly force or
violence for the purpose of preventing a forcible offense against the person or
his property in accordance with R.S. 14: 19 or 20 is immune from civil action
for the use of reasonable and apparently necessary or deadly force or violence.

B. The court shall award reasonable attorney fees, court costs, compensation for
loss of income, and all expenses to the defendant in any civil action if the
court finds that the defendant is immune from suit in accordance with
Subsection A of this Section.

EI

The trial court denied Ms. Breen' s request for an evidentiary hearing on her

second exception and motion, and Ms. Breen filed a supervisory writ with this

court. This court vacated the trial court' s ruling and remanded for an evidentiary

hearing. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court granted the exception

raising the objection of res judicata and ordered that a contradictory hearing on the

motion for attorney' s fees and costs be set at a later date. Aaron has appealed this

judgment.

DISCUSSION

Appellate courts have the duty to determine sua sponte whether their subject

matter jurisdiction exists, even when the parties do not raise the issue. Gaten v.

Tangipahoa Parish School System, 2011- 1133 ( La. App. I Cir. 3/ 23/ 12), 91 So. 3d

1073, 1074; Advanced Leveling & Concrete Solutions v. Lathan Company Inc.,

2017- 1250 ( La. App. I Cir. 12/ 20/ 18), 268 So. 3d 1044, 1046 ( en bane). Under

Louisiana law, a final judgment is one that determines the merits of a controversy

in whole or in part. La. C. C.P. art. 1841. A final judgment must be identified as

such by appropriate language. La. C. C. P. art. 1918. A valid judgment must be

precise, definite, and certain. Gaten, at 1074. A final appealable judgment must

contain decretal language, and it must name the party in favor of whom the ruling

is ordered, the party against whom the ruling is ordered, and the relief that is

granted or denied. - 1d. These determinations should be evident from the language

of a judgment without reference to other documents in the record. Id.

The judgment on appeal contains the following decretal language:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED
that the exception of res judicata is maintained, and, accordingly, this
suit and all claims asserted therein are DISMISSED with prejudice;
and

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a contradictory hearing
shall be set on the motion for attorney' s fees, costs, and expenses filed
by Defendant Kacie Breen pursuant to La. R.S. 9: 2800. 19( B).

5

In the first paragraph, the trial court does not identify the specific party or

parties to whom the judgment is in favor, nor does it identify the party or parties

whom the judgment is against. The failure to name any plaintiff or defendant in a

judgment rendered in a case with multiple plaintiffs and defendants makes the

judgment fatally defective, because one cannot discern from its face to whom relief

is granted or against whom the judgment may be enforced. Input/ Output Marine

Systems, Inc. v, Wilson Greatbatch, Technologies, Inc., 2010- 0477 ( La. App. 5 Cir.

10/ 29/ 10), 52 So. 3d 909, 916.

The second paragraph of decretal language merely sets the motion for

attorney' s fees and costs for a contradictory hearing, but does not grant or deny any

relief This portion of the judgment only determines a preliminary matter in the

course of the action and is therefore interlocutory. See La. C.C.P. art. 1841;

Durbin v. State Farm Fire and Cas. Co., 525 So.2d 726, 727. Further, the

judgment does not contain a designation that it is a final judgment after an express

determination that there is no just reason for delay. In the absence of such a

determination, the order cannot constitute a final judgment for the purpose of an

immediate appeal. See La. C. C. P. art. 1915( B). As such, the second paragraph of

the decretal language is interlocutory and not final, and this court lacks appellate

jurisdiction over the instant matter.

For the reasons set forth above, this appeal is dismissed. All costs of this

appeal are assessed to the plaintiff/appellant, Aaron Dylan Knapp.

APPEAL DISMISSED.

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