Adams v. Board of Commissioners

966 So. 2d 660, 2005 La.App. 4 Cir. 1159, 2007 La. App. LEXIS 1748
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 29, 2007
DocketNo. 2005-CA-1159
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 966 So. 2d 660 (Adams v. Board of Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. Board of Commissioners, 966 So. 2d 660, 2005 La.App. 4 Cir. 1159, 2007 La. App. LEXIS 1748 (La. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

LEON A. CANNIZZARO, JR., Judge.

| Jhis case involves an appeal by certain of the original plaintiffs in this case. The appellants’ brief lists the appellants as Brad A. Adams, S.T. Alcus, III, Danny Allday, American International Travel, Inc., Alvin Baumer, Richard H. Barker, IV, Otto Candies, Jr., Fairview Realty L.L.C., Douglas and Dixie Depp, Candy Fleet Corporation, Clifford Duplessey, Kohlie Frantsen, G.M. Haydel, Dieter M. Hugel, Rustin D. Johnson, Cris Mandry, W.H. Metcalf, Jr., Douglas Moore, Christopher Quebedeau, Richard L. Rubin, William M. Ruddy, Jr., Lawrence Sintes (the “Appellants”), and Everett C. Pitmann, Jr.1 Each of the Appellants2 is appealing a trial court judgment denying a claim for declaratory relief regarding a lease agreement3 executed by and between the Appellant and the Board of Commissioners of the Orleans Parish Levee District (the “District”).

| .FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Marina Leases

The District, a political subdivision of the State of Louisiana which is governed by the Board of Commissioners of the District (the “Board”), owned a marina located in New Orleans. The District was permitted by statute4 to lease the land and water bottoms at the marina for the mooring of boats and the construction of boathouses. The marina contained “boathouse shells,” which were covered spaces designed to provide a place, where vessels could be moored, and there was space adjacent to the “boathouse shells” that could be used to construct boathouses.

[663]*663In 1971 and 1972, the District leased to the Appellants space in the marina that included the water bottoms and the land on which “boathouse shells” were built as well as the space for the construction of boathouses. The leases originally had terms of twenty years.5

Pursuant to a Board resolution that was adopted in 1973, the Appellants were given the option to extend their leases for three additional five-year periods. As consideration for the option, the Appellants agreed that the rent under their leases would be adjusted every five years based on increases in the Consumer Price Index. After the additional three five-year options were exercised, the expiration dates of the leases were in 2006 and 2007.

Many of the Appellants constructed substantial boathouses on the leased premises. Although the boathouses that were built on the premises were owned by the Appellants during the term of the lease, the lease agreements contained a ^reversion provision pursuant to which all boathouses on the leased premises became the property of the District upon the expiration of the leases.6 During the terms of then-leases, the Appellants could sell the boathouses on the leased premises, and the purchaser of a boathouse would be assigned the rights under the seller’s lease. When the leases ended in 2006 or 2007, all of the boathouses would become the property of the District.

At the trial in the instant case, Albert Pappalardo, a professional realtor who advised the Board with respect to the District’s real estate holdings, testified that the closer it was to the expiration of the lease agreements, the more difficult it would be for the Appellants to sell the boathouses on the leased premises and to assign their leases. The value of the boathouses to the Appellants would diminish as the lease agreements approached their expiration dates. Thus, it was to the advantage of the Appellants to continue leasing the marina property as long as possible. Gary Benoit, an attorney employed by the District, who ultimately became senior counsel for the District, also testified, and his testimony agreed with Mr. Pappalar-do’s testimony on the diminishing value of the boathouses to the Appellants.

Because the boathouses that the Appellants had constructed at their own expense would belong to the District at the termination of the leases, the Board could then lease the marina property and the boathouses. Because the original leases did not take into account the value of the boathouses that the Appellants 14would construct and would own until the expiration of the leases, the rental value of the leased premises would increase greatly once the boathouses were owned by the District.

199⅛ Resolution

Mr. Pappalardo testified that some of the marina lessees approached him and some of the Board members about the possibility of extending the lease agreements beyond the 2006 and 2007 expiration dates. Mr. Pappalardo further testified that these lessees were concerned about “their ability to market their properties in the future.”

[664]*664In response to the lessees’ concerns about marketing the boathouses that they had constructed, the Board passed a resolution (the “1994 Resolution”) on February 23, 1994. The 1994 Resolution authorized the “granting of three additional five year options, with the cost to extend the first five year option to be $1,000, the cost to extend the second five year option to be $1,000, and the cost to extend the third five year option to be $2,000, under terms to be developed by the Marina Committee.” The 1994 Resolution further provided that the Board’s offer to grant the additional options would be open to all lessees “for a period of 90 days from the first of March, 1994.”

The Fourroux Lease Amendments

At the trial in the instant case, Mr. Benoit, the District’s attorney, testified that only six of the lessees of the marina sites responded to the option offered pursuant to the 1994 Resolution. Leases were executed by the responding lessees on a form that was prepared by Kermit A. Fourroux, one of the responding lessees. The record contains a letter from Mr. Fourroux to Mr. Benoit in which Mr. Fourroux states that he is enclosing an amendment to his lease that he drafted to | ¿incorporate the provisions of the 1994 Resolution. The lease amendment that Mr. Fourroux prepared included a specified rental amount of thirty cents per square foot of leased area.

The validity of the lease amendments executed by Mr. Fourroux and three other lessees of the marina property (the “Four-roux Leases”) was litigated, and this Court found that the Fourroux Leases were valid in Fourroux v. Board of Commissioners for the Orleans Levee District, 02-0374 (La.App. 4 Cir. 1/8/03), 837 So.2d 698. At the trial in the instant case, however, James P. Huey, the then Board president, testified that the Fourroux Leases “were done incorrectly and inappropriately.”

1996 Resolution

Mr. Benoit testified that because of the limited response to the option offer contained in the 1994 Resolution, the Board adopted another resolution on February 28, 1996 (the “1996 Resolution”). The 1996 Resolution was adopted in response to interest in additional lease options that was expressed by lessees who had not responded to the initial option offer made pursuant to the 1994 Resolution. The 1996 Resolution reopened to the lessees, who had not responded to the offer in the 1994 Resolution, the Board’s offer under the 1994 Resolution to grant three additional five-year lease options to the lessees. The offer remained open for a period of one hundred and twenty days, and most, if not all, of the lessees who had not accepted the option offer in 1994 did accept the offer in 1996.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Adams v. BOARD OF COM'RS FOR ORLEANS LEVEE
966 So. 2d 660 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
966 So. 2d 660, 2005 La.App. 4 Cir. 1159, 2007 La. App. LEXIS 1748, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-board-of-commissioners-lactapp-2007.