Mandatary Mandate

In Franklin v. Regions Bank. “Plaintiffs contracted with Regions Bank for it to manage, as their agent, their mineral interests in a large tract of land.” Under Louisiana law, the parties had “a principal-mandatary relationship, which is equivalent to a common-law principal-agent relationship.” In an Erie analysis, the Fifth Circuit noted that after the Louisiana Supreme Court limited a plaintiff’s ability to choose between a contract or tort remedy (with a large potential effect on limitations) in some mandatary relationships, the legislature then “shortened the limitations periods for claims against engineers, surveyors, professional interior designers, architects, real-estate developers, and home inspectors.  Instead of shortening the limitations period for all mandataries, the legislature chose to single-out certain professions for special treatment.” After then coupling that observation with general Louisiana legal principles about strict construction of limitation statutes, the Court held that the plaintiffs wereable to choose a tort remedy with a 10-year limitations period. No. 19-30684 (Sept. 18, 2020).