Summary
The Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal reviewed a writ application concerning whether Total Imaging Concepts, Inc.'s reconventional claims against the Estate of Michael P. Link were barred under La. R.S. 12:1502. The court held that the statute's three-year limitation is peremptive and cannot be interrupted or suspended, reversed the district court, and dismissed TIC's reconventional demand with prejudice.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the three-year limitation periods in La. R.S. 12:1502(C) and (D) are peremptive rather than prescriptive.
- Whether La. R.S. 12:1502(E) permits interruption or suspension of the three-year peremptive periods by a timely suit filed in a court of competent jurisdiction and proper venue.
- Whether TIC's reconventional demand, filed more than three years after the alleged January 2021 acts, was extinguished by peremption.
Holdings
- The three-year periods in La. R.S. 12:1502(C) and (D), which provide that an action may be brought 'in no event' more than three years after the alleged act or omission, are peremptive.
- La. R.S. 12:1502(E) applies only to the one- and two-year prescriptive periods in subsections (C) and (D), not to the three-year peremptive periods.
- TIC's reconventional demand was barred by peremption because it was filed more than three years after the alleged January 2021 acts, and the prior federal action could not interrupt or suspend the peremptive period.
Key quotations
“The jurisprudence is clear that a time limitations period determined to be peremptive cannot be interrupted or suspended.” (at 14)
“Therefore, the expiration of the three-year peremptive period terminates any cause of action pursuant to La. R.S. 12:1502.” (at 15)
Factual background
Michael P. Link was a 50% shareholder in Total Imaging Concepts, Inc., a Louisiana corporation, when he died on August 31, 2024. TIC alleged that in January 2021 he breached fiduciary and loyalty duties by assisting relatives and their company in taking over a lease involving TIC's mobile CT and MRI units and retaining approximately $160,000 in lease payments. TIC had previously asserted substantially the same claims in an October 2022 lawsuit that was removed to federal court and dismissed without prejudice for lack of personal jurisdiction. TIC did not reassert the claims in the Louisiana action until filing its March 21, 2025 reconventional demand.
Procedural history
The Estate filed a Caddo Parish action seeking corporate documents and a shareholder meeting. TIC filed a reconventional demand asserting claims against the Estate based on alleged fiduciary-duty and related misconduct by Michael Link in January 2021. The Estate filed exceptions of prescription and peremption under La. R.S. 12:1502, which the district court denied on May 27, 2025. The Estate applied for supervisory writs, and the appellate court granted the application to docket, reversed, sustained peremption, and dismissed the reconventional demand with prejudice.