STATE OF LOUISIANA COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT VELMA WILKERSON AND JAMES NO. 2025 CW 0458 WILKERSON, INDIVIDUALLY AND ON BEHALF OF AMELIA WILKERSON VERSUS BATON ROUGE GENERAL MEDICAL JULY 28, 2025 CORPORATION, ET AL In Re: Baton Rouge General Medical Center, applying for supervisory writs, 19th Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge, No. 671298.

BEFORE: THERIOT, LANIER, AND MILLER, JJ.

WRIT GRANTED. The district court’s April 22, 2025 order which denied the Ex Parte Motion to Dismiss on Grounds of Abandonment filed by defendant, Baton Rouge General Medical Center, is reversed. An action is abandoned when the parties fail to take any step in its prosecution or defense in the district court for a period of three years. La. Code Civ. P. art. 561(A) (1).

Abandonment is self-executing; it occurs automatically with the passing of three years without a step being taken by either party.

See La. Code Civ. P. art. 561 (A) (1) and (3). Although plaintiff filed a motion to set a settlement conference on February 18, 2025, at that time, more than three years had elapsed since the last step taken in the prosecution or defense of the matter, i.e. judgment signed on April 21, 2021, notice of which was issued on April 26, 2021, granting a motion to compel against plaintiffs.

Once abandonment has occurred, action by the plaintiff cannot breathe new life into the suit. McNealy v. Englade, 2019-0573 (ha.

App. lst Cir. 2/21/20), 298 So.3d 182, 186. The motion filed by defendant, Baton Rouge General Medical Center, included an affidavit in compliance with La. Code Civ. P. art. 561. We find the action filed by plaintiffs abandoned on April 26, 2024, at the latest, by operation of law. Accordingly, the Ex Parte Motion to Dismiss on Grounds of Abandonment filed by defendant, Baton Rouge General Medical Center, is granted, and the action of plaintiffs against defendant, Baton Rouge General Medical Center, is dismissed without prejudice.

MRT WIL SMM COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT >FOR THE COURT