Certified teacher pay bump coming in Terrebonne
July 8, 2015
BP reaches settlement with Gulf States; La. gets $6.8B
July 14, 2015
A state appeals court has upheld a Terrebonne Parish judge’s refusal to grant the eviction of a company from the Port of Terrebonne, bringing a close – for now – to a long-standing dispute between port officials and Eagle Dry Dock.
The First Circuit Court of Appeal’s 21-page decision, issued late Tuesday, also says that the port must pay not only Eagle’s originally requested legal fees concerning the matter, but additional legal fees necessitated by the appeal.
At issue was an alleged breach of the lease agreement between Eagle and the port, due to alleged construction deficiencies which evidence indicated were already cured.
Port Director David Rabalais said Wednesday morning that he would comment on the decision immediately, pending discussions with the port’s attorneys and its board of directors. He therefore could not answer definitively whether the agency would seek further appeals.
The decision means that for now Eagle Drydock, which has about a dozen employees at the port site, can stay. And the company’s owner, Ronald Chiasson, says that is precisely what he plans to do.
“I am not going anywhere,” Chiasson said. “This is a lawsuit that never should have happened in the first place. This should not have happened to me. They put me through a lot of undue expense and health issues.”
A countersuit against the port filed by Eagle’s attorneys is pending in state district court.
Specifically, the port had alleged that mats designed to ease the effects of erosion were improperly designed.
E-mails between Eagle and port officials, referenced in the three-judge panel’s decision, appear to have justified District Judge Randy Bethancourt’s decision to deny the port its quest for eviction. That decision was made in response to the suit for eviction, filed in 2012, and included the provision that legal fees incurred by Eagle, at that time nearly $10,000, should be paid by the port.
The dollar amount for legal fees generated by the appeal has not yet been determined, but will come into discussion when Bethancourt, on order of the appellate judges, hears the matter once again.
Chiasson, who began his tenancy in 2006, continued paying rent even after the suit for eviction was filed, but he had said the port did not cash the checks.
