St. Tammany Parish Hosp. v. Schneider
| Decision Date | 11 May 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 2000 CA 0247.,2000 CA 0247. |
| Citation | 808 So.2d 576 |
| Parties | ST. TAMMANY PARISH HOSPITAL SERVICE DISTRICT NO. 2 d/b/a Slidell Memorial Hospital and Medical Center v. Chris SCHNEIDER. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Gregory C. Weiss, Terese M. Bennett, Weiss & Eason, L.L.P., New Orleans, for Plaintiff-Appellee St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No. 2, d/b/a Slidell Memorial Hospital and Medical Center.
Richard F. Knight, Tammy B. Keaton, Talley, Anthony, Hughes & Knight, L.L.C., Bogalusa, for Defendant-Appellant Chris Schneider.
Before: PARRO, FITZSIMMONS, and GUIDRY, JJ.
This appeal stems from an expropriation action initiated by St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No. 2, d/b/a Slidell Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (SMH), seeking to acquire property owned by Chris Schneider. When that action was dismissed, Schneider sought damages, attorney fees, expert fees, and other litigation expenses. From a judgment awarding him $22,250 in attorney fees and litigation expenses, Schneider has appealed, seeking an increase in those awards, additional attorney fees for the appeal, plus awards of damages and expert fees. We affirm.
In November 1994, SMH brought an expropriation action against Schneider, the owner of a building in which SMH had been the sole tenant for six years. SMH had been leasing the building on a monthto-month basis, but had vacated the property while negotiating with Schneider for its purchase, several months before filing the expropriation action. SMH had offered $55,000 for the property, which Schneider refused, believing the property was worth considerably more.1 A January 1995 appraisal done for him showed a value of $146,000, and a November 1995 appraisal for a bank indicated an "as is" value of $137,000. The expropriation petition indicated SMH intended to use the office building for its Maternal Child Health Care Center, its Pulmonary Rehabilitation Department, offices for six new staff physicians, and record storage. The petition also noted that the office building was surrounded by property owned by SMH. After SMH filed a supplemental and amending petition indicating it intended to raze the building and use the property for additional parking, Schneider answered, seeking just compensation, damages, litigation expenses, and costs.
On January 26, 1996, SMH filed a motion to dismiss the expropriation; the motion was set for a show cause hearing. Schneider filed a motion to tax costs to be heard the same day, asserting his right to lost rentals, attorney fees, expert fees, and litigation expenses. He also filed a memorandum opposing the dismissal, "[i]nsofar as [SMH] is seeking to avoid paying the costs incurred by defendant in connection with this expropriation action ...." The hearing was continued, during which time Schneider claims he incurred additional attorney fees and lost rental damages. Eventually, on May 22, 1996, the court held a hearing, at which the parties stipulated that Schneider's claims for damages would be heard at a later date and the only issue would be whether or not he could recover attorney fees pursuant to Louisiana Revised Statute 19:201. That statute describes circumstances under which a property owner is entitled to recover his attorney fees in the event of an abandoned or dismissed expropriation suit. Following the hearing, in a judgment rendered July 2, 1996, the trial court awarded Schneider attorney fees of $6,572.50, and SMH appealed. See St. Tammany Parish Hosp. Service Dist. No. 2 v. Schneider, 96-2798 (La.App. 1st Cir.2/20/98), 707 So.2d 156. This court held that the award of attorney fees was premature because the expropriation had not yet been dismissed. The case was remanded for further evidence as to the ultimate disposition of the matter, reserving Schneider's right to seek attorney fees upon dismissal of the action. Id. at 158.
While the attorney fee issue was pending before this court, SMH filed a motion for summary judgment in the trial court concerning Schneider's claims for damages and expert fees, asserting that, because there had been no "taking" of the property, Schneider was not entitled to these. On July 1, 1997, the trial court denied the motion for summary judgment. After this court remanded the case, Schneider asked the trial court to consider the motion for dismissal and dismiss the expropriation, reserving his rights to claim lost rentals, attorney fees, and litigation costs. The expropriation was eventually dismissed in a judgment rendered October 20, 1998,2 and Schneider's remaining claims were set for trial on November 3, 1998. After two days of testimony, one of which was continued until January 1999, the court requested post-trial memoranda and took the matter under advisement. While the case was under advisement, on March 8, 1999, SMH filed a motion for sanctions against Schneider and his attorneys, seeking over $40,000 for the filing of frivolous pleadings opposing the dismissal of the expropriation. Schneider opposed the motion.
