The case involved Terrance Hardy, the biological father of a child born in May 2019, who filed a 2021 petition to establish paternity and seek custody more than one year after the birth, after the mother Sarah Davidson had sought to bar the action. The presumed father (the mother's ex-husband) later petitioned to disavow paternity, and the trial court rejected the mother's exceptions of prescription and peremption. The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed, holding that La. C.C. art. 198's one-year limit on avowal actions was unconstitutional as applied because it infringed the biological father's protected liberty interest in parenting his child and violated due process under the Louisiana and U.S. Constitutions, where the child was not living in an intact family with the presumed father and Hardy had assumed parental responsibilities from birth and was named on the birth certificate.
In State v. White, the defendant was charged with six counts of simple burglary after being found at a car lot with open vehicle doors and hoods, and he was convicted by a six-person jury as a fourth-felony offender, receiving concurrent 20-year sentences. The Louisiana Supreme Court granted certiorari to address whether the written jury verdict form's omission of a "not guilty" responsive verdict option constituted reversible error, despite the trial court's oral instructions listing not guilty as an option and the defendant's failure to object at trial. The court reversed the convictions and habitual offender adjudication, vacated the sentences, and remanded the case, holding that the omission on the verdict form was a fundamental defect not cured by oral instructions or prior precedent like State v. Craddock. Concurrences and a dissent addressed whether the error was structural or subject to harmless-error review, with some justices viewing it as automatically requiring reversal.
The case involved a dispute over the validity of a handwritten will (olographic testament) written by Laurie Maria Brocato in a composition notebook with dates from January 31 to February 2, 2021, which left property to her surviving spouse Lisa Vickers, as opposed to an earlier 2019 will favoring her nephew. The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts' decisions to probate the 2021 document and revoke the 2019 one. The court reasoned that the document satisfied the requirements of La. C.C. art. 1575 for an olographic testament, including being entirely in the testator's handwriting, dated, and signed, even with multiple dates across pages and the signature appearing at the top of the second page, consistent with the 2025 amendment to the law.
In State of Louisiana v. Gerald Manchip White, the defendant, a convicted felon, was charged with three counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon after parole officers discovered three guns in his home during a residence check. The jury convicted him on two counts (one as attempted possession), the court of appeal affirmed, and the Louisiana Supreme Court granted review. The court reversed the convictions and sentences, holding that the evidence was insufficient to prove the defendant had the requisite intent for constructive possession of the firearms. Applying the Jackson v. Virginia due process standard, the majority reasoned that the testimony from family members attributing ownership of the guns to others, combined with the lack of proof the defendant exercised dominion or control, did not allow a rational jury to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
This case involved a products liability claim under the Louisiana Products Liability Act brought by the family of Carlos Pellecer, who died after falling from an allegedly defective aluminum extension ladder while working as a handyman. The plaintiffs sued Werner Co. (a Delaware corporation) and New Werner Holding Co., Inc., alleging the ladder was unreasonably dangerous and that the defendants had failed to warn about a prior recall. The Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the court of appeal, vacated the trial court judgment based on the jury verdict in favor of the plaintiffs, and rendered judgment for the defendants. The court held that the defendants were not manufacturers of the ladder under the Act because it had been produced in 1991 by a predecessor Pennsylvania company that later went bankrupt, and the defendants acquired only certain assets including the name without labeling the specific ladder or holding themselves out as its manufacturer in a manner that would impose liability.
This case involved a dispute over a 2017 tax sale of property in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, purchased by Belaire Development & Construction due to unpaid taxes, followed by a 2021 petition to quiet title and a 2022 reconventional demand by the property owner's succession seeking to annul the sale for lack of pre- and post-sale notice. The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part the lower courts' rulings on prescription. The court held that, under the 2008 revisions to La. R.S. Title 47 effective in 2009, failure to provide pre-tax sale notice no longer renders a tax sale an absolute nullity but instead creates a relative nullity. It further held that an action to annul such a sale, when asserted as a reconventional demand in a quiet title proceeding, must be filed within the six-month prescriptive period of La. R.S. 47:2287 after due notice and also within the time limits of La. R.S. 47:2266 to prevent entry of judgment quieting title.