9.4 Remedies

A tenant can enjoin or recover damages for a landlord’s nonjudicial eviction or termination of utility services prior to completion of the judicial eviction process.1  Damages for property wrongfully removed from a leased unit are available even if some of the property was returned after being exposed to damaging elements.2  An occupant who has no landlord-tenant relationship with the owner can still recover damages for wrongful eviction.3

Both special and general damages are available for wrongful eviction.4  Special damages might include lost or damaged personal property, lost work, or moving expenses. General damages might include mental anguish, humiliation, embarrassment, inconvenience, and loss of use of the apartment.5  Mental anguish constitutes personal injury where a landlord’s liability insurance policy covers non-bodily “personal injury.”6

A wrongful eviction may give rise to liability in tort and contract.7  As a precaution, advocates should file within one year so as to comply with the prescriptive period for tort actions. Wrongful eviction has been held to constitute a bad faith violation of an obligation that subjects a landlord to both foreseeable and unforeseeable damages.8  A wrongful eviction may constitute an unfair trade practice in violation of La. R.S. 51:1401, et seq.9  In 2010 the Louisiana Supreme Court broadened the definition of parties eligible for relief under the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (LUTPA), which may make it easier to succeed on such a claim.10

Tenants with fixed-term leases could be entitled to large damage awards for wrongful evictions. For example, a tenant with a fixed-term lease who has made leasehold improvements may be entitled to damages in the amount of the value of the improvements, prorated over the remainder of the lease term.11  Each person in the household could have a cause of action for damages.12

Damages should be proven with sufficient specificity.13  However, a tenant may be entitled to damages for property illegally removed from a leased unit even if receipts and other documentation of losses were lost in the wrongful eviction.14

• 1Kite v. Gus Kaplan Inc., 98-0715 (La. 11/17/99), 747 So. 2d 503 (forcible relocation of business to inadequate location); Gennings v. Newton, 567 So. 2d 637 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1990) (lock-out and electricity shutoff); Weber v. Bon March Pharmacy, 378 So. 2d 520 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1979) (electricity shutoff); Vogt v. Jannarelli, 198 So. 421 (Orl. App. 1940) (utility shutoff); White v. Bd. of Supervisors of S. Univ., 365 So. 2d 583 (La. App. 1 Cir. 1978) (lock-out); Buchanan v. Daspit, 245 So. 2d 506 (La. App. 3 Cir. 1971) (illegal entry and removal of property); Robinson v. Bonhaye, 195 So. 365 (Orl. App. 1940) (removal of windows and doors).
• 2Capers v. NorthPro Props. Mgmt., LLC, 53,919 (La. App. 2 Cir. 5/5/21), 321 So. 3d 502, 515 (tenant entitled to jurisdictional limit of $15,000 for lost property where items were illegally moved from home into a dumpster and then returned from the dumpster), writ denied, 2021-00768 (La. 10/1/21), 324 So. 3d 1055.
• 3Boisdore v. Int'l City Bank & Tr. Co., 361 So. 2d 925 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1978).
• 4Weber v. McMilian, 285 So. 2d 349, 351 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1973); Dos Santos v. Belmere Ltd. P'ship, 2017-0283 (La. App. 1 Cir. 9/15/17), 2017 WL 4082287; Duhon v. Briley, 2012-1137 (La. App. 4 Cir. 5/23/13), 117 So. 3d 253.
• 5See, e.g., Gennings, 567 So. 2d at 642; Kite, 747 So. 2d at 512 (maintaining but reducing general damages award with analysis).
• 6Kite, 747 So. 2d at 513.
• 7Duhon v. Briley, 2012-1137 (La. App. 4 Cir. 5/23/13), 117 So. 3d 253, 260.
• 8La. C.C. art. 1997; Smith v. Shirley, 2001-1249 (La. App. 3 Cir. 02/06/02); 815 So. 2d 980.
• 9New Orleans Riverwalk Assocs. v. Robert P. Guastella Equities, 94-2092 (La. App. 4 Cir. 11/16/95), 664 So. 2d 151, 160 (affirming award of attorney fees under LUTPA where commercial lessor “attempted to drive [commercial lessee] out of business” when it “tried to stop liquor sales, refused to fix drainage problems, interfered with the air conditioning system for two and one-half months, tried to cut off live entertainment as well as the outside bar and brought in competitors”); Tyler v. Rapid Cash, L.L.C., 40,656 (La. App. 2 Cir. 05/17/06), 930 So. 2d 1135 (self-help repossession of a vehicle without judicial process is an unfair trade practice because it “offended public policy and was unethical”); Pelleteri v. Caspian Grp., 2002-2141, 2002-2142 (La. App. 4 Cir. 07/02/03), 851 So. 2d 1230 (found without explanation that the wrongful eviction, on the facts of this case, was not an unfair trade practice); Scott v. MAC-RE, LLC, 16-224 (La. App. 3 Cir. 02/08/17), 211 So. 3d 693, 699 (affirming judgment in favor of landlord where tenant brought wrongful eviction and LUTPA claims after determining tenant abandoned premises, but denying attorney fees to landlord under LUTPA upon finding that tenant’s claim was not in bad faith); Plater v. Ironwood Land Co., 39,085 (La. App. 2 Cir. 12/8/04), 889 So. 2d 475 (finding that LUTPA was applicable, but that the defendant’s actions did not rise to the level of unfair or deceptive trade practices, where tax sale purchaser leased to residential tenant during redemption period, and tenant was evicted when tax debtor redeemed the property).
• 10Cheramie Servs., Inc. v. Shell Deepwater Prod., Inc., 2009-1633 (La. 4/23/10), 35 So. 3d 1053.
• 11See, e.g., Provenzano v. Populis, 428 So. 2d 556 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1983); Leake v. Hardie, 245 So. 2d 729 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1971); Knapp v. Guerin, 81 So. 302 (La. 1919); La. C.C. art. 2695.
• 12Cf. Pizanne v. A.V. Dufor, 112 So. 2d 733 (Orl. App. 1959).
• 13Platinum City LLC v. Boudreaux, 2011-559 (La. App. 3 Cir. 11/23/11), 81 So. 3d 780.
• 14Capers v. NorthPro Properties Mgmt., LLC, 53,919 (La. App. 2 Cir. 5/5/21), 321 So. 3d 502, 515.