Trucking Client Dismissed on Exception of Prescription – December 2018

Perrier and Lacoste attorneys Guy Perrier and Ralph Aucoin, Jr. obtained a dismissal with prejudice and at plaintiffs’ costs for a trucking client in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. The lawsuit originated in state court and involved alleged accident that occurred on the interstate between defendant’s 18-wheeler and plaintiffs’ car with 4 occupants. Defendants removed this matter to federal court upon receipt of a post-suit demand for just one of the plaintiffs seeking a nearly seven figure settlement amount.

Once the case was removed to federal court Defendants moved to dismiss plaintiffs’ claims under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) arguing that Plaintiffs’ cause of action had prescribed. The subject accident occurred on January 14, 2017. Plaintiffs’ counsel faxed a Petition for Damages to the state court on January 15, 2018, but the original Petition for Damages was not received and filed by the state court until January 29, 2018, more than seven days after the fax filing in violation of La. R.S. 13:850(B). That statute provides that any document in a civil action may be filed with the clerk of court by facsimile transmission and the “facsimile filing shall have the same force and effect as filing the original document, if the filing party complies with Subsection B of this Section.” La. R.S. 13:850(A) (emphasis added). Subsection B requires the filing party to deliver the original document, including attachments, exhibits and orders, to the clerk of court within seven days, exclusive of legal holidays, after the clerk of court receives the facsimile filing. Subsection C states that “[i]f the filing party fails to comply with any of the requirements of Subsection B of this Section, the facsimile filing shall have no force or effect.” Id.

The court agreed with Defendants assertion that because Plaintiffs failed to comply with Subsection B, Plaintiffs’ cause of action against Defendants was prescribed on its face. The motion was granted and the entire lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice.