- ELISA KNOWLES COLLINS VS. LESLIE RICARD CHAMBERS, HON. MARCUS L. HUNTER, AND NANCY LANDRY IN HER CAPACITY AS THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE STATE OF LOUISIANA, No. 2024-C-01005, Opinion Aug. 20, 2024
You want to run for public office in Louisiana, make sure you can provide proof of a “confirmed” tax filing for each of the previous five years. The Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the district court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal and instead held that Honorable Marcus Hunter, in his attempt to seek election to the Associate office of the Louisiana Supreme Court, was not qualified to seek election because he failed to provide sufficient proof that for each of the previous five tax years, he filed his federal and state income tax returns. Evidence of transmission of the tax returns by the taxpayer is the operative event for electronic filing. Judge Hunder provided no evidence that completed tax returns were transmitted. - No. 2023-CC-01194 DOUGLAS BIENVENU, ET AL. VS. DEFENDANT 1 AND DEFENDANT 2 #87184 C/W JOHN DOE, ET AL. VS. DEFENDANT 1 AND DEFENDANT 2 #87515. Opinion: June 12, 2024.
Adults abused as children decades ago will be able to sue until June 14, 2027 for sexual abuse of a minor that had previously prescribed. In a 5-2 ruling, the Louisiana Supreme Court reversed its earlier decision to scrap a “look back law” for sexual abuse survivors at the hands of Catholic priests in the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, and St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville, Louisiana and declared the “look back law” constitutional. The Louisiana Supreme Court granted a rehearing on a March 2024 ruling that had overturned a “look back law” passed in 2021 and amended in 2022, which gave victims of child sexual abuse until June 14, 2024, to file civil claims regardless of when the alleged abuse occurred. On June 3, 2024, the Louisiana Legislature approved a Senate bill to extend the period another three years, until June 14, 2027. The Louisiana Supreme Court found that amendments by legislature to La. R.S. 9:2800.9 were constitutional. In so holding, the Court opined (1) the provision assists in identifying hidden child predators so children will not be abused in the future; (2) shifts the costs of the abuse from the victims and society to those who actually caused it; and (3) educates the public about the prevalence and harm from child sexual abuse to prevent future abuse. These interests were found legitimate and compelling. Thus, the statute was constitutional and could be applied retroactively “to revive, for the period stated, all causes of action related to sexual abuse of a minor that previously prescribed under any Louisiana prescriptive period.” - CATHERINE EVANS, ET AL. VERSUS ABUBAKER, INC., ET AL. No. 2023-CC-00955, Opinion May 10, 2024.
It appears that a convenience store owner could have a duty to protect its customers against the criminal actions of third parties on its premises. When criminal activity is foreseeable and on the business premises, a business owner in some circumstances has a duty to protect its current patrons from criminal behavior. However, in this instant case, the store owner owed no such duty because the decedent intentionally engaged in criminal conduct when he struck the assailant in the face, committing the crime of battery, and the assailant retaliated by shooting the decedent and killing him. No evidence was submitted in opposition to the store owner’s motion for summary judgment to suggest that such behavior was imminent and/or foreseeable; the store owner owed no duty to the decedent for his own intentional criminal behavior under the particular circumstances of this case.
