IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

No. 18-40390

GAETAN PELLETIER, 

 Plaintiff – Appellant,

v.

VICTORIA AIR CONDITIONING, LIMITED; LLOYD BOEDEKER; 

WARREN HEILKER,

 Defendants – Appellees.

************************************************************************

GAETAN PELLETIER,

 Plaintiff – Appellant,

v.

MARIO LEDESMA, LLOYD BOEDEKER, VICTORIA AIR CONDITIONING, 

LIMITED, GAY HEILKER, ANITA HEILKER, WARREN HEILKER, 

BENJAMIN F. HEILKER, DONALD H. ANDERSON,

 Defendants – Appellees.

Appeals from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Texas

USDC No. 6:17-CV-6

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

July 12, 2019

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

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Before KING, ELROD, and ENGELHARDT, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:*

Gaetan Pelletier appeals the district court’s dismissal of a contract 

dispute case for lack of standing. Because the district court did not clearly err 

in its determination that Pelletier did not establish by a preponderance of the 

evidence that he personally owned the hotel involved in the underlying 

contract dispute, we AFFIRM.

I.

Pelletier, proceeding pro se, alleges that he is the owner of a hotel that 

was being constructed in Texas. He raises breach of contract and other state 

law claims for allegedly faulty plumbing installed in that hotel by the 

appellees. This case is in federal court under diversity jurisdiction. See 28 

U.S.C. § 1332. 

In the district court, the appellees moved to dismiss, contending that 

Pelletier was not the owner of the hotel and therefore lacked standing to bring 

the lawsuit. Instead, the appellees argued that LLCs associated with Pelletier 

were the legal owners of both the hotel’s business and its physical structure. 

The district court requested supplemental briefing from both parties on the 

question of standing and held an evidentiary hearing on the matter. The 

district court then weighed conflicting evidence and made the factual 

determination that even though Pelletier was the “primary actor” for each of 

the LLCs, he was not personally the owner of either the structure or the 

business of the hotel. 

 

* Pursuant to Fifth Circuit Rule 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should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth 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 Fifth Circuit Rule 47.5.4.

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On one hand, the district court considered evidence indicating that the 

LLCs owned the hotel, which included: (1) a general warranty deed, a county 

appraisal, and three deeds of trust to secure loans all identifying an LLC as 

the owner of the land and/or its improvements; (2) representations made by 

the LLCs in previous state court proceedings that they were the owners; (3) 

Pelletier’s hearing testimony, where he conflated actions that he personally 

took with those that were in fact taken by the LLCs; and (4) the absence of 

other documentary evidence that could have established ownership, such as 

building permits, subcontracts, insurance policies, or invoices. 

On the other hand, the district court also considered a land lease 

agreement between an LLC affiliated with Pelletier as the lessor and Pelletier 

as the lessee, which said that the “Lessee owns the improvement structure(s).” 

However, the district court concluded that the lease, when “taken together 

with all the other evidence, does not show clear intent by [the LLC] to convey 

real property or any improvements.” 

The district court ultimately granted the appellees’ motion to dismiss

under Rule 12(b)(1), stating:

The Court cannot conclude Plaintiff has proven beyond a 

preponderance of the evidence that [he] is the owner of [the 

hotel]. . . . [T]here are too many instances in the public record 

where the limited liability companies are declared by Plaintiff to 

be the owners. Statements to lenders and to courts are not to be 

taken lightly. Documents that might reflect ownership are not in 

the record. The matter is just too vague for the court to find for 

Plaintiff. Therefore, Plaintiff does not have standing to sue for . . . 

the allegedly faulty plumbing. 

Pelletier filed a timely notice of appeal from that judgment, and we have

jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. 

