Opinion ID: 1858355
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: constitutionality of la. r.s. 13:5105(c)

Text: Subsection (C) of La. R.S. 13:5105 provides: Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection A, except upon demand for jury trial timely filed in accordance with law by the city of Baton Rouge or the parish of East Baton Rouge or the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the city of Baton Rouge or the parish of East Baton Rouge, no suit against the city of Baton Rouge or the parish of East Baton Rouge shall be tried by jury. The rights to and limitations upon a jury trial shall be as provided in Code of Civil Procedure 1731 and 1732. This subsection, added by Acts 1995, No. 598, provides an exception to the general rule provided for by Subsection (A) of La. R.S. 13:5105 which provides, in pertinent part that, [n]o suit against a political subdivision of the state shall be tried by jury. The first issue presented for our determination is whether La. R.S. 13:5105(C) is unconstitutional under La. Const. Art. III, § 12(A). The legislature is prohibited from passing any local or special law which deals with any of the subjects enumerated in La. Const. Art. III, § 12(A). [3] The prohibition against certain local or special laws is intended to reflect a policy decision that legislative resources and attention should be concentrated upon matters of general interest, and that purely local matters should be left to local governing authorities. H. Alston Johnson III, Legislative Process, 36 La. L.Rev. 549, 549 (La.1976); Louisiana Paddlewheels v. Louisiana Riverboat Gaming Com'n, 94-2015, p. 7 (La.11/30/94), 646 So.2d 885, 889. Our inquiry into whether La. R.S. 13:5105(C) is an unconstitutional local or special law begins, then, with a determination of whether the law is, in fact, local or special. If it is, we must then ascertain whether the law concerns a subject listed in Art. III, § 12(A). Because the constitution does not give us much guidance as to the meaning of the terms local and special, we resort to the writings of legal commentators and the jurisprudence of this court to aid us in interpreting this constitutional provision. Our opinions have tended to blur the lines between a local law and a special law; yet, the terms are actually quite distinctive. Lee Hargrave, Statutory and Horatory Provisions of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, 43 La. L.Rev. 647, 668 (La. 1983)(Courts have been less than clear in distinguishing between laws that are local and those that are special. Often, the term `local and special' is used as though it were one concept.). Generally, a statute is considered to be local if it operates only in a particular locality or localities without the possibility of extending its coverage to other areas should the requisite criteria exist or come to exist there. Thus, a law which operates over the whole territory of the state instead of just a particular locality is clearly general, and not local. General and Special Laws in Louisiana, 16 La. L.Rev. 768, 770 (La.1956); Johnson, 36 La. L.Rev. at 549; Polk v. Edwards, 626 So.2d 1128, 1134 (La. 1993); State v. Slay, 370 So.2d 508, 511 (La. 1979); State v. Labauve, 359 So.2d 181, 182-83 (La.1978); . State ex rel. Miller v. Henderson, 329 So.2d 707, 710 (La.1976). When the operation of a law is limited to certain parishes, it is immediately suspect as a local law. Concerned Business and Property Owners of DeSoto, Inc. v. DeSoto Parish School Bd., 531 So.2d 436, 442 (La.1988); Labauve, 359 So.2d at 183. However, a law is not local, even though its enforcement may be restricted to a particular locality or localities, where the conditions under which it operates simply do not prevail in other localities. City of New Orleans v. Treen, 431 So.2d 390, 394 (La. 1983)([A] law may be a general law even though limited to one locality if it is general in its terms and its coverage can extend to other areas should the requisite criteria exist there as well or if its operation is limited to a locality through the effect of a reasonable classification such as population, size or physical characteristics and not solely through the specific designation of a certain parish or parishes.); Labauve, 359 So.2d at 182; Davenport v. Hardy, 349 So.2d 858, 863 (La. 1977); Kenneth M. Murchison, Local Government Law, 44 La. L.Rev. 373, 386 (La. 1997)([A] general law need not apply to every local government within the state; it may confine its coverage to a class or subset of local governments so long as the law applies to all members of the class and the method of classification the law uses is reasonable.); Hargrave, 43 La. L.Rev. at 668([W]ith a reasonable basis for the classification, the distinction will be allowed.). For example, we noted in Slay, 370 So.2d at 511, that a law which specified a fishing net must have a certain mesh size in some parishes and a different mesh size in others could have been constitutional, and not a local law, if the state had been able to show a reasonable basis for the classification based on the conditions and characteristics of the various parishes. Instead, we found the fish population was not dissimilar enough in the specified parishes to justify the distinction. Similarly, in State v. Clement, 188 La. 923, 178 So. 493 (1938) we found unconstitutionally local a law which provided it was unlawful to enter upon someone else's land for trapping purposes where that land was more than 150 miles from the Louisiana coast, noting there was no reasonable basis for the legislature to have excluded from the scope of the act those swamplands and uncultivated lands within 150 miles from the coast. Furthermore, a law whose application and immediate effect is restricted to a particular locality is not considered local where persons throughout the state are affected by it or it operates on a subject in which the people at large are interested. Livingston Downs Racing Ass'n Inc v. State, 96-2890, p. 12 (La.12/2/97), 705 So.2d 149, 156; Louisiana Paddlewheels, 94-2015, at p. 7, 646 So.2d at 889; Polk, 626 So.2d at 1134. For example, in Polk, we held the legislature's decision to allow a single facility of a certain sort to be built in only one place within the state was not impermissibly local, but rather, general, because the law pertained to matters of significant interest to the entire state, affected people throughout the state, even though some only indirectly, and was passed to benefit the entire state. See also State v. Dalon, 35 La. Ann. 1141 (La.1883)(An act organizing and establishing the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans was not local because it affected and would benefits all of the people of the state.); Davenport, 349 So.2d at 864; State ex rel. Miller, 329 So.2d at 711. Even though a statute may not constitute a local law under the above