Case ID: f-appx_341/html/0974-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM: \n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Merlin C. GUILBEAU, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PARISH OF ST. LANDRY; St. Landry Parish Government, Defendants-Appellees.
    No. 08-31182.
    United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
    Aug. 21, 2009.
    Donald J. Miester, Jr., Perry R. Staub, Jr., Taggart, Morton, Ogden, Staub & O’Brien, New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
    Peter F. Caviness, Jerry J. Falgoust, Dauzat, Falgoust, Caviness & Bienvenu, Opelousas, LA, for Defendants-Appellees.
    Before REAVLEY, SMITH, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM:

Merlin Guilbeau obtained a state-court judgment against St. Landry Parish for injuries he received in an accident on a negligently-maintained road, but he was never paid. He sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming that the refusal to pay, based on La.Rev.Stat. § 13:5109(B)(2), violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause and that the Highway Safety Act of 1966, 23 U.S.C. § 402, preempts the state statute. After a bench trial, the district court denied relief.

The constitutional argument is foreclosed by Minton v. St. Bernard Parish School Board, 803 F.2d 129, 132 (5th Cir.1986). There is no preemption merely because Congress enacted a statute to promote highway safety.

The judgment is AFFIRMED, essentially for the reasons given by the district court in its comprehensive ruling. 
      
       Pursuant to 5th Cih. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Cir. R. 47.5.4.