DANERIC ANDERSON v. KENNETH BRIGGS ABC INSURANCE COMPANY PORTS AMERICA LOUISIANA XYZ INSURANCE COMPANY JKL INSURANCE COMPANY (2024)

RML

LEDET, J., DISSENTS WITH REASONS

As stated in the notice of appeal, Appellants are appealing the March 21, 2023, final judgment in favor of Third Party Defendants—Admiral Security Services, Inc.; and Admiral Security Holdings, LLC—against Defendants—Ports America Louisiana, LLC; and Kenneth Briggs—in which all claims of Defendants against Third Party Defendants were dismissed with prejudice. On March 28, 2023, Defendants filed a Motion for New Trial regarding the grant of summary judgment, which the trial court orally denied on March 31, 2023.

A judgment denying a motion for new trial is an interlocutory judgment. Thus, I would not dismiss the instant appeal. Instead, I would consolidate the instant appeal with the pending appeal in this matter, 2023-CA-0814, which was taken from the subsequent judgments on the merits that were rendered after the jury trial in this matter.¹ For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.

FOOTNOTES

1.   Following the trial court's grant of the summary judgment motion, the action proceeded to a jury trial on April 11-13, 2023. The trial court adopted the jury's verdict through a Judgment entered on May 8, 2023. The plaintiff then filed a Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict on Issues of Liability and Damages, or in the Alternative, Motion for New Trial, which was denied by Judgment on September 29, 2023. The pending appeal in 2023-CA-0814 is from those two subsequent judgments.