Court Opinion

ID: 9471401
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:31:28.860316+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:23.578156
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion Oct. 19, 1983.
BLANCHE, Justice (dissenting).
Assuming that prescription was interrupted as to plaintiff/employees by the filing of suit by the compensation insurer, it is far from certain that prescription remained interrupted as to the employees during the lengthy pendency of the insurer’s suit. The majority opinion recites La.C.C. art. 3463 for the proposition that once prescription is interrupted by the filing of suit, that interruption continues through the course of the litigation.
Unquestionably, that proposition is true as regards the interruption of prescription with respect to the party filing suit. The instant case presents a different situation — -a jurisprudentially created interruption of prescription to benefit parties bringing separate suits on the same purported cause of action. National Surety Corporation v. Standard Accident Ins. Co., 247 La. 905, 175 So.2d 263 (1965). Ostensibly, a party’s right to sue on the same cause of action after his claim would have prescribed is justified under the theory that the timely filing party has given defendant notice of suit under the single cause of action. However, is it reasonable to allow a plaintiff who did not file timely to begin with an almost unlimited amount of time to file suit where the litigation, as in the instant case, has gone on for three to six years? Moreover, is it fair to allow one prospective plaintiff several years to bring his claim, simply because his employer’s compensation insurer filed suit timely, while other plaintiffs injured in the same accident are limited to one year in which to bring their claim?
The more reasonable view would be to allow plaintiffs suing on the same cause of action as a timely filed claim one year from the date of the interruption/filing in which to bring their own claims. This approach would comport with the notice principle of National Surety, and in consonance with the social interest which prescription laws seek to protect.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.