Change in La. writ practice for denials of summary judgment

I was recently reminded of an amendment to La. Civ. Code art. 966, effective January 1, 2016, that will affect applications for supervisory writs to review denials of summary judgment. Under art. 966(H), before reversing the denial of a summary judgment and granting summary judgment to dismiss a case or a party, the court of appeal must assign the case for briefing and give the parties an opportunity to request oral argument. Under prior law, a writ grant usually resulted in a peremptory ruling granting summary judgment.

I remember a discussion of this amendment late last year at the LSBA’s Advanced Appellate Advocacy Seminar, during a presentation by Judges John Michael Guidry and Rosemary Ledet. The amendment is intended to level the playing field for parties supporting and opposing summary judgment. The reasoning is that, when summary judgment is granted, the judgment can be appealed, meaning that the parties have the right to file briefs and to request oral argument. The idea is to give the parties the same level of attention when summary judgment is denied and the party seeking summary judgment applies for a supervisory writ.

The only flaw I see in this reasoning is that the court of appeal is not required to follow the new procedure if it either denies the application or grants the application and affirms on the merits; the new procedure applies only when the appellate court reverses the denial of summary judgment. Time and experience will tell whether the new procedure does what it’s intended to do.

(To see my prior post about this amendment, follow this link.)

Comments

[Joey_33]

Wasn't aware of this change - thanks for bringing it to attention!