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But the story is not done. After filing the notice of appeal of the initial 

judgment, Pelletier filed a motion to amend judgment with the district court,1

and included several additional exhibits which he alleged evidenced his 

personal ownership. The appellees opposed the motion, arguing that the new 

exhibits still did not clearly establish personal ownership and noting that 

many of the new exhibits were created after the evidentiary hearing, when 

Pelletier had a clear motive to manufacture standing. Prior to the district 

court’s ruling on that motion, Pelletier filed an amended notice of appeal, 

wherein he expressed his desire to incorporate the motion to amend judgment 

into his appeal, even though he expressly noted that the motion “has not yet 

been ruled upon” by the district court. The district court denied the motion to 

amend judgment, specifically finding that all of the “new” evidence was either 

known to Pelletier before the hearing but not shared with the court or created 

by or on behalf of Pelletier after the evidentiary hearing. Pelletier did not file

a notice of appeal from the order denying the motion to amend judgment any 

time after that order was issued.

II.

There are thus two issues before us. First, whether an appeal of the 

order denying the motion to amend judgment is properly before us; and second, 

whether the district court erred by dismissing the case for lack of standing. We 

address each issue in turn. 

1.

We begin by addressing whether an appeal of the order denying the 

motion to amend judgment is properly before us.

 

1 The motion was styled as “Plaintiff’s Motion to Alter or Amend Judgment Per FRCP 

59(e); Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law Per FRCP 50(a)(2); and Motion for Relief from 

a Judgement Order Per FRCP 60.” However, a Rule 50 motion is not applicable here, and 

the arguments for Rule 59(e) and Rule 60 relief appear to be indistinguishable from one 

another. Thus, for brevity’s sake, we refer to it as a motion to amend judgment. 

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“[T]he timely filing of a notice of appeal in a civil case is a jurisdictional 

requirement.” Bowles v. Russell, 551 U.S. 205, 214 (2007). The Federal Rules

of Appellate Procedure direct that the notice of appeal must be filed after the 

district court has decided the issue sought to be appealed. See Fed. R. App. P. 

4(a)(1) (for civil cases); Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(1) (for criminal cases).

In this case, Pelletier attempted to amend his notice of appeal to include 

his motion to amend judgment, but he filed that amended notice of appeal

before the district court issued its order on that post-judgment motion. That is 

not a proper notice of appeal from the ruling on the post-judgment motion. As 

such, we lack the jurisdiction to review that decision, as well as any of the 

exhibits provided therein. See Taylor v. Johnson, 257 F.3d 470, 475 (5th Cir.

2001); cf. Manrique v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 1266, 1272 (2017) (rejecting, in 

a criminal case, the argument that a notice of appeal filed after the initial 

judgment is rendered also “springs forward” to appeal an amended judgment). 

2.

Therefore, the only question properly before us is whether the district 

court erred in its initial judgment dismissing the case for lack of standing.

We review de novo a district court’s rulings on legal questions, including

rulings on the issue of standing. Superior MRI Servs., Inc. v. All. Healthcare 

Servs., Inc., 778 F.3d 502, 504 (5th Cir. 2015). However, “[a] district court's 

factual findings, including those on which the court based its legal conclusions, 

are reviewed for clear error.” Id. (citation omitted). “A factual finding is not 

clearly erroneous if it is plausible, considering the record as a whole.” United 

States v. King, 773 F.3d 48, 52 (5th Cir. 2014) (citation omitted). 

Before addressing the standing arguments, we pause to address the type 

of standing that is at issue. “Standing jurisprudence contains two strands: 

Article III [or constitutional] standing, which enforces the Constitution’s caseor-controversy requirement, and prudential standing, which embodies 

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judicially self-imposed limits on the exercise of federal jurisdiction.” Servicios 

Azucareros de Venez., C.A. v. John Deere Thibodeaux, Inc., 702 F.3d 794, 801 

(5th Cir. 2012) (citation, alterations, and quotation marks omitted). A 

dismissal for lack of constitutional standing should be granted under Rule 

12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, whereas a dismissal for lack of 

prudential standing should be granted under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state 

a claim. Harold H. Huggins Realty, Inc. v. FNC, Inc., 634 F.3d 787, 795 n.2 

(5th Cir. 2011). 

