Opinion ID: 1818453
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Are opponents entitled to certain declaratory relief?

Text: The petitions in this and in the companion suits, and the petition in the class action filed by Mrs. Martha G. Robinson as an intervention, request declaratory judgment on perhaps thirty issues of budget procedure, of bond-payment priorities, and of payment of the State's lease rentals. [8] The declaratory relief is sought by virtue of La.CCP Arts. 1871-83. These substantially incorporate the provisions of the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act. The consistent interpretation of the Uniform Act and of our own code articles is that declaratory relief is available only to decide justiciable controversies, and that such enactments do not empower the courts to render advisory opinions on abstract questions of law. Petition of Sewerage & Water Board, 248 La. 169, 177 So.2d 276 (1965); Stoddard v. City of New Orleans, 246 La. 417, 165 So.2d 9 (1964); Poe v. Ullman, 367 U.S. 497, 81 S.Ct. 1752, 6 L. Ed.2d 989 (1961). A justiciable controversy connotes, in the present sense, an existing actual and substantial dispute, as distinguished from one that is merely hypothetical or abstract, and a dispute which involves the legal relations of the parties who have real adverse interests, and upon which the judgment of the court may effectively operate through a decree of conclusive character. Further, the plaintiff should have a legally protectable and tangible interest at stake, and the dispute presented should be of sufficient immediacy and reality to warrant the issuance of a declaratory judgment. See: Maryland Casualty Co. v. Pacific Coal and Oil Co., 312 U.S. 270, 61 S.Ct. 510, 85 L.Ed. 826 (1941); Aetna Life Ins. Co. of Hartford, Conn. v. Haworth, 300 U.S. 227, 57 S.Ct. 461, 81 L.Ed. 617 (1937); 6 Moore's Federal Practice, Sections 57.11 and 57.12 (1966); Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, 9 U.L.A., Section 1, Annotations Note 35 (1965). Based upon these criteria, the trial court correctly denied declaratory relief on the many demands presenting merely abstract questions of law which might hypothetically arise, but as to which there is no present actual dispute ripe for adjudication. For instance, in Arata this court held that the State is unconditionally obligated to pay the rentals to the Stadium District, and that this enforceable obligation constitutes a charge against the State's revenues, both attributes being components of a transaction involving the full faith and credit of the State. Arata v. Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, 254 La. 579, 225 So.2d 362, 371 (1969). See also Paragraph (E) of the enabling amendment (Section 47). Some of the requests for declaratory relief demand rulings on how and if such rentals should be included in the executive budget, or whether stadium-bond holders may mandamus the State or its legislature to pay such rentals, if and when they accrue, and if the State should attempt to default on what in Arata we held to be a full faith and credit obligation. There is no present dispute of sufficient immediacy and reality to justify rendering what would be merely an advisory opinion on a hypothetical or abstract question of law. Again, the intervention of Mrs. Martha G. Robinson, a class action on behalf of all persons owning full faith and credit bonds of the State, asserts many demands by way of declaratory and injunctive relief. The cause of action is based upon alleged prejudice such bondholders might sustain through diversion of state revenues to the stadium lease rentals, and the prayer includes demands that the courts establish a priority in ranking between the plaintiff's full faith and credit bonds and the full faith and credit obligation of the State to pay the Stadium lease rentals. The showing made, however, negatives any prejudice to such bondholders and obviates the existence of any dispute between these two categories of creditors owed full faith and credit obligations by the State. The stipulations and evidence show (a) that current state revenues annually available to pay the bonds exceed $500 million dollars, (b) that the principal and interest payable bondholders annually is only $25 million annually, (c) while the gross annual stadium bond payments (principal and interest) can never exceed $10 million. [9] Exhibit D-11, p. 23. Thus, there is no actual or potential dispute between the State's general bondholders and the Stadium District bondholders, since the annual state revenues available to service both categories obligations far exceeds the annual total due for both of them.