considerations, it may still be prohibited by La. Const. Art. III, § 12 if it is a special law dealing with an enumerated topic. Generally speaking, a special law is one which operates upon and affects only a fraction of the persons or a portion of the property encompassed by a classification, granting privileges to some persons while denying them to others. General and Special Laws in Louisiana, 16 La. L.Rev. at 770. A special law is one that confers particular privileges, or imposes peculiar disabilities or burdensome conditions in the exercise of a common right upon a class of persons arbitrarily selected from the general body of those who stand in precisely the same relation to the subject of the law. Johnson, 36 La. L.Rev. at 549; Labauve, 359 So.2d at 182; Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana v. Vial, 317 So.2d 179, 183 (La.1975)([A] statute is special if it affects only a certain number of persons within a class and not all persons possessing the characteristics of the class ... [and it is] directed to secure some private advantage or advancement for the benefit of private persons.). As with a law which classifies on the basis of geographic conditions or particularly designated localities, classification of certain parties will not render the law special if it is based on a substantial difference between the class created and the subjects excluded, and there is a reasonable basis for the distinction. In sum, a law will be considered local or special, and therefore subject to the requirements of La. Const. Art. III, §§ 12 and 13, where its restrictions can affect only a portion of the citizens (special) or a fraction of the property (local) embraced within the created classification, Livingston Downs Racing Ass'n, 96-2890 at p. 11-12, 705 So.2d at 155-56, and where there is no reasonable basis for the creation of the classification or substantial difference between the class created and the subjects excluded justifying the exclusion. Johnson, 36 La. L.Rev. at 551; Kenneth M. Murchison, Local Government Law, 40 La. L.Rev.. 681, 686 (1980). In contradistinction to a local or special law, a general law is one which operates equally and uniformly upon all persons brought within the relations and circumstances for which it provides or operates equally upon all of a designated class which has been founded upon a reasonable classification. Labauve, 359 So.2d at 182; Davenport, 349 So.2d at 863-64. Considering the above precepts, it becomes clear that La. R.S. 13:5105(C) is not a local law. By its very terms, its geographic application is not limited to any particular locality in the state, and, instead, operates over the whole territory of the state. It applies in every parish in which a plaintiff files suit against either the city of Baton Rouge of the parish of East Baton Rouge. It is not restricted in its application to suits filed in Baton Rouge or East Baton Rouge Parish only. Although Subsection (C) sets the City-Parish apart from other political subdivisions for unique treatment, it cannot be said that this designation of a locality in its role as a party to a lawsuit renders the law applicable only in a particular locality, the essence of a local law. Subsection (C) is, however, a special law. It singles out the City of Baton Rouge and the Parish of East Baton Rouge, to the exclusion of all other political subdivisions, for special treatment without any suggested or apparent justification for the disparate treatment, despite the fact that all political subdivisions possess the requisite characteristics of the class. It is not a general law because its privileges, and concomitant implicit restrictions, affect only a portion of the persons, here political subdivisions, which fall within the created classification. Because Subsection (C) is a special law, it is now necessary for us to determine whether it concerns a prohibited subject listed under La. Const. Art. III, § 12(A). The prohibition against the passage of a local or special law which regulates the practice or jurisdiction of any court or which concerns any civil action, can be found as early as the Constitution of 1879, in Art. 46, and has been included in every Louisiana Constitution since then. Currently, La. Const. Art. III, § 12(A) provides in pertinent part: Prohibitions. Except as otherwise provided in this constitution, the legislature shall not pass a local or special law: ... (3) Concerning any civil or criminal actions, including ... regulating the practice or jurisdiction of any court.... The trial court in the instant case found that Subsection (C) both regulated the practice or jurisdiction of any court and concerned a civil action. In State ex rel. Vicksburg, S. & P.R. Co. v. Emory, 6 So. 795, 796 (La.1889), this court observed: Among the prohibited objects of legislation is regulating the practice or jurisdiction of any court. The meaning of said article is plain and unambiguous. The evident intention is that the general assembly shall enact no local or special law to regulate in any particular locality the jurisdiction or practice of any court in any particular and designated locality, so as to exempt it from the general jurisprudence and practice of the courts throughout the state. As explained earlier, Subsection (C) does not affect the jurisdiction or practice of any particular court or courts but rather applies in every district court in the state. It applies in every parish in which a plaintiff files suit against either the City of Baton Rouge of the Parish of East Baton Rouge. It is not restricted in its application to Baton Rouge or East Baton Rouge Parish only. Additionally, Subsection (C) does not even affect the practice or jurisdiction of any court. Whether or not a party to a lawsuit filed in a particular court is able to obtain a jury trial has nothing to do with any court practice or administration, nor does it affect any jurisdiction of that court. Subsection (C) does, however, concern civil actions. This court has consistently defined this portion of Art. III, § 12(A)(3) to prohibit the legislature from passing a local or special law which affects any particular lawsuit. See, e.g., Everett v. Goldman, 359 So.2d 1256, 1269-70 (La.1978)(The concerning any civil action prohibition applied only where there is concerned a distinct lawsuit or lawsuits or where the group of affected litigants or lawsuits has no rationally distinctive characteristics.); State v. McCue, 141 La. 417, 75 So. 100 (1917); State v. Felter, 141 La. 58, 74 So. 629 (1917). Here, Subsection (C) concerns and affects not only an individual lawsuit, but, more egregiously, any and all lawsuits in which the City of Baton Rouge of the Parish of East Baton Rouge is made a defendant. Consequently, Subsection (C) is a special law which concerns civil actions and is unconstitutional under La. Const. Art. III, § 12(A)(3).