2026-09-10 · Louisiana · Courts

What happened. Three Eastover owners asked their property owners' association for a decade of contracts, minutes, bank statements, cancelled cheques and Zoom recordings. When they did not get all of it, they filed for mandamus. The result is a pleadings-stage decision that tells Louisiana owners exactly how to frame a records claim — and tells boards where the real exposure lies.

Sterling Doucette, David Nixon, and Leon Richard v. Eastover Property Owners' Association, Inc. and Eastover Neighborhood Improvement and Security District, No. 2024-CA-0585, Louisiana Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit (Jenkins, J.; Lobrano, J., concurring in the result), decided May 22, 2025, with a limited rehearing decided June 17, 2025. Below: Civil District Court, Orleans Parish, No. 2023-13803, Div. “E”, judgment of May 31, 2024.

The posture, which limits what it decides

This is a ruling on peremptory exceptions of no cause of action and no right of action, plus the trial court's deferral of a fees-and-penalties ruling. Nothing was decided about whether the association actually withheld anything unlawfully. Disposition: affirmed in part, reversed in part, remanded. On rehearing: limited rehearing granted, relief denied, original opinion affirmed. The case went back to the district court and is presumptively still live. Whether a writ application followed is not established.¹

Why the claim failed as pleaded

“We do not find that the plaintiffs' petition states a valid cause of action for violation of La. R.S. 12:223, as it is devoid of allegations indicating EPOA's refusal to allow the plaintiffs to examine the records.”

The statute is about examination. R.S. 12:223 provides that “[e]very shareholder and voting member may examine in person, or by agent or attorney, at any reasonable time, the records of the corporation.” A petition that pleads non-production of copies without pleading a refusal to allow examination is pleading the wrong thing.

And why it survived anyway

“However, we reverse the trial court's dismissal of these claims because the plaintiffs should be granted leave to file an amended petition to cure the grounds for EPOA's exception pursuant to La. C.C.P. art. 934.”

1. Doucette v. Eastover Property Owners’ Ass’n, No. 2024-CA-0585 (La. App. 4 Cir. May 22, 2025) — slip opinion ↩
2. Doucette v. Eastover Property Owners’ Ass’n — opinion on application for rehearing (June 17, 2025) ↩
3. La. R.S. 9:1141.36 — Association records ↩
4. La. R.S. 9:1141.26 — Meetings, including the pre-meeting materials rule ↩