Geddie v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 11 January 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 8706,8706 |
| Citation | 354 So.2d 718 |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
| Parties | Robin F. GEDDIE v. ST. PAUL FIRE & MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY. |
Garon, Brener & McNeely, Jacques F. Bezou, New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellee.
Dodge, Friend, Wilson & Spedale, Gordon F. Wilson, Jr., Denis Paul Juge, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.
Before GULOTTA, BEER and BOWES, JJ.
In this legal malpractice suit, defendant-insurer appeals from a judgment in favor of Robin Geddie for damages arising from his unlawful confinement in the penitentiary under a four-year sentence for a crime which had a maximum penalty of two years. The liability of defendant's insured, who took no steps to have the sentence reduced, is not at issue. By stipulation, the sole issues before us are the trial judge's method of calculating the term of excessive incarceration and the quantum of his award. We reduce the award and affirm the judgment as amended.
Geddie began serving a four-year sentence on October 10, 1973, and remained in custody of the Department of Corrections for a period of 19 months until he was paroled from the State Penitentiary at Angola on May 9, 1975. The following chronology is helpful.
October 10, 1973 Plaintiff incarcerated and
begins serving four-year
term at Angola
December 17, 1973 Plaintiff sent to main-
tenance program at Jack-
son Barracks
March 13, 1974 For disciplinary reasons
plaintiff returned to Angola
June 10, 1974 Earliest possible parole date
under a two-year sentence
September 4, 1974 Plaintiff sent to Camp
Beauregard work release
program.
September 10, 1974 Two-year sentence parole
date plus three months
(Judge uses this date as the
beginning of the period of
illegal confinement.)
November 12, 1974 Good time release date
under a two-year sentence.
November 18, 1974 Plaintiff returned to Angola
from Camp Beauregard for
misconduct in connection
with work release program.
December 16, 1974 Two-year good time
release date plus 34 days in
lost good time.
February 10, 1975 Earliest possible parole date
under a four-year sentence.
(Geddie was denied parole on
this date.)
May 9, 1975 Four-year sentence parole
date plus three months.
(Geddie released at this
time.)
In oral reasons, the trial judge concluded that as a result of his defense attorney's negligence Geddie had been illegally confined for a period of 8 months from September 10, 1974 until May 9, 1975. In calculating this time period, the trial judge concluded that under a two-year sentence, Geddie would, in all probability, have been denied parole at the June 10, 1974 date, but would have been granted it 3 months thereafter on September 10, 1974. The judge reasoned that Geddie had been delayed parole for a period of 3 months under the four-year term due to misconduct on the work release program at Camp Beauregard and that disciplinary problems during his confinement at Jackson Barracks in the early part of his incarceration would have had a similar effect and would have delayed his parole for 3 months under a two-year term. The trial judge, in effect, based an award on illegal confinement from parole date and 3 months (for a two-year sentence) to parole date and 3 months (for a four-year sentence).
According to the trial judge, during the eight-month period of illegal confinement, Geddie was incarcerated for 2 months at Camp Beauregard, a minimum security facility, and for the remaining 6 months at Angola. Damages were awarded in the sum of $7,000.00 per month for each month spent by plaintiff at Angola (where conditions were poor) and...
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Berringer v. Steele, 824
...& Smith, supra, § 25.14 (Supp. 1999) (footnote omitted); cf. Lawson v. Nugent, 702 F.Supp. 91 (D.N.J.1988); Geddie v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 354 So.2d 718 (La.Ct.App.), writ denied, 356 So.2d 1011 (La.1978). But cf. Howarth v. State, 925 P.2d 1330 (Alaska 1996). The appropriatenes......
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...Berringer, 133 Md.App. at 508,758 A.2d at 610. Paulsen also cites a Louisiana appellate court case, Geddie v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. 354 So.2d 718 (La. App.1978). There, the court recalculated the amount of damages awarded to a criminal defendant who succeeded in a legal malpr......
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