Court Opinion

ID: 9490674
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:51:29.943651+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:15.340045
License: Public Domain

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I join in the court’s opinion with respect to parts I, II, III, and IV.A. Because I am convinced that Reingold’s LUTPA claim is prescribed by the statute of limitations, however, I respectfully dissent from part TV.B.
The statute provides that any claim under the LUTPA “shall be prescribed by one year running from the time of the transaction or act which gave rise to th[e] right of action.” La.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 51:1409(E) (emphasis added). Here, the wrongful act that gave rise to the LUTPA claim was when Swift-ships misused a portion of the 90’ plug to create the 110’ mold. Because the 110’ mold was completed more than two years prior to Reingold’s bringing his suit, the LUTPA claim is barred under the clear terms of the statute. The termination of the lease on the 90’ mold one and a half years later, itself a perfectly valid exercise of contractual rights, is entirely irrelevant to the LUTPA claim.
The majority says that the termination of the lease was itself a wrongful act, inasmuch as it amounted to a “conversion” of the 110’ mold. It argues that the entire 110’ mold was a “modification” of the 90’ mold under the lease between Reingold and Swiftships, and that Swiftships was required to turn it over to Reingold upon terminating the lease. *655Because Swiftships failed to do this, it in effect “converted” the mold to its own use, and this act gave rise to a cause of action under the LUTPA. Because the termination occurred within the prescription period, the majority concludes that the LUTPA claim is not barred.
This holding1 is plainly mistaken, as it depends on a distorted reading of the lease agreement that its words simply will not bear. With regard to modifications, the sole clause in the lease was the following:
Lessee may modify the Mold as it desires in order to meet the design requirements of its contracts but at the conclusion of this Agreement, Lessee shall promptly turn over to Lessor copies of the design data for any modifications made to the Mold and Lessor shall have the right to use the mold as modified.
Looking closely at the plain language of this provision, and noting in particular the phrases “modifications made to the Mold” and “right to use the mold as modified,” it seems quite clear that this clause speaks only of minor modifications made to the physical substance of the 90’ mold itself, not derivations of the 90’ mold’s design. My impression accords with Webster’s, who defines modification as “the making of a limited change in something.” Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (Merriam 1963) (emphasis added). The making of the 110’ mold was neither a limited change nor a change “in” the 90’ mold. As such, the 110’ mold was not a modification of the 90’ mold, and there was no contractual duty with regard to it upon termination of the lease. The termination was therefore in no way a wrongful act which could give rise to a cause of action under the LUTPA, and consequently it is irrelevant for purposes of considering the statute of limitations.
I therefore respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding that the LUTPA claim is not barred by the statute of limitations.

. We should not be misled by the majority’s phrasing of the issue as something a reasonable trier of fact could find. This is a simple matter of contract interpretation, and entirely within the province of this court to decide as a matter of law.