Case Name: The Reverend Deninah WEBB-GOODWIN v. Kimberly Williamson BUTLER, etc.
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 2004-02-23
Citations: 869 So. 2d 228
Docket Number: No. 2004-CA-0280
Parties: The Reverend Deninah WEBB-GOODWIN v. Kimberly Williamson BUTLER, etc.
Judges: Court composed of Judge CHARLES R. JONES, Judge PATRICIA RIVET MURRAY, Judge MICHAEL E. KIRBY, Judge MAX N. TOBIAS, JR., and MOON LANDRIEU Judge Pro Tempore.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 869
Pages: 228–234

Head Matter:
The Reverend Deninah WEBB-GOODWIN v. Kimberly Williamson BUTLER, etc.
No. 2004-CA-0280.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.
Feb. 23, 2004.
Reverend Deninah Webb-Goodwin, New Orleans, LA, in Proper Person, Plaintiff/Appellant.
Court composed of Judge CHARLES R. JONES, Judge PATRICIA RIVET MURRAY, Judge MICHAEL E. KIRBY, Judge MAX N. TOBIAS, JR., and MOON LANDRIEU Judge Pro Tempore.

Opinion:
JACHARLES R. JONES, Judge.
This suit involves a question of the qualifications of a candidate for the office of Member, Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee, 100th Representative District, Office "A." La. R.S. 24:35.5. The plaintiff/appellant, Deninah Webb-Goodwin (hereinafter, "Ms.Goodwin"), appeals a judgment dated February 18, 2004, of the district court finding that the defendant/appellee, Crystal Walker-McCullom (hereinafter, "Ms.McCullom"), shall remain a candidate in the election scheduled for March 9, 2004.
On February 6, 2004, Ms. Goodwin timely filed her "Suit Objection to Candidacy" alleging that Ms. McCullom was a resident and domiciliary of the Parish of Jefferson residing at 207 Appletree Lane, Gretna, Louisiana, and not properly qualified as a candidate for the office of Member, Democratic State Central Committee, 100th Representative District, Office "A". Further, she alleges that Ms. McCullom and her now ex-husband, purchased the Appletree Lane property in 1998, that Ms. McCullom was registered as a voter from that Apple-tree |¡>Lane address, and that her suit for divorce in June, 2002, alleged her domicile to be in Jefferson Parish. Pursuant to La. R.S. 18:1409, the district court set the trial of the matter for 10:00 a.m. on February 17, 2004. The district court signed the order setting the trial on February 12, 2004. (We note that February 16, 2004 was a legal holiday, President's Day. La. R.S. 1:55 E.)
On the morning of February 17, 2004, Ms. Goodwin filed a Motion to Continue the trial asserting that she had been unable to serve subpoenas because the office of the Clerk of Court had been closed the preceding day (for the legal holiday). The district court denied the motion, noting that given the statutory time delay for holding a trial was four days, and the district court was required to render a decision within twenty-four hours from the close of evidence. Further, the district court held the record open until 5:00 p.m. on February 17, 2004, in order for Ms. Goodwin to supplement the record with additional evidence. However, Ms. Goodwin did not supplement the record with filings until 5:40 p.m. on February 18, 2004, and again on February 19, 2004; this Court, on appeal, cannot consider those untimely-filed documents.
At trial, only Ms. McCullom testified. She indicated that she co-owned the home at 207 Appletree Lane with her ex-husband, and that a homestead exemption was on file in Jefferson Parish for at least the year 2002. She testified that she was a registered voter in Orleans Parish from the address of 4700 Dodt Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana , and that at the time of filing her Petition for Divorce she was domiciled in Jefferson Parish. She denied being a registered voter in Jefferson 13Parish. She acknowledged having a toll tag for the Mississippi River Bridge attached to a white Ford Expedition SUV that she drives, testifying that the vehicle was part of the community assets with her husband and registered in his name. Ms. MeCullom explained that she travels in the morning across the bridge to the Orleans Parish School Board office at 3510 General DeGaulle Drive, where she is a contract worker, to drop off work. She further testified that from there, she travels to the office of the Orleans Parish District Attorney, where she is employed as a full-time administrative assistant. Her son attends a private school on Dorgenois Street in New Orleans.
