19 results for 'judge:"Ervin-Knott"'.
J. Ervin-Knott finds that the trial court should not have found for a hotel on a guest's negligence action after he was injured in a robbery in the hotel parking area. Although the hotel presented evidence to show that there was no prior criminal activity in the parking area, there is a genuine issue of material fact regarding the foreseeability of criminal activity. In this case, the location, nature, and condition of the hotel were not taken into account. This court has repeatedly found that a lack of prior criminal acts at a certain place does not automatically render a crime unforeseeable. Further, the guest testified to New Orleans' high crime rate at the time of the incident, and the lack of a manager or hotel workers in the lobby at the time of the robbery. Reversed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 2023-CA-0731, Categories: Evidence, Negligence
J. Ervin-Knott finds that the trial court should not have denied the original property owner's motion for a new trial on a finding for a tax sale purchaser's suit to quiet title. The purchaser did not show that the owner had been duly notified of her rights to redeem or, alternatively, nullify the tax sale. Further, there are genuine issues of material fact as to whether the city or the purchaser made diligent and reasonable efforts to notify the owner of her rights before taking her property. Reversed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 2023-CA-0645, Categories: Property, Due Process
J. Ervin-Knott finds that the trial court properly granted a property owner's petition for preliminary injunction preventing a development services company from entering the blighted property and doing construction work in an attempt to acquire the property. In this case, the owner presented undisputed evidence that it purchased the property in 2007 and maintained the property until the development services company initiated its attempt to obtain ownership of the property under La. R.S. 9:5633. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 2023-CA-0612, Categories: Property, Contract
J. Ervin-Knott finds that the City Civil Service Commission properly upheld a police officer's five-day suspension for violating the police department's internal policy regarding social media usage. In this case, it is undisputed that the officer made a comment on a Lieutenant's Facebook post regarding "Fighting Crime in Major Cities," writing, "Ask them when they plan on implementing a crime fighting plan. Because I’ve been here for 20+ years and haven’t seen a crime fighting plan yet. All I see is ‘get stats'." The officer's disparaging comment undermined the police department and the work that its employees do. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 2023-CA-0684, Categories: Employment, Evidence
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J. Ervin-Knott finds that defendant was properly convicted of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile and indecent behavior with a juvenile. In this case, defendant was properly charged by grand jury indictment and was present and represented by counsel at arraignment, trial and sentencing. Based on the trial transcript, the state proved the essential elements of the crimes. Defense counsel's motion to withdraw is granted. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott , Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: 2023-KA-0556, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Sex Offender
J. Ervin-Knott finds that the district court should not have denied a petition for partial possession of judgment, alleging that the decedent died intestate. In this case, the decedent’s testament states that his wife would inherit his property if he did not survive the open-heart surgery. The decedent did survive the surgery, and the testament contained a suspensive condition that did not occur. Therefore, the testament is invalid. Reversed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: February 5, 2024, Case #: 2023-CA-0391, Categories: Family Law, Wills / Probate
J. Ervin-Knott finds that the trial court properly denied a debtor's motion to set aside a default judgment. In this case, the debtor waited three years to protest the default judgment even though it was aware of the circumstances. Under statute, continued participation in the litigation from which a null judgment was rendered is determined to be voluntary acquiescence.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: December 11, 2023, Case #: 2023-C-0709, Categories: Civil Procedure, Contract
[Consolidated.] J. Ervin-Knott finds that the trial court properly determined that a property owner did not establish ownership by way of 30-year acquisitive prescription of an adjacent property. Historical surveys did not establish that the property owner's ancestors-in-title continuously and unequivocally possessed any portion of the adjacent property for thirty years between 1939 and 1972. Further, the trial court properly set the boundary line in accordance with the November 23, 2015 Boundary Survey Plat because one of the surveyors testified that there were no significant disagreements between himself and the other surveyors involved over the location of the property lines for the properties. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: December 7, 2023, Case #: 2023-CA-0335, Categories: Evidence, Property
