LFA asks
reversal in Claiborne lawsuit By Tom Kelly The Louisiana Forestry Association has filed a petition with the Louisiana Supreme Court, asking for a review and reversal of a January 2010 Appeals Court decision in a disputed timber sale case in Claiborne Parish.\par }{\plain The suit was originated by Janice S. Sullivan in 1995 against her ex-husband Bruce Sullivan, his present wife Priscilla Wallace Sullivan, and several timber companies, seeking to collect a share of proceeds, plus damages and attorney fees, from a 1994 timber sale on community property from her former marriage. The Sullivan case was tried in District Court in Claiborne Parish, which awarded Janice Sullivan damages and attorney fees. Mr. Sullivan appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Shreveport. In January of this year, the Appeals Court awarded Janice Sullivan her share of the timber sale proceeds, but denied her claim of damages under a State law providing triple damages in timber theft cases. She has appealed to the State Supreme Court. The LFA has filed its petition for legal permission to enter a "friend of the court" brief, asking the Supreme Court to reverse the Second Circuit decision and settle what it sees as a conflict in interpretation of the Louisiana timber theft laws between decisions of the Second Circuit and the Third Circuit. The Second Circuit judgment record states: Mr. Sullivan sold timber off of a 120-acre tract of land that he and Ms. Sullivan co-owned. Ms. Sullivan was unaware of the cutting and sale of timber, and did not share in the proceeds. The trial court found that Mr. Sullivan cut 254,354 board feet of timber from the community tract and valued the timber at $413.57 per thousand board feet, for a total of $105,193.18. Finding that Ms. Sullivan was owed one-half of that amount, or $52,596.59, the trial court then applied La. Revised Statute 3:4278.1, the "timber trespass" or "timber piracy" statute, and tripled this amount for a total damage award of $157,789.77. The court then awarded Ms. Sullivan attorney fees of 40 percent of the treble damage award, or $63,115.91. (A total of $220,905.68). Mr. Sullivan appealed. In a 4-1 decision, the Second Circuit disallowed the trial court award of treble damages and attorney fees by District Judge Jenifer Ward Clason, and reduced the award to $52,596.59, or one-half of the timber sale price. Chief Judge Brown of the Second Circuit dissents from the majority ruling, stating in part, "Mr. Sullivan cut and sold timber which he knew was 50% owned by his former wife. He had no intention of paying his former wife. I would affirm the trial court," under the timber theft and timber piracy laws. The petition for writ of certiorari filed by the LFA cites the danger of an increase in timber theft on remote tracts owned by absentee landowners if the treble damage law is weakened. Paul Spillers of the Monroe law firm of Theus, Grisham, Davis & Leigh, represents the LFA, and also the Northeast Louisiana Forest Landowners Association. Spillers told The Piney Woods Journal, "One criteria used by the Louisiana Supreme Court in deciding whether or not to grant a writ application is conflicting decisions of Courts of Appeals. Here the Second and Third Circuits are in clear conflict. One held co-owners who pirate timber are liable for penalty damages and attorney fees. The other held that the timber pirate is not exposed to penalty damages and attorney fees. This conflict gives us encouragement the Court will grant the writ and be the final arbiter of the law. If this conflict is not corrected by the Court, co-owned lands in North Louisiana, the Second Circuit's jurisdiction, will be in jeopardy. We believe the law should be uniform through the state, and that pirates in this state should be exposed to the civil penalties set forth in the statute." |