The district court then asked Ms. Goodwin if she had anything else she wished "to state for the record." Ms. Goodwin stated that Ms. MeCullom did own a home in Jefferson Parish and that Ms. MeCullom was not shown as an owner or co-owner of a dwelling at 4700 Dodt Avenue. Further, Ms. Goodwin said that she would provide a title for 4700 Dodt Avenue, that Ms. MeCullom had never filed for a homestead exemption in Orleans Parish, and that 4700 Dodt Avenue is not in Representative District 100. She stated that she had a "copy of her [Ms. McCullom's] toll tag where we can prove activity on a daily basis coming from Jefferson Parish within the hours of 7:15 in the morning to 9:00." Ms. McCul-lom also stated that the human resource record of the Orleans Parish District Attorney's office showed that Ms. MeCullom stated her primary residence to be on Ap-pletree Lane and that the last time that Ms. MeCullom voted in Jefferson Parish was in November 2003. Ms. Goodwin finally requested twenty-four hours to provide the | ¿district court with her telephone bill, water bill, "Office of Public Works, human resources [, and] the Jefferson Parish Registrar of Voters Form." She also said that Ms. McCullom's divorce petition was filed in Jefferson Parish. The record on appeal does not reflect that Ms. Goodwin was ever sworn and her statements are not properly considered as evidence. La. C.C.P. art. 1633.
The district court then questioned Ms. MeCullom. The judge's questioning confirmed that Ms. MeCullom was divorced from her husband, Gary MeCullom, but that the community property had not been divided, that at the time of her divorce she was domiciled in Jefferson Parish, that before moving to 207 Appletree Lane she lived on West Pond in Gonzales, Louisiana, and that "[d]uring my divorce and really [sic] my domicile is for 38 years has been with my mother and my father [at 4700 Dodt Avenue]." Ms. MeCullom stated that she lived on Dodt Avenue with her son, father, mother, and aunt. She further stated that she used the 4700 Dodt Avenue address on the qualifying papers that she filed in order to qualify for the office of Member, the Democratic State Central Committee.
The record on appeal contains an "EXHIBIT LIST" clocked with the Clerk of the Civil District Court at 5:40 p.m. on February 18, 2004. The documents listed and attached to the list include a copy of Ms. McCullom's divorce petition filed on June 27, 2002; a facsimile transmittal sheet dated "2-18-04" from the Clerk of the 24th Judicial District Court for the Parish of Jefferson indicating a 5 page transmittal that includes the transmittal sheet; an e-mail transmittal from Larry Preston Williams & Associates, Ltd., Detectives and Security Consultants, dated February 8, 2004, relating to seven subpoenas and a second e-mail from the same entity dated February 16, 2004, advising that because of the holiday additional time to serve the subpoenas was needed and that Ms. Goodwin should 15file a motion for a continuance; and copies of subpoenas duces tecum to the Orleans Registrar of Voters to produce Ms. McCullom's voter registration documents and to Ms. McCul-lom to produce the following: "1. Copy of Application Form [;] 2. W-2's for 2002, 2001[;] 3. Copy of Driver's Liscense (sic) [; and] 4. Credit Card Bills, Utility Bills, Cell Phone Bills." These subpoenas duces te-cum call for the production of the documents on February 18, 2004, at Civil District Court.
The district court rendered judgment on February 18, 2004, although it failed to note the time of day that the judgment was rendered as required by La. R.S. 18:1409 C. The district court judge did note however, that as of noon on February 18, 2004, the documents that Ms. Goodwin was given time to produce had not been submitted. In the Reasons for Judgment refusing to remove Ms. McCullom as a candidate, the district court found that Ms. Goodwin had not met her burden of proof as mandated by La. R.S. 18:492. Further, the court noted that the plaintiff had pointed to no statute that required that a candidate for the Democratic State Central Committee be domiciled in the representative district from which the candidate sought election. This timely appeal followed.
Both Sections 443 and 443.2 of Title 18 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes require that a member of a state central committee of a recognized political party shall meet the qualifications established by the rules and regulations of the state central committee of that recognized party, and that the rules and regulations establishing or changing the qualifications for membership on the state central committee shall be filed with the secretary of state within ten days after their | fiadoption and published by the state central committee in the Louisiana Register. La. R.S. 18:443 A and E; La. R.S. 18:443.2(1) and (5). In the section "POTPOURRI" of the Louisiana Register appears Resolutions 1 and 2 of the Democratic State Central Committee of Louisiana's Executive Committee, which in pertinent part read as follows:
RESOLUTION NO. 1
ARTICLE ONE
(Democratic State Central Committee of Louisiana)
Section 2. — Membership
(c) Any registered Democrat may seek membership on the Democratic State Central Committee.
