Ayo v. Control Insulation Corp.
Decision Date | 11 October 1985 |
Docket Number | No. CA-3562,CA-3562 |
Citation | 477 So.2d 1258 |
Parties | Mary R. AYO, Widow of Murphy J. Ayo v. CONTROL INSULATION CORPORATION and Their Insurers United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company. 477 So.2d 1258 |
Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Judith A. De Fraites, Gertler & Gertler, New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellee.
Henry E. Yoes, III, Sessions, Fishman, Rosenson, Boisfontaine, Nathan & Winn, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.
Before REDMANN, CIACCIO and LOBRANO, JJ.
On March 11, 1983, plaintiff, Mary R. Ayo, filed suit against Control Insulation Corporation and its insurer USF & G Insurance Company. Plaintiff sought compensation benefits under La.R.S. 23:1031.1 for the death of her husband alleged to have resulted from an occupational disease, viz. asbestosis. From a judgment in favor of plaintiff, defendants appeal, specifying as error the trial court's failure to dismiss the action as having prescribed, and the trial court's finding that plaintiff's husband's death was caused by an occupational disease.
Mr. Ayo died on July 2, 1977. Defendants argue first that under La.R.S. 23:1031.1 as it read when Mr. Ayo died, Mrs. Ayo's right to compensation benefits prescribed six months after Mr. Ayo died, and that the amendment of the statute in 1980 did not revive Mrs. Ayo's right to claim compensation benefits under the provisions of the statute as amended. We agree and, therefore, will not discuss defendant's other arguments.
In 1977 when Mr. Ayo died the pertinent part of La.R.S. 23:1031.1 provided:
Assuming arguendo that Mr. Ayo's death arose from an occupational disease, Mrs. Ayo's right to claim compensation benefits became "forever barred" six months after Mr. Ayo died, as she had failed to assert her claim within the six months following his death.
In the civilian tradition, prescription is a means of acquiring real rights or of losing certain rights as the result of the passage of time. Comments, Prescription and Peremption--The 1982 Revision of The Louisiana Civil Code, 58 Tul.L.Rev. 593 (1983). Liberative prescription is a mode of barring actions as a result of inaction for a period of time. La.C.C. art. 3447. 1 Liberative prescription is not merely a mode of discharging debts; it is a mode of extinguishing claims. La.C.C.Ann. art 3447 comment b (West.Supp.1985).
Under the scheme of the Louisiana Civil Code and the provisions of former La.R.S. 23:1031.1, Mrs. Ayo's inaction for six months following her husband's death operated to extinguish her right to claim compensation benefits. The lapse of time barred the remedy. On the expiration of the six-month period, any liability of defendant to plaintiff became judicially unenforceable. 2 See William Danzer and Co. v. Gulf and S.I.R. Co., 268 U.S. 633, 45 S.Ct. 612, 69 L.Ed. 1126 (1925).
In 1980 the Legislature amended La.R.S. 23:1031.1 to provide, in pertinent part:
"F. All claims for death arising from an occupational disease are barred unless the dependent or dependents as set out herein file a claim with the deceased's employer within six months of the date of death of such employee or within six months of the date the claimant has reasonable grounds to believe that the death resulted from an occupational disease. Notice filed with the compensation insurer of such employer shall constitute a claim as required herein. (Emphasis added.)
Concerning whether laws receive prospective or retrospective treatment the Louisiana Supreme Court has reasoned:
Lott v. Haley, 370 So.2d 521, at 523 (La.1979).
Laws of liberative prescription are remedial in nature and are generally accorded retrospective application. Lott v. Haley, supra. It does not violate due process to "repeal or extend a statute of limitations, even after right of action is barred thereby, restore to the plaintiff his remedy, and divest the defendant of the statutory bar." Chase Securities Corporation v. Donaldson, 325 U.S. 304, 311-312, 65 S.Ct. 1137, 1141, 89 L.Ed. 1628 (1945). As long as the prescriptive "bar" has not been made complete, statutes which either shorten or extend the period of prescription are subject to legislative power. Campbell v. Holt, 115 U.S. 620, 6 S.Ct. 209, 29 L.Ed. 483 (1885). The question remains one of legislative intent. Davis v. Valley Distributing Company, 522 F.2d 827, 830 n. 7 (9th Cir.1975). Liberative prescription laws, however, like any other procedural or remedial law, cannot apply retrospectively to disturb a person of a preexisting right. Lott v. Haley, supra; Orleans Parish School Board v. Pittman Construction Co., 261 La. 665, 260 So.2d 661 (1972)....
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