Opinion

Traigle v. Gulf Coast Aluminum Corp.

  • 391 So. 2d 1290
  • 1980 La. App. LEXIS 5102
Court
Louisiana Court of Appeal
Filed
Oct 23, 1980
Status
Published
Author
Ellis
On the bench
Chiasson, Cole, Covington, Edwards, Ellis, Lear, Lottinger, Ponder, Watkins
Cited by
8 cases

The opinion

ELLIS, Judge,

dissenting:

In this case, as in the other similar cases cited in the majority opinion, the motion for appeal was timely filed with the Clerk of the District Court, but not signed by the District Judge until after the delays had run. The majority has held that the responsibility for having the order timely signed rests with the appellant under those circumstances. I cannot agree.

Surely, if the order had timely been placed in the hands of the judge by the appellant, and the judge then failed to sign it for some reason until after the delays had run, it could not be seriously argued that the failure or neglect of the judge would be imputable to the appellant.

Under Article 282 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the Clerk of a District Court has the authority to sign an order of appeal. Under Article 285, he may exercise this authority whether or not the judge is present in the parish. Therefore, when an order of appeal is filed with the Clerk of Court, it has been placed in the hands of a public official who is authorized by law to sign it. It may be that the Clerk is not required to present the order to the judge, but I believe that, if he does not do so, he is required to sign it himself.

In my opinion, the appeal should be maintained.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.