Opinion
2023 CW 0887
11-06-2023
LOUISIANA GAMING CONTROL BOARD v. LAFOURCHE PARISH GOVERNMENT, LAFOURCHE PARISH COUNCIL, AND LAFOURCHE PARISH PRESIDENT
The City of Slidell, Mayor Greg Cromer and Joe France, Chief of Slidell Building Safety, Permits and Building Code Enforcement for Slidell, Louisiana, applying for supervisory writs, 19th Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge, No. 722256.
BEFORE: THERIOT, PENZATO, AND GREENE, JJ.
WRIT GRANTED. The proper procedural exception to challenge an intervener's lack of a justiciable interest in or connexity to a principal demand is one raising the objection of no right of action. Iberia Bank v. Live Oak Circle Development, LLC, 2012-1636 (La.App. 1st Cir. 5/13/13), 118 So.3d 27, 31. It is well settled that an intervenor takes the proceedings as he finds them. Id. The intervenor cannot change the issue between the parties, and can raise no new one. To that end, adding additional claims and parties to a pending action is not permitted by way of intervention. John W. Davis, CPA, LLC v. Family Health Centers, Inc., 2018-0544 (La.App. 1st Cir. 2/14/19), 2019 WL 641538, *1 n.2 (unpublished). The intervenor must take the suit as he finds it without raising issues between the defendant and the plaintiff that they have not themselves raised. Iberia Bank, 118 So.3d at 32, citing, Mike M. Marcello, Inc. v. Louisiana Gaming Control Bd., 2004-0488 (La.App. 1st Cir. 5/6/05), 903 So.2d 545, 548. The reason why the intervenor's rights are so limited is because he always has his own remedy by a separate action to inject new issues. Id. In the present case, we find the intervenor, Churchill Downs Louisiana Horseracing Company, LLC, improperly added both new defendants and new claims to this action by way of intervention. Accordingly, the writ is granted, the trial court's judgment dated August 29, 2023 denying the City of Slidell, Louisiana, Greg Cromer, and Joe France's exception of no right of action is reversed, and the exception of no right of action is granted. The claims asserted in intervener's, Churchill Downs Louisiana Horseracing Company, LLC, second amended and supplemental petition of intervention are dismissed without prejudice.
MRT
AHP
HG