Opinion
2023 CW 0032
03-10-2023
JONATHAN L. WORRAL AND BARBARA RICE, LAURA PLUMLEY, AND ROBERT D. STANTON, INDIVIDUALLY AND ON BEHALF OF THEIR DECEASED FATHER, ROBERT E. STANTON v. STATE OF LOUISIANA, HONORABLE JOHN BEL EDWARDS, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA, BEACON BEHAVIORAL HEALTH-NEW ORLEANS, INC., BEACON BEHAVORIAL HOSPITAL- NEW ORLEANS, LLC AND BEACON HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT, LLC, AND ST. TAMMANY PARISH HOSPITAL SERVICE DISTRICT NO. 2 D/B/A SLIDELL MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Beacon Behavioral Health-New Orleans, Inc., Beacon Behavioral Hospital-New Orleans, and Beacon Hospital Management, applying for supervisory writs, 19th Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge, No. 715004 .
BEFORE: WELCH, LANIER, AND GREENE, JJ.
STAY DENIED; WRIT GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART. The portion of the trial court's order, which denied the Exception of Prematurity filed by defendants, Beacon Behavioral Health-New Orleans, Inc., Beacon Behavioral Hospital-New Orleans, LLC, and Beacon Hospital Management, LLC (collectively "Beacon"), is reversed. Cases submitted for adjudication must be ripe for decision and not brought prematurely. Louisiana Federation of Teachers v. State, 2011-2226 (La. 7/2/12), 94 So.3d 760, 763. The jurisprudence of this court is well settled that courts will not render advisory opinions. Id. A "justiciable controversy" connotes, in the present sense, an existing actual and substantial dispute, as distinguished from one that is merely hypothetical or abstract, and a dispute which involves the legal relations of the parties who have real adverse interests, and upon which the judgment of the court may effectively operate through a decree of conclusive character. Abbott v. Parker, 249 So.2d 908, 918 (La. 1971). Further, the plaintiff should have a legally protectable and tangible interest at stake, and the dispute presented should be of sufficient immediacy and reality to warrant the issuance of a declaratory judgment. Id. The allegations of the Petition for Declaratory Judgment and First Supplemental and Amending Petition for Declaratory Judgment filed by plaintiffs, Jonathan L. Worral, and Barbara Rice, Laura Plumley, and Robert Stanton, Individually and on Behalf of Their Deceased Father, Robert E. Stanton, do not reflect plaintiffs have filed a complaint with a Medical Review Panel, if proper under La. R.S. 40: 1231.8, or a claim against a health care provider for causing the death of, or injury to, any person or damage to any property, to which La. R.S. 29:771(B)(2)(c)(i) has been applied. Accordingly, we find the constitutional challenge is premature, and Beacon's Exception of Prematurity is granted. The claims of plaintiffs, Jonathan L. Worral, and Barbara Rice, Laura Plumley, and Robert Stanton, Individually and on Behalf of Their Deceased Father, Robert E. Stanton, against defendants, Beacon Behavioral Health-New Orleans, Inc., Beacon Behavioral Hospital-New Orleans, LLC, and Beacon Hospital Management, LLC, as set forth in the Petition for Declaratory Judgment and the First Supplemental and Amending Petition for Declaratory Judgment are dismissed without prejudice. See La. Code Civ. P. art. 933(A). The writ is denied in all other respects.
JEW
WIL
HG