Gene and Mary Wilkerson, as the Natural Parents of the Katie Scarlette Wilkerson v. Eric Joseph Buras and Abc…

Summary

The court reversed the dismissal of the Wilkersons' wrongful-death action for abandonment because a defense step was completed when the related judgment was filed into the record, and the Wilkersons filed a motion to set a pretrial conference within three years of that date. The court held that inadequate service of the dismissal order was harmless because the appellate deadlines had not begun to run, and that Buras's participation in the status conference did not waive his abandonment defense. GUIDRY, J., dissenting in part, would have treated the date the judgment was signed or rendered, rather than the filing date, as the date from which abandonment accrued.