Art. 86.Action Involving Voting Trusts

A voting trust is an arrangement in which shareholders transfer the voting rights attached to their stock to a trustee, who then votes those shares as the trust agreement directs — a common tool for consolidating control or coordinating how a block of shareholders votes. Article 86 lets a plaintiff sue a voting trust, its trustee, or both, in the parish or parishes where the document or documents creating the voting trust were executed.

Two further options apply if the stock placed into the voting trust came from another trust first. If it came from an inter vivos trust — Louisiana's civil-law term for a trust created and put into effect during the settlor's lifetime — venue also lies where that trust's documents were executed. If instead the stock came from a mortis causa trust — a trust that takes effect at the settlor's death, typically created through a will — venue lies in the parish with jurisdiction over the settlor's estate, meaning the parish handling that person's succession.