Case Name: ACADIAN HERITAGE REALTY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. The CITY OF LAFAYETTE, Defendant-Appellant
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1984-04-11
Citations: 451 So. 2d 17
Docket Number: No. 84-35
Parties: ACADIAN HERITAGE REALTY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. The CITY OF LAFAYETTE, Defendant-Appellant.
Judges: Before CUTRER, STOKER and DOU-CET, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 451
Pages: 17–24

Head Matter:
ACADIAN HERITAGE REALTY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. The CITY OF LAFAYETTE, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 84-35.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.
April 11, 1984.
Rehearing Denied May 7, 1984.
Writ Denied June 25, 1984.
Voorhies & Labbe, Marc W. Judice, Lafayette, for defendant-appellant.
Jefferson D. Hughes, III, Walker, Ronald G.' Gossen, J. Minos Simon, Domen-geaux & Wright, Bob P. Wright, Joseph Koury of Koury & Koury, Kenneth W. DeJean of Fruge & DeJean, J.M. Wooder-son, Lafayette, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before CUTRER, STOKER and DOU-CET, JJ.

Opinion:
STOKER, Judge.
Before us in this appeal is a judgment dated September 10, 1981, which grants a "conditional permanent injunction" in favor of certain intervenors in this case. The injunction sets out specific guidelines to be followed by the City of Lafayette in its operation of a sanitary landfill and, in effect, makes the landfill subject to the management of the trial court. A motion to dismiss the appeal was filed by the interve-nors and was referred to the merits. In this opinion, we first address the motion to dismiss which we conclude should be denied. We will then address the merits of the injunction.
FACTS
The circumstances leading up to the filing of the present appeal are somewhat lengthy and confusing, but a recitation of these circumstances is necessary to an understanding of the motion to dismiss.
Suit was originally filed by Acadian Heritage Realty (Acadian) against the City of Lafayette. Acadian sought to enjoin the City from beginning operation of a landfill in an area which it was developing into subdivisions. Acadian also sought damages for the negligent placement of the landfill. Acadian's suit for damages was dismissed on an exception of no cause of action. The dismissal of the suit was reversed on appeal by this Court in an opinion reported at 394 So.2d 855 (Acadian # 1). The trial court ultimately refused to enjoin the construction of the landfill at the instance of Acadian, but this action was not appealed by Acadian. Acadian does not figure in this appeal.
In the meantime the landfill had begun operations, and several landowners in the area (referred to as the Gossen and Guil-beau groups) intervened in the suit filed by Acadian seeking damages for loss of value and nuisance and seeking to enjoin further operation of the landfill. However, Acadi-an's principal suit and the interventions were tried separately and came up on appeal separately. After trial between the landowners and the City, on September 10, 1981, the district court issued the injunction before us in this appeal. Thus, in this appeal the intervenors, the Gossen and Gu-ilbeau groups, are the appellees. It has recently become apparent that the City obtained an order of appeal, timely signed by the trial judge, granting an appeal and setting bond. The trial court refused to stay the injunction and, on application for writs to this Court, the City was granted a stay of the injunction during the pendency of the appeal. The original order of appeal was not filed with the parish clerk of court at this time, but a revision of the order dated September 23,1981 deleting the bond requirement was filed and sent to this court on September 24. This revision does not refer to a particular judgment or original order of appeal, but it is now apparent that the only appealable judgment in the record at that time was that of September 10, 1981. The writ granting a stay of the injunction was issued on September 30, 1981. (Our Docket Number # 8659.)
A judgment awarding money damages to the intervening landowners was filed on October 27, 1982, from which the City appealed. That judgment was affirmed by this Court in an opinion at 434 So.2d 182, writ denied 440 So.2d 733 (Acadian # 2). In that appeal both the City and the landowners argued the merits of the injunction, but we found that the record before us at that time contained only an order of appeal from the October 27,1982 judgment. Thus we did not consider the injunction. In its application for rehearing in that matter, the City asserted only that our writ action on September 30, 1981 granted an appeal from that judgment. The rehearing was denied on July 14, 1983.
During the appeal proceedings on Acadi-an # 2, trial was held between the original plaintiff, Acadian, and the City resulting in a judgment for money damages in favor of Acadian on January 28, 1983. Our decision affirming that judgment was rendered on February 1, 1984. (Acadian # 3). Acadian Heritage Realty v. City of Lafayette, 446 So.2d 375 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1984). In that appeal, the City again attempted to bring the issues regarding the injunction before this Court and we pointed out that Acadian, the appellee in Acadian # 3, was not involved in the injunction and was not the plaintiff in whose favor the injunction was given. Thus, the City could not argue the injunction in its appeal against Acadian.
During the latter part of July, 1983, the clerk of this Court received a communication from the Lafayette Clerk of Court forwarding an order of appeal from the injunction judgment of September 10, 1981, requesting that the order be inserted into the record of Acadian # 3, at page 462A, et seq. This order of appeal was stamped as having been filed on July 26, 1983, with the Clerk of Court for Lafayette Parish, and, although it was signed by the trial judge, the date of the signing was not given. The order does contain a return date of October 12, 1981, evidently inserted in the appropriate blank by the trial judge.