Before the district court, and again before this court, the appellees 

argued that the courts lack subject matter jurisdiction because Pelletier lacks 

prudential standing. However, as explained above, a lack of prudential 

standing does not implicate subject matter jurisdiction, and the district court

appears to have granted the Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss based on 

constitutional standing.2 We therefore start and end by addressing the 

constitutional standing determination made by the district court. See id. 

(noting that we must first establish that we have constitutional standing before 

addressing questions of prudential standing).

One requirement of constitutional standing is that the plaintiff must 

have suffered (or be imminently threatened with suffering) the alleged injury.3 

 

2 Pelletier’s pro se briefs, for their part, do not clearly identify whether his arguments 

pertain to prudential or constitutional standing.

3 The Supreme Court has noted that there is some overlap and tension between the 

constitutional standing requirement that a plaintiff must show he has suffered an injury and 

the prudential standing requirement that a plaintiff may not assert the legal rights of others. 

See Lexmark Int’l, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc., 572 U.S. 118, 127 n.3 (2014); see 

also United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 744, 781–88 (2013) (Scalia, J., dissenting). We have 

held that prudential standing requirements still apply to third-party challenges brought by 

plaintiffs who otherwise have constitutional standing. See Superior MRI Servs., 778 F.3d at 

506. See also 33 Charles A. Wright et al., Federal Practice & Procedure § 8343 (2d ed. April 

2019 Update) (describing the tension, and noting that among all the categories of prudential 

standing, “only the doctrine of third-party standing . . . still remains in the prudential 

category”). 

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See Lexmark Int’l, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc., 572 U.S. 118, 125 

(2014) (citing Lujan v. Def. of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560 (1992)). To satisfy 

that requirement here, Pelletier needed to establish that he, personally, was 

injured by the allegedly faulty plumbing installed at the hotel. The district 

court concluded that Pelletier did not make that showing, and Pelletier raises 

two arguments contending that the district court erred on that point.

First, Pelletier contends that a jury, not the court, should have resolved 

the factual dispute over whether he owned the hotel. “[W]here subject matter 

jurisdiction is being challenged, the trial court is free to weigh the evidence 

and resolve factual disputes in order to satisfy itself that it has the power to 

hear the case.” Montez v. Dep’t of Navy, 392 F.3d 147, 149 (5th Cir. 2004). 

However, where the same factual dispute underlies both the subject matter 

jurisdiction and the merits of the case, “the trial court must assume jurisdiction 

and proceed to the merits.” Id. at 150. 

Because Pelletier did not adequately raise this argument before the 

district court in any motion or proceeding that is properly before us, it is

forfeited on appeal. See United States ex rel. Vavra v. Kellogg Brown & Root, 

Inc., 848 F.3d 366, 376 (5th Cir. 2017) (“[T]o preserve its argument for appeal, 

the litigant must press and not merely intimate the argument before the 

district court.” (citation and quotation marks omitted)).4 

Second, Pelletier contends that the district court erred in its 

determination that he did not personally own the hotel. To prevail on a factual 

dispute concerning standing, “a plaintiff must prove the existence of subject-

 

4 However, even if we were to consider the argument, Pelletier’s contention would be 

unavailing. The merits of the case are whether the appellees breached the contract or 

otherwise violated state law by installing allegedly faulty plumbing. That dispute is entirely 

distinct from the dispute over whether Pelletier owns the hotel. As such, it was proper for 

the district court to first determine whether it had subject matter jurisdiction by resolving 

the factual question of whether Pelletier owned the hotel. 

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matter jurisdiction by a preponderance of the evidence and is obliged to submit 

facts through some evidentiary method to sustain his burden of proof.” 

Superior MRI Servs., 778 F.3d at 504 (citation and quotation marks omitted). 

