Opinion ID: 1934503
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Interest of the State

Text: The attorney general urges that the State of Louisiana is not the proper party defendant for this action. He contends that the individual consumers of the state are the proper parties in interest, not the State itself. The Louisiana Consumer Protection Law recognizes the right of the State to represent the consumer in both criminal proceedings for violations of the act, La.R.S. 9:3553, and in civil proceedings for injunction and administrative rule making, La.R. S. 9:3554. If the State is a proper representative for the consumer as a plaintiff, it is persuasive that it is a proper representative as a defendant. It is true that the district attorney would normally be the proper party to bring criminal prosecutions under 3553 and that the State Bank Commissioner is the proper party to bring injunctive relief under 3555. Nevertheless, if either were made defendant in an action for declaratory relief attacking the validity of the law, the attorney general is required to be served with a copy of the petition and entitled to plead. La.C.Civ.P. art. 1880. Further, Section 14 provides that in the event of a conflict with the Consumer Protection Law and The Motor Vehicle Sales Finance Act, La.R.S. 6:951 et seq., the latter shall prevail, and this latter act is administered by the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission. The challenged Section 15 supplements and overlaps to some extent the subject matter regulated by the Motor Vehicle Sales Finance Act. Arguably, this latter state agency might also be involved. By statute, the attorney general is designated to institute, maintain, and defend actions in which the State is interested. La. R.S. 49:461 (1972). In the present instance, we conclude that the State, itself, cited through and represented by the attorney general, is as appropriate a defendant as any of these other state or local agencies or officials, in a matter involving the constitutionality of a state statute with various provisions enforceable by different functionaries of the State. To hold otherwise would be to render inoperative the provisions of the declaratory judgment act in a case to which the act is particularly suitable. The legislature has expressly mandated a liberal construction of the act to afford relief from legal uncertainty. La.C.C.P. Article 1881. It is in the interest of both the state and the plaintiffs to have the alleged unconstitutionality of the act adjudged. In cases like that at bar, where the constitutional attack is based on a formal defect in the act, it is essential to public order that the validity of the statute be determined as quickly as possible. To require private individuals to do business under the act at their peril in order to acquire standing is to defeat a major purpose of the declaratory judgment act. We therefore conclude that the trial judge was correct in allowing the present action to be brought against the State. Cf., Wattigny v. State of La., 257 La. 945, 244 So.2d 842 (1971).