During oral argument of Acadian # 3 the City's attorney, when advised that the injunction matter was not on appeal in that particular appeal, indicated the City's desire to have it docketed, heard and disposed of. Accordingly, a separate appeal was docketed and is the appeal now before us. (Acadian # 4.) When notice of the appeal was given to the intervening landowners, they filed a motion to dismiss the appeal as being untimely.
MOTION TO DISMISS
In support of the motion to dismiss the appeal as having been untimely filed, movers argue that the late filing of the order of appeal is an error attributable solely to the City. In fact, at oral argument on this matter, the City's attorney admitted that the unfiled order of appeal was finally located in his office files, and he then immediately filed it with the Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court on July 26, 1983. Counsel stated that the usual procedure in Lafayette Parish was for the judge to sign an order of appeal, and someone from the judge's office would file it with the Clerk of Court. Counsel for the City speculated that the original order was apparently sent back to his law office and was inadvertently placed in his file under the erroneous impression that it was an information copy. We have no doubt that the search for the order was extremely tedious as the final Clerk's record in this matter contained more than 3800 pages. No doubt the file kept by the City's attorney must be even more voluminous.
Although the original order of appeal did not appear in the record until July 26, 1983, the revision of that order and the writ granting a stay of execution of the injunction did appear in the record and gave timely notice to the parties of a pending appeal. The. two documents do not grant an appeal as. argued by the City, but they do make it apparent that an appeal was intended. Even this Court was clearly under the impression that an appeal existed when the writ was granted. In Acadian # 2, all parties argued the merits of the injunction in their briefs as if it were being considered on appeal.
Movers argue that this situation should be controlled by Traigle v. Gulf Coast Aluminum Corporation, 399 So.2d 183 (La.1981). In that matter the Louisiana Supreme Court dealt with a series of cases in which the orders of appeal were timely filed with the parish clerks of court, but were not signed prior to the expiration of the delays. The Supreme Court concluded that when an order of appeal is timely filed with the clerk of court, the clerk has a duty to either obtain the judge's signature on it or, in cases where allowed by law, sign it himself. Thus, the Court held that the appeals were valid because they were timely filed.
According to movers, the Court in Traigle ruled that only the timely filing of the order of appeal could validly effect an appeal and the signing of an order of appeal within the time limit did not. We disagree. The cases relied on by the City, Owens v. AAA Contracting Company, 213 So.2d 338 (La.App. 1st Cir.1968) and Martin v. Martin, 228 So.2d 355 (La.App. 4th Cir.1969), represent the long-standing rule that as long as the order of appeal is timely obtained (i.e., signed), it cannot be invalidated by the failure to timely file it as long as it is eventually filed in the record. We do not believe that the Supreme Court in Trai-gle intended to overrule prior holdings recognizing the validity of appeals. Rather we believe the Court was merely recognizing the principle that appeals are favored in the law and should not be dismissed for a mere technicality. Further, an appeal should be maintained unless the ground urged for dismissal is free from doubt. See Jeanmard v. Sears, Roebuck and Company, 436 So.2d 575 (La.App. 3rd Cir. 1983).
In the present case, although it is clear that the order of appeal was not timely filed, it is not entirely clear what caused the late filing. The City's attorney contends he followed normal procedure in leaving the order at the judge's office to be signed. We decline to hold that the reliance on the usual custom in this case constitutes fault imputable to the appellant. See Thompson v. Warmack, 229 So.2d 352 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1969). Both parties and even this Court at one point believed that there was a valid appeal.
Finally, movers urge that under LSA-C. C.P. arts. 561 and 2165 as each provided prior to amendment by Act 186 of 1982, the appeal should be declared abandoned for failure to prosecute for one year. We disagree. Aside from the fact that both parties believed the injunction to be before this Court on appeal, there was also some confusion in this Court concerning which matters in this case were to be consolidated. At one point a peripheral matter was consolidated with Acadian # 2. See 434 So.2d 180 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1983). The City's attorney consistently harbored the expectation that the injunction would be heard either in connection with Acadian # 2 or Acadian # 3. Because the entire record was already before this Court in Acadian # 3, and the City's attorney mistakenly assumed the order of appeal relative to the injunction was a part of that record, the appellant had no reason to expect a separate return date or separate notice on the injunction matter. Considering the fractured nature of this litigation, we do not find his expectations unreasonable. On the other hand, this Court of Appeal was not made aware that the injunction had in fact been appealed until a copy of the order of appeal filed July 26, 1983 was forwarded to us sometime thereafter by the Clerk of Court for Lafayette Parish. As noted above, this was while the appeal in Acadian # 3 was pending before us.
After fully considering all of the above matters, and with particular notice of the continual and unusual confusion in this matter, we conclude that the motion to dismiss the appeal should be denied. Accordingly, we deny the motion to dismiss.
. The order of appeal actually grants a suspen-sive appeal. However, this was obviously not intended as the trial court struck out the second paragraph of the injunction appeal order which would have stayed the injunction until completion of the appeal process. Without such a stay from the trial court the appeal could not be suspensive. LSA-C.C.P. art. 3612. Hence, the appeal could only have been devolutive.