The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal will consider Wednesday whether the Lafayette Parish School Board can seek damages against a Lafayette architecture firm involved in the construction of N.P. Moss Middle School, which was shuttered for the spring 2008 semester due to water infiltration, displacing more than 500 students. Corne-Lemaire Group was named a defendant along with Ratcliff Construction of Alexandria in a subsequent lawsuit filed by the LPSB; Lafayette district court Judge Marilyn Castle, however, dismissed claims against the parties last February, citing state law R.S. 38:2318, which sets a five-year statute of limitations on any claims concerning a professional service contract for public works construction. The school system has argued that this law, enacted by the state Legislature in 1999, came after the school system had already signed contracts for several new schools and believes an older, 10-year prescription period should apply.
According to Emile Joseph Jr., one of the attorneys representing Corne-Lemaire, the 3rd Circuit panel will consider the appeal Wednesday without oral arguments. “They’ll review the briefs and the record and decide if Judge Castle’s ruling was correct,” Joseph says. The tab for repairing Moss came in at roughly $2 million. The school system — and Lafayette taxpayers — is also shouldering about $3 million in repairs to four other elementary schools built at about the same time as Moss Middle: Charles M. Burke, Live Oak, Ernest Gallet and J.W. James.
If the appeals court upholds Castle’s ruling, the LPSB will have the option of applying for a rehearing with the 3rd Circuit as well as appealing to the Louisiana Supreme Court. If Castle’s ruling is overturned, the case will be remanded back to district court for trial.
For more, read The Independent's July 29, 2009 cover story, "Waterlogged."
... written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN : , January 04, 2010 - 06:45 pm
THE FIX IS IN ! HOW STRANGE OUR LOCAL ARCH.S CORNE / LEMAIRIE PUTTIN IT TO THE LOCAL LPSB, THAT HAPPENS WHEN YA DEAL WID YA HOMEYS INSTEAD OF DEALING WITH FIRMS WHO WARRANT THEIR "DESIGN, "CONSTRUCTION, $ "MATERIALS $ HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SUB-CONTRACTORS LACK OF QUALITY CONSTRUCTION...... WHO IS THE BUILDING FIRM ? THESE SAME BUILDERS BUILT ALL THE SCHOOLS, AND IS CORNE / LEMAIRIE, THE ARCH. FIRM ON ALL THE SCHOOLS WITH WATER PROBLEMS ????????? THE BUILDINGS OF THESE SCHOOLS HAVE AH RANK ODOR! IS IT THAT THE ARCH. FIRM MARKED THEIR PERIMETERS FOLLOWING COMPLETION, OR IS THIS THE USUAL LEFT BEHIND CA-CA ODOR, BEING THEIR COMPANY ( FIRMS ARE BONDED,AND REPUTABLE ) TRADEMARK............. YOU CAN BE SURE OF THE OUTCOME / SOLUTION......THE TAXPAYERS, "GET IT ! DROP EM "DANO......
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David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal will consider Wednesday whether the Lafayette Parish School Board can seek damages against a Lafayette architecture firm involved in the construction of N.P. Moss Middle School, which was shuttered for the spring 2008 semester due to water infiltration, displacing more than 500 students. Corne-Lemaire Group was named a defendant along with Ratcliff Construction of Alexandria in a subsequent lawsuit filed by the LPSB; Lafayette district court Judge Marilyn Castle, however, dismissed claims against the parties last February, citing state law R.S. 38:2318, which sets a five-year statute of limitations on any claims concerning a professional service contract for public works construction. The school system has argued that this law, enacted by the state Legislature in 1999, came after the school system had already signed contracts for several new schools and believes an older, 10-year prescription period should apply. 
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THE BUILDINGS OF THESE SCHOOLS HAVE AH RANK ODOR! IS IT THAT THE ARCH. FIRM MARKED THEIR PERIMETERS FOLLOWING COMPLETION, OR IS THIS THE USUAL LEFT BEHIND CA-CA ODOR, BEING THEIR COMPANY ( FIRMS ARE BONDED,AND REPUTABLE ) TRADEMARK............. YOU CAN BE SURE OF THE OUTCOME / SOLUTION......THE TAXPAYERS, "GET IT ! DROP EM "DANO......