Art. 4845. Amount in dispute; jurisdiction of incidental demands; parish, city, and justice of the peace courts; payment of costs of transfer

A.(1)  When a parish or city court has subject matter jurisdiction over the principal demand, it may exercise subject matter jurisdiction over any properly instituted incidental action arising out of the same transaction or occurrence from which the principal demand arose, regardless of the amount in dispute in the incidental demand.  When a justice of the peace court has jurisdiction over the principal demand, it may exercise subject matter jurisdiction over a good faith incidental demand in the same manner as a parish or city court, except that if the amount in dispute of such incidental demand exceeds its jurisdictional amount, a justice of the peace court may not continue to exercise jurisdiction except for purposes of transferring the entire action as provided in this Section.

(2)  When an otherwise properly instituted incidental demand  exceeds the subject matter jurisdiction of a parish or city court, the court may transfer the entire action to a court of proper jurisdiction.

B.  When a compulsory reconventional demand exceeds the jurisdiction of a parish or city court, and when any good faith incidental demand before a justice of the peace court exceeds the jurisdictional amount of the justice of a peace court, the court shall transfer the entire action to a court of proper jurisdiction.  The party filing the incidental demand that causes the justice of the peace court to transfer the action shall be responsible for payment of all costs for the transfer and shall make payment of the costs directly to the clerk of court of the transferee court within fifteen days of the filing of the incidental demand in the justice of the peace court.

Acts 1986, No. 156, §1; Acts 1990, No. 521, §2, eff. Jan. 1, 1991; Acts 1991, No. 676, §1; Acts 1995, No. 202, §1; Acts 1999, No. 678, §1.