RESOLUTION NO. 2

ARTICLE VII — Election
Any registered Democrat residing in the district in which he or she seeks election shall be eligible for election to membership on the Democratic State Central Committee or a Parish Democratic Central Committee.... Such candidates shall be elected pursuant to state law. (Emphasis added)
Thus, as a matter of state law and the rules and regulations of the Louisiana Democratic party, the only qualifications for a member of the Democratic State Central Committee are being a registered Democrat and residing in the district from which the person seeks election. Although a person can have but one domicile, a person can have multiple residences. That is, domicile and residence are not synonymous terms; a person can have several residences but only one domicile. Taylor v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., 248 La. 246, 178 So.2d 238, 242 (1965); Butler v. Cantrell, 630 So.2d 852, 855 (La.App. 4 Cir.1993); Reeves v. Johnson, 36,837, p. 2 (La.App. 2 Cir. 9/11/02), 824 So.2d 1277, 1279.
The sole issue on appeal is whether Ms. McCullom is qualified to seek election to the Democratic Central Committee from district 100. In seeking to qualify, Ms. McCullom states in her notice of candidacy, that her domicile address is 4700 Dodt Street, New Orleans. However, the website for the Secretary of State indicates that 4700 Dodt Street is actually in District 101. Thus, by her own qualifying documents, Ms. McCullom admits that she is domiciled outside of District 100. For this reason, the district court committed manifest error, or was clearly wrong, in not granting petitioner relief.
Decree
Thus, for the reasons herein stated, we reverse the judgment of the district court and find that Crystal Walker-McCullom is not a qualified candidate for the office of Member, Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee, 100th Representative District, Office "A". It is further ordered that Secretary of State, Fox McKeithen, strike from the ballot, for the election of March 9, 2004, the candidacy of Crystal Walker-McCullom.
REVERSED.
.In the pleadings filed in the district court, the parties and the district judge occasionally refer to the office as "Office 'B'." In fact, both parties are qualified for "Office 'A' " as per the records of the Louisiana Secretary of State. Similarly, the judgment of the district court reflects the clerical error that the parties are qualified for "Office 'B'." We note the error and correct same by our decree to re-fleet that the contest is for Office "A." La. C.C.P. art. 2164; see also La. C.C.P. art. 5054.
. The motion and order for appeal were respectively filed and signed on Februaty 19, 2004.
. We spell Ms. McCullom's name as she spelled it on her notice of candidacy form.
. Although Ms. Goodwin listed the Clerk of Criminal District Court and the Louisiana Secretary of State as additional parties defendant, their participation in this suit is irrelevant because the present suit is not over the results of an election. In that regard, the secretary of state filed an exception of no cause of action, which the trial court orally sustained at the merits trial; that ruling is commemorated in the February 18, 2004 judgment and the judgment further dismisses the Clerk of the Criminal District Court based upon oral motion adopting the secretary of state's exception of no cause of action.
. The record is silent as to why the order setting the trial was not signed earlier than February 12, 2004. It is unexplained in the record. We noted that La. R.S. 18:1409 A(l) requires that "The trial shall begin no later than 10:00 a.m. on the fourth day after suit was filed." The delay in obtaining the order setting the trial is properly charged against the plaintiff. Mayeux v. Stephens, 96-1101, pp. 4-5 (La.App. 3 Cir. 8/7/96), 678 So.2d 82, 84-85; cf., Scoggins v. Jones, 442 So.2d 1202 (La.App. 2 Cir. 1983). Neither party addresses this issue on appeal.
.We take judicial notice pursuant to La. C.E. art. 202 that 4700 Dodt Avenue is currently located in the 101st Representative District following the 2000 census and was located in the 101st Representative District following the 1990 census. See La. R.S. 24:35.5; La. R.S. 35.4; New Orleans Ord. M.C.S. § 58-36.
. We take judicial notice of the fact that Dor-genois Street (both North and South) is on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans Parish, that 3510 General DeGaulle Drive is on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans Parish, and that toll tags register crossings over the Mississippi River Bridge for vehicles traveling west to east. La. C.E. art. 201.
.A third subpoena duces tecum directed to Mr. Dennis DiMarco, 5001 West Bank Expressway, Marrero, Louisiana 70072 is also attached requesting production of unnamed documents at Civil District Court by 5:00 p.m. on February 18, 2004. The purpose of this subpoena duces tecum is unexplained and unclear.
. It is duly noted that on February 23, 2004, at the conclusion of oral argument, this matter was
marked as submitted to this Court at 10:50 a.m.
. Perhaps the better word is "Miscellany."