Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College v. Allen Bickham

Summary

The court held that a motion to continue a trial without date is not a step that interrupts abandonment because it does not advance the case toward judgment. A joint motion to continue may nevertheless waive the defendant's abandonment claim when it reflects an intent for the litigation to proceed, with the new abandonment period beginning when the motion is filed. Because the abandonment period would have expired during the statutory COVID-19 suspension and the intervenor filed a motion to set the matter for trial during that period, the action was not abandoned and the lower courts' rulings were affirmed.