J. Ervin-Knott finds that defendant was properly sentenced to 25 years imprisonment on his home invasion conviction. Defendant walked around the victim's house "at ease" before entering the house and attacking the elderly victim. Defendant pushed the victim down on the couch, threatened to rape her and kill her family if she did not give him money, and exposed his genitals to her. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: November 17, 2023, Case #: 2023-KA-0453, Categories: Evidence, Sentencing, Sex Offender
J. Ervin-Knott vacates the judgment finding a car dealership to be in constructive contempt of court for not returning a Jeep to a customer. In this case, the customer did not formally introduce emails into evidence to show an exchange between counsel regarding the transfer of the Jeep. Therefore, there was no evidence for the trial court to determine that the dealership did not timely return the Jeep. Vacated.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: October 25, 2023, Case #: 2023-CA-0157, Categories: Contempt, Contract
J. Ervin-Knott grants the Racing Commission's motion for res judicata on the individuals' challenge to the granting of the exception of lis pendens arising out of the stewards at a racetrack suspending them for animal cruelty. In this case, an earlier petition for writ of mandamus involved the
same parties, transaction and occurrence, and request for relief as the basis of this appeal. When the judgment granting the exception of lis pendens was entered, no appeal was taken within the time limit. Further, both the initial and third mandamus petitions reference the same Commission suspension from October 2019 and request the issuance of a writ of mandamus directing the Commission to set their appeal hearing.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: October 24, 2023, Case #: 2023-CA-0170, Categories: Civil Procedure, Animal Cruelty, Contract
J. Ervin-Knott finds that the trial court improperly allocated 65% fault to a police officer and 35% fault to the mother of a minor bicyclist after a collision between the police car and the bicyclist. The allocation to the mother was made without a determination of negligence on the part of the bicyclist. Under jurisprudence, the bicyclist, as an eight year old, can be found to be contributorily negligent. Further, the mother should not have been awarded $10,000 for witnessing the bicyclist's severe injuries and pain because she does not meet the temporal proximity requirement since she arrived at the collision scene after the bicyclist was in the ambulance. Reversed in part.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: October 4, 2023, Case #: 2023-CA-0084, Categories: Evidence, Negligence
J. Ervin-Knott finds that the district court properly granted a property owner's exception of prescription on a trust's petition to annul tax sale. In 2016, the trust obtained a one percent interest in the property but failed to pay the ad valorem taxes on the property. In 2017, the property owner obtained a 100 % interest in the property via a tax sale certificate. The trust had six months from the date listed on the post-redemptive notice to file suit but did not. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: September 27, 2023, Case #: 2023-CA-0211, Categories: Civil Procedure, Property
J. Ervin-Knott finds that the trial court should not have struck the defendant companies' motion for a new trial. In this case, the companies cured the defect in their original motion less than a week after it was brought to their attention that the motion was not signed. They promptly submitted a signed, duplicate motion, and the respondents did not show that they were prejudiced by the filing. Reversed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: September 7, 2023, Case #: 2023-C-0513, Categories: Civil Procedure
J. Ervin-Knott finds that defendant was properly convicted of second degree murder and attempted second degree murder. Defendant's claim that the victims were attempting to commit a drive-by shooting is not supported by the evidence, as a police officer testified that the victim's car windows were rolled up. Further, the officer testified that based on the angle of the video surveillance, there were no shots fired from the victim's car to the outside, and the only shots fired were into the victim's car. Affirmed in part.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: 2023-KA-0022, Categories: Evidence, Murder
J. Ervin-Knott finds that the district court should not have granted the juvenile defendant's motion to quash the bill of information charging him with one count of attempted second degree murder and one count of armed robbery. Statute authorizes exclusive jurisdiction with the criminal district court once a bill of information is filed. The sanction for a district attorney’s failure to comply with the 30-day time limitation is to release the juvenile defendant from detention, but not to quash the indictment. Reversed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: May 10, 2023, Case #: 2023-KA-0054, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Juvenile Law