Opinion ID: 1858355
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: constitutionality of the city-parish resolution

Text: The trial court in the Theresa Lancaster suit found Resolution 36859 of the City-Parish to be unconstitutional under La. Const. Art. VI, § 25 because it constituted an assertion of municipal authority into judicial procedure and the procedures of district courts. That constitutional provision states that, [n]otwithstanding any provision of this Article, courts and their officers may be established or affected only as provided in Article V of this constitution. [8] The transcript of the 1973 constitutional convention floor debate on this provision is quoted extensively in P & G Retailers, Inc. v. Wright, 590 So.2d 1272 (La.App. 1st Cir.1991) and need not be fully reiterated here. The transcript reveals the section was submitted for inclusion in the constitution by the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, former Justice Dennis, who stated: I'm afraid that the popular conception is that a city court or a parish court is part of the parish or city government rather than the state government. If this is so, then a local government charter could create any number of different kinds of courts other than those that we envisioned in the Judiciary Article, because in the Judiciary Article we said you can have other courts authorized by this constitution.... [The purpose of the] Judiciary Article [] was to empower the legislature to move toward a more consistent court system below the district court level throughout the state. If we don't have this, then the Local Government Article might be interpreted to say that regardless of what the Judiciary Article says, you can have any kind of court you want, whether it's different, inconsistent or what, so I ask for you to adopt this amendment, please. Vol. VII, Records of the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1973: Convention Transcripts, p. 1387 (September 22, 1973). The adoption of a resolution, pursuant to a statute giving the political subdivision the power to adopt it, which allows for that political subdivision to waive the prohibition of R.S. 13:5105(A) and elect on a case-by-case basis whether it desires a jury trial, does not establish or affect any court or court officer within the meaning of this constitutional provision. It seems clear Art. VI, § 25 was intended to prohibit local governments from establishing new courts or affecting the jurisdiction, administration or internal workings of existing lower courts. [9] The decision of a political subdivision to pass a resolution which allows it to request a jury trial in suits filed against it, a decision made by private litigants in civil suits every day, is not the kind of local government action this provision was aimed at preventing.