Louisiana Revised Statutes 42:1461 – Public property; personal obligations of officials, employees, and custodians; actions; prescription
Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes 42:1461
- Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
A. Officials, whether elected or appointed and whether compensated or not, and employees of any “public entity”, which, for purposes of this Section shall mean and include any department, division, office, board, agency, commission, or other organizational unit of any of the three branches of state government or of any parish, municipality, school board or district, court of limited jurisdiction, or other political subdivision or district, or the office of any sheriff, district attorney, coroner, or clerk of court, by the act of accepting such office or employment assume a personal obligation not to misappropriate, misapply, convert, misuse, or otherwise wrongfully take any funds, property, or other thing of value belonging to or under the custody or control of the public entity in which they hold office or are employed.
B. When, pursuant to a statute, ordinance, resolution, or contract or other agreement, a public entity, as defined in Subsection A, entrusts to a contractor or to a quasi-public entity of any kind the care, administration, allocation, or disposition of funds, property, or other things of value belonging to it or under its custody or control, the contractor or the quasi-public entity, and the officers and employees thereof personally, shall be deemed to have undertaken the obligation of a fiduciary with respect to such funds, property, or other things of value of the public entity.
C. The breach of an obligation established under this Section gives rise to an action in favor of the public entity for the recovery of any such funds, property, or other things of value and for any other damages resulting from the breach. This action is prescribed by ten years, reckoning from the date on which the breach occurred.
Added by Acts 1982, No. 786, §1.