Rebecca Cormier and Jennifer Cormier v. Natalie St. Martin, State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co.

NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

STATE OF LOUISIANA
COURT OF APPEAL, THIRD CIRCUIT

CA 20-302

REBECCA CORMIER AND JENNIFER CORMIER

VERSUS

NATALIE ST. MARTIN, STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE
INSURANCE COMPANY AND FARM BUREAU INSURANCE CO.

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APPEAL FROM THE
FIFTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT
PARISH OF LAFAYETTE, NO. C-20176155
HONORABLE JULES DAVIS EDWARDS, DISTRICT JUDGE

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PHYLLIS M. KEATY

JUDGE

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Court composed of Billy H. Ezell, Shannon J. Gremillion and Phyllis M. Keaty,
Judges.

REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.

Jeffery F. Speer
George A. Wright
Doucet-Speer
Post Office Drawer 4303
Lafayette, LA 70502-4303
(337) 232-0405
COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFFS/APPELLANTS:
Rebecca Cormier
Jennifer Cormier

Lauren C. Begnaud
Caffery, Oubre, Campbell & Garrison
100 East Vermilion Street, #201
Lafayette, LA 70501
(337) 232-6581
COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLEE:
Louisiana Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company

KEATY, Judge.

This court issued a rule ordering Plaintiffs-Appellants, Rebecca Cormier and

Jennifer Cormier, to show cause, by brief only, why the appeal should not be

dismissed as having been taken from a judgment lacking proper decretal language.

Input/Output Marine Sys., Inc. v. Wilson Greatbatch, Techs., Inc., 10-477 (La.App. 5

Cir. 10/29/10), 52 So.3d 909. For the reasons that follow, we suspend the appeal and

remand this matter to the trial court with instructions to issue a judgment containing

proper decretal language.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The instant case arises from a vehicular accident that occurred on October 29,

2016. As a result of the accident, Appellants filed a Petition for Damages against

Defendants, Natalie St. Martin, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company,

and Louisiana Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company. At issue herein is a

Peremptory Exception of Res Judicata and Prescription and Declinatory Exception

Pleading Insufficiency of Citation and Service of Process filed by Louisiana Farm

Bureau Casualty Insurance Company. Following a hearing, a written Judgment on

Rules was signed on January 27, 2020, which provided, in pertinent part, as follows:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that
the Peremptory Exceptions [sic] of Res Judicata be and is hereby
overruled. The exception of Prescription is sustained[.] Costs associated
with these proceedings are assessed to plaintiff Rebecca Cormier.

On March 17, 2020, Appellants filed a motion for devolutive appeal of that

judgment. When the record was received by this court, we discovered that the

judgment did not contain decretal language that dismisses any of Appellants’ claims.

Therefore, we ordered Appellants to show cause why the appeal should not be

dismissed as having been taken from a judgment lacking proper decretal language.

Appellants did not respond to the rule to show cause.

In the instant case, the judgment contains no decretal language dismissing any

of Appellants’ claims. Consequently, this court finds that it lacks jurisdiction to

consider the merits of the appeal. Accordingly, we will suspend the appeal and

remand this matter to the trial court for the limited purpose of rendering a proper final

judgment as we did in Mouton v. AAA Cooper Transp., 17-666, 17-667 (La.App. 3 Cir.

1/10/18), 237 So.3d 594.

DECREE

For the reasons given, this court lacks jurisdiction to consider the merits of this

appeal because it was taken from a judgment that lacks proper decretal language.

This appeal is suspended, and the matter is remanded to the trial court with

instructions to sign a judgment containing proper decretal language no later than

September 4, 2020. The Clerk of Court for the Fifteenth Judicial District Court shall

forward the judgment so signed to this court as a supplement to the appellate record,

in duplicate.

REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.

THIS OPINION IS NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION.
Uniform Rules―Courts of Appeal, Rule 2-16.3.

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