A judgment was signed July 19, 1999. In reasons for judgment, the court found Schneider had not proven he was entitled to any damages for lost rentals, because SMH was not in bad faith, the delays were due to both parties' negotiating positions, and Schneider had failed to mitigate his damages by finding another tenant. The court did not address the expert fees in its reasons for judgment, and awarded Schneider only $22,500 for attorney fees and litigation expenses, which was considerably less than he had claimed. The court denied SMH's motion for sanctions.
Schneider has appealed, claiming the court erred in denying his claim for lost rentals, expert fees, and a portion of the attorney fees and litigation costs he incurred as a result of the expropriation action. He also asks for additional attorney fees for the appeal. He argues that the trial court's judgment was based on an incorrect application of expropriation law, which should have been strictly construed against SMH, and therefore, this court should conduct a "de novo" review. He also asserts that the judgment violates the constitutional requirement that when property is taken or damaged due to expropriation, its owner should be compensated "to the full extent of his loss." Schneider also alleges the trial court's refusal to admit certain evidence was improper and prejudiced his ability to prove that SMH had acted in bad faith and abused its expropriation power. He further claims that he was forced to have the property appraised and inspected in order to defend the case and had to hire a CPA to prove his lost rentals. He argues that he would not have incurred these expenses, had it not been for the expropriation, and therefore, it was error for the court to ignore his claim for payment of the expert fees.
Schneider asks this court to award attorney fees for this appeal, and to increase the judgment to cover all of the following:
Attorney fees and expenses $35,106.30
Lost Rentals — 560 days @ $67.79/day 44,160.53
(future value with 4% interest rate)
Expert Fees
Andre Frilot — appraisal 2,500.00
expert witness fee 1,350.00
John Henry — building inspection 325.00
expert witness fee 2,500.00
Kathy Rickert, CPA — accounting services 818.75
expert witness fee 1,575.00
$88,335.58
Schneider also contends the delays and many of the costs he incurred, both before and after SMH filed its motion to dismiss the expropriation, were the result of actions taken in bad faith by SMH, including the first appeal to this court, requests for continuances, its motion for summary judgment, motions in limine, and its motion for sanctions.
SMH asks this court to apply the abuse of discretion standard in reviewing the attorney fee award for reasonableness and to affirm the judgment of the trial court. It contends the constitutional provision is inapplicable, because there was no taking or damaging of Schneider's property in this case. It argues that it had already vacated the property when the expropriation was filed; therefore, the lost rentals cannot be attributed to this action. SMH also claims that Schneider's loss of rental income was incurred because he failed to mitigate his damages by getting another tenant and protracted the litigation by opposing the motion to dismiss and other delaying tactics. SMH also argues that most of the expert fees were incurred as part of the negotiating process, and some were incurred after it had moved to dismiss, and therefore were properly excluded from the court's award.
Schneider asserts that his property was damaged by the actions of SMH in filing and then dismissing its expropriation suit, and that he is therefore entitled to compensation to the full extent of his loss, including lost rentals and all amounts expended in litigating this matter.3 He bases his claims on Article I, Section 4 of the Louisiana Constitution, which states, in pertinent part:
Property shall not be taken or damaged by the state or its political subdivisions except for public purposes and with just compensation paid to the owner or into the court for his benefit .... In every expropriation, ... the owner shall be compensated to the full extent of his loss.
This provision has also been interpreted to require compensation for any taking or damaging of property by the state or a political subdivision, even though no expropriation proceedings have been initiated in accordance with the statutory scheme set up for that purpose. Although the legislature has not provided a procedure whereby an owner can seek...
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