Taranto v. La. Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp.

Summary

The Louisiana Supreme Court addresses whether the plaintiffs’ Hurricane Katrina insurance claims were prescribed under a one-year suit limitation in their policy. The court holds that the filing of timely class actions suspended liberative prescription under Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 596, making the plaintiffs’ individual lawsuit timely. The court distinguishes contractual limitations from legislatively established prescription periods and concludes that the policy limitation remained subject to prescription-suspension rules.

Holdings

1. The one-year suit limitation in the insurance policy was a prescriptive period imposed or authorized by law and therefore remained subject to the general rules governing liberative prescription, including suspension under Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 596.
2. Filing a lawsuit designated as a class action under Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 591 suspends prescription for all members of the putative class until the district court rules on class certification or otherwise provides notice that the class has been restricted or redefined.
3. Acts 2006, Nos. 739 and 802 did not establish a peremptive period; their statutory deadlines remained subject to suspension under article 596 when the class actions were timely filed.
4. The plaintiffs' suit was timely because the Buxton and Chalona class actions suspended prescription, and the plaintiffs filed within the remaining prescriptive period after notice of their exclusion from the Chalona class.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the one-year suit limitation in the insurance policy was a liberative prescriptive period subject to suspension under Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 596.
2. Whether the timely filing of the Buxton and Chalona class actions suspended prescription for the plaintiffs as putative class members.
3. Whether Acts 2006, Nos. 739 and 802 established a peremptive deadline that could not be suspended by a class action.
4. Whether the plaintiffs' June 27, 2008 lawsuit was timely.

Disposition

affirmed