Case Name: Meranda VARNADO v. GENTILLY MEDICAL CLINIC FOR WOMEN
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1998-12-23
Citations: 728 So. 2d 479
Docket Number: No. 98-CA-0264
Parties: Meranda VARNADO v. GENTILLY MEDICAL CLINIC FOR WOMEN.
Judges: Before KLEES, ARMSTRONG, PLOTKIN, WALTZER and McKAY, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 728
Pages: 479–483

Head Matter:
Meranda VARNADO v. GENTILLY MEDICAL CLINIC FOR WOMEN.
No. 98-CA-0264.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.
Dec. 23, 1998.
Nicolas Estiverne, Nicolas Estiverne & Associates, New Orleans, for Plaintiff/Appellant.
Andrew A. Lemeshewsky, Jr., New Orleans, for Defendants/Appellees.
Before KLEES, ARMSTRONG, PLOTKIN, WALTZER and McKAY, JJ.

Opinion:
11 MeKAY, Judge.
In this case we are called upon to decide whether the trial court erred when it found that this action had been abandoned under La. C.C.P. art. 561 and dismissed it. We conclude that the trial court did not err and affirm its judgment.
On March 17, 1989, Meranda Varnado, underwent an abortion performed by Dr. Ifea-nyi Okpalobi at the Gentilly Medical Clinic for Women. Ms. Varnado alleges that part of the baby was left inside of her womb and that this necessitated that she undergo several subsequent surgeries. Ms. Varnado filed a complaint under the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act against the doctor and the clinic. The Patient Compensation Fund informed her that the doctor qualified under the act but the clinic did not. Ms. Varnado then filed suit against the clinic on March 26, 1990. An action was brought against the doctor under the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act. However, the Medical Review Panel was never constituted and the Patient Compensation Fund dismissed the case against the doctor in August of 1993. The only motion of any kind filed with the court before November 21, 1995, was defendant's motion to withdraw as counsel of record and substitute counsel which was signed by the trial court on October 31, 1991.
On November 21, 1995, plaintiff filed a preliminary default against the clinic because the clinic had never filed an answer to the original petition which had been filed on March 26, 1990. On April 3, 1996, plaintiff supplemented 12the original petition and added the doctor as a defendant. The doctor filed no answer and a preliminary default was taken against he and the clinic. This default was later confirmed. After the time for applying for a new trial and filing an appeal had expired, plaintiff filed a Writ of Fieri Facias which was granted by the trial court and the sheriff seized the doctor's house to satisfy the judgment. The defendants then filed a motion to dismiss the case based on the theory that it was abandoned under Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 561. The trial court granted this motion and plaintiff brought this appeal.
The issue in this case is whether this suit has been abandoned under Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 561. The applicable version of that article reads as follows: "An action is abandoned when the parties fail to take any step in its prosecution or defense for a period of five years, unless it is a succession proceeding." La. C.C.P. art. 561. "Any step in its prosecution or defense" has been held to mean a formal move or action before the trial court intended to hasten judgment. Melancon v. Continental Casualty Company, 307 So.2d 308 (La.1975). In the instant case the suit against the clinic was filed on March 26, 1990, and a preliminary default was taken more than five and a half years later on November 21, 1995. During that time period, the only thing filed by either party was defendant's motion to withdraw as counsel of record and substitute counsel of record. Motions to withdraw or enroll as counsel or to substitute counsel are not formal steps before court in prosecution of a suit, for purposes of determining whether suit has been abandoned; such motions grant to counsel the right to take steps, or to prepare to take steps, toward prosecution or defense of a case, but do not hasten matter to judgment. Willey v. Roberts, 664 So.2d 1371 (La.App. 1st Cir.1995), writ denied, 669 So.2d 422 (La.1996). Therefore, it is clear that plaintiffs action against the clinic is ^abandoned because no steps were taken in either its prosecution or defense for a period of more than five years.
Plaintiff contends that even if her action against the clinic has been abandoned that her action against the doctor has not because it is a "new" suit. The problem with this is that she is attempting to bring the doctor into a suit that has already been abandoned. In the suit she is attempting to amend, more than five years elapsed with no action taking place before the trial court. This is not a "new" suit as plaintiff contends but simply an attempt to amend a suit that had been filed more than six years before. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 1153 makes it clear that when an action asserted in the amended petition arises out of the same conduct, transaction, or occurrence set forth in the original petition, the amendment relates back to the date of the filing of the original pleading. Plaintiffs amended petition cannot be viewed as a "new" suit when by its very nature it supplements the original petition of the abandoned suit. The fact that plaintiff had previously brought an action against the doctor under Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act has no bearing on whether the lawsuit has been abandoned because the doctor was not even named as a defendant in the suit until 1996. (It must be noted that this action was also dismissed for lack of activity.) There was nothing but an abandoned action for the supplemental and amending petition to relate back to. To find that plaintiffs action against the doctor had not been abandoned would clearly violate the very purpose behind article 561, which is to insure that attorneys diligently represent their clients' interests and not allow actions to remain dormant. Such a finding would reward ineptitude and lack of due diligence. It would also be moving in the opposite direction from which the legislature recently took when it reduced the time it took for an action to be abandoned |4from five to three years.
For the foregoing reasons the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
PLOTKIN, J. concurs with written reasons.