As such, Pelletier carried the burden of establishing, by a preponderance 

of the evidence, that he personally was the legal owner of the hotel. Under 

Texas law, “[t]he general rule is that improvements become part of the land 

and belong to the landowner unless there is . . . evidence showing intent of the 

improver that the improvements remain personalty with the right to be 

removed.” Travis Cent. Appraisal Dist. v. Signature Flight Support Corp., 140 

S.W.3d 833, 838 (Tex. App.—Austin 2004, no pet.). 

Pelletier repeatedly argues—both before the district court and this 

court—that the land lease agreement (between himself and an LLC that he is 

associated with) is dispositive for determining that he, personally, was the 

legal owner of the hotel’s physical structure. 

His argument was unpersuasive to the district court and also is to us. 

The district court weighed that land lease agreement against documentary and 

testimonial evidence indicating that an LLC was instead the proper legal 

owner of the hotel. Significantly, that other evidence included multiple deeds 

of trust, signed after the land lease agreement, in which Pelletier, acting as an 

agent of the LLC, represented that the LLC was the owner of the property and

“any improvements” thereon. Also of significance, the district court found it to 

be “troubling” that Pelletier, as the primary actor for the LLCs, previously 

allowed those entities to represent to a Texas court that they were the owners 

of the hotel in state court litigation that involved the same allegedly faulty 

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plumbing.5 As the district court observed, “[s]tatements to lenders and to 

courts are not taken lightly.” 

Pelletier argues that Texas state courts give substantial weight to land 

lease agreements when resolving the ownership of improvements made upon 

leased land. See, e.g., Bexar Appraisal Dist. v. Dee Howard Co., No. 04-96-

00085-CV, 1997 WL 30884 (Tex. App.—San Antonio Jan. 29, 1997, writ 

denied). In a less convoluted case, his argument might have more traction. 

However, based on the record before us, we cannot say that the district court 

clearly erred in its determination that Pelletier failed to establish by a 

preponderance of the evidence that he personally owned the hotel. 

Therefore, because Pelletier did not establish that he personally owned

the hotel and he offered no other valid cause of action for his personal claim 

against the appellees, the district court did not err in its initial judgment 

dismissing the case for lack of standing. Cf. L & F Homes & Dev., L.L.C. v. 

City of Gulfport, 538 F. App’x 395, 408 (5th Cir. 2013) (unpublished) (holding 

that an individual member of an LLC did not have standing to sue a third party 

for economic harms allegedly suffered by the LLC because “[a] stockholder in 

a corporation does not have standing to bring suit in his own name for injuries 

sustained by the corporation . . . even where that individual is the sole 

 

5 That state litigation was brought by two LLCs associated with Pelletier and involved 

the same claims of allegedly faulty plumbing at issue in this appeal. The complaint asserted 

that the LLCs “are the owners of the TexInn hotel.” Originally, those LLCs were represented 

by counsel. However, counsel for the LLCs later withdrew and the LLCs were notified that, 

as LLCs, they were precluded from representing themselves pro se. Shortly thereafter, 

Pelletier filed his pro se complaint in federal court claiming that he, personally, was the 

owner of the hotel. The state court claims brought by the LLCs were subsequently dismissed 

for failure to prosecute. However, the state court granted a default judgment in those 

proceedings on counterclaims that were brought against the LLCs, specifically determining 

that it had subject matter jurisdiction over the parties. That determination implies that the 

state court understood the LLCs to have standing to sue and be sued as owners of the hotel

for matters regarding the allegedly faulty plumbing that is at issue. 

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shareholder of a corporation.” (citing Bellows v. Amoco Oil Co., 118 F.3d 268, 

276–77 (5th Cir. 1997)).

* * * *

The district court’s judgment is AFFIRMED.6

 

6 The appellees’ motion to take judicial notice of additional state court documents is 

denied.

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