IMG_7201

28 So.3d 1253 (2010) Dianne ALEXANDER, et ux. V. LAFAYETTE CRIME STOPPERS, INC,, et al. No. 09-927. Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit. February 3, 2010. Rehearing Denied March 10, 2010. 1 : Douglas C. Longman, Jr., Longman Russo, Lafayette, LA, for Defendant/Appellee, Lafayette Crime Stoppers, Inc. Baton Rouge Crime Stoppers, Inc. L. Clayton Burgess, Lafayette, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellant, Dianne Alexander, Herman Alexander. Court composed of SYLVIA R. COOKS, MARC T. AMY, and ELIZABETH A. PICKETT, Judges. AMY, Judge. The plaintiffs brought suit for specific performance against the defendants for failure to pay them reward money they alleged was due to them. The defendants filed motions for summary judgment asserting there was no genuine issue of material fact in that the plaintiffs would be unable to prove at trial that a contract ever existed between the parties. The trial court granted the motions. For the following reasons, we affirm. Factual and Procedural Background In the summer of 2002, after several South Louisiana women had been murdered, the Multi Agency Homicide Task Force (Task Force) was established to investigate these murders, believed to be committed by the same individual referred to as the South Louisiana Serial Killer. In April 2003, the Baton Rouge Crime Stoppers (BCS) began publicizing a reward offer in newspapers, television stations, and billboards around the Baton Rouge area regarding the South Louisiana Serial Killer. A short time later, Lafayette Crime Stoppers (LCS) also publicized a reward offer. Both reward offers provided an expiration date of August 1, 2003. According to the plaintiffs' petition, on July 9, 2002, Dianne Alexander was attacked in her home in St. Martin Parish. Ms. Alexander's son, Herman Alexander, arrived home during the attack and chased the attacker from the property. Ms. Alexander reported the attack to local police and, later, both Ms. Alexander and her son described the attacker to the St. Martin Sheriff's Department. According to his investigative report, Lieutenant Boyd, the lead investigator on Ms. Alexander's attack, began to suspect that Ms. Alexander's attacker could be the same man identified as the South Louisiana Serial Killer, after investigators linked the death of a Lafayette woman to the suspected serial killer. In May 2003, Lieutenant Boyd shared information regarding Ms. Alexander's attack with the Lafayette Sheriff's Department, who in turn shared the information with the Task Force. On May 22, 2003, Ms. Alexander was interviewed by an FBI agent assisting the 125571255 Task Force. Based upon that interview, a composite sketch was drawn and released to the public on May 23, 2003. Investigators believed the composite sketch matched the description of a possible suspect in an investigation being handled by the Louisiana Attorney General's Office and the Zachary Police Department. On May 25, 2003, a photo lineup was prepared and presented to Ms. Alexander, who identified her attacker as the same man suspected in the Zachary investigation, Derrick Todd Lee. On or about August 14, 2003, Ms. Alexander contacted LCS and sought to collect the advertised award, however, LCS informed her she was ineligible to receive the award. On February 22, 2006, Ms. Alexander and her son filed a lawsuit against BRCS and LCS, alleging that the defendants owed them $100,000 and $50,000, respectively, for the information they provided to the defendants. The defendants filed motions for summary judgment asserting that a valid contract never existed between the parties. Specifically, the defendants argued that the plaintiffs never provided information to Crime Stoppers via the tipster hotline and thus did not comply with the "form, terms, or conditions required by the Crime Stoppers offers[.]" The trial court granted the defendants' motions for summary judgment, finding that the offer from Crime Stoppers was conditioned on the information being provided to the defendant entities rather than law enforcement. The plaintiffs appeal, asserting that there is a genuine issue of material fact that the LCS and BRCS offers contained a requirement that acceptance of the reward must be done through the Crime Stoppers' tipline. Discussion summary JUdng