Bolton v. Byrd

154 So. 657, 1934 La. App. LEXIS 706
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 8, 1934
DocketNo. 1312.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 154 So. 657 (Bolton v. Byrd) 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
Bolton v. Byrd, 154 So. 657, 1934 La. App. LEXIS 706 (La. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

ELLIOTT, Judge.

The appeal in this case is from a' judgment in which several consolidated suits were acted on under the above title and number in one and the same judgment. In the suit of Henry B. Bolton v. Warren Edgar Byrd, No. 5397 on the docket of the district court, the plaintiff, Bolton, attacks as illegal a sale made by the constable of the city court of Bogalusa of an undivided one-half interest, which he alleges belongs to him in a tract of land containing 12 acres described in his petition. And to clear his title, he also in the same petition attacks as invalid a subsequent sale of the entire tract by the sheriff of Washington parish, made in a suit entitled Warren Edgar Byrd v. Politha Hartfield, No. 5221 oh the docket of the district court, for the purpose, of effecting a partition of the tract by licitation. Both sales are alleged to be absolute nullities and judgment is prayed for against Byrd accordingly.

He further alleges in the same petition that he was compelled by force on the part of Byrd to pay Byrd $75 to prevent Byrd from dispossessing him of the land and taking his crop growing thereon. He prays for judgment against Byrd compelling the return of said amount, etc.

Mrs. Eva Bolton Kilpatrick, daughter of Henry B. Bolton, born of his marriage with her mother, Melissa Bolton, deceased, alleging that she was the sole heir of her mother and as such the owner of an undivided one-half of the one-half interest claimed by her father, intervened in the suit joining her father in his demand against Byrd. She speaks of her petition as an intervention and third opposition, but it is an intervention only. According to her petition, Henry B. Bolton is not the owner of an undivided one-half of the tract of land, as claimed in his petition, but of an undivided one-fourth and she is the owner of an undivided one-fourth as heir of her mother, Mrs. Melissa Bolton, deceased' wife of Henry B. Bolton.

While the suit No. 5397 was pending, Henry B. Bolton and Mrs. Eva Bolton Kilpatrick filed an injunction suit against Byrd. This suit is entitled Henry B. Bolton et al. v. Warren Edgar Byrd, No. 5551 on the docket of the district court. In this suit Henry B. Bolton and Mrs. Eva Bolton Kilpatrick have for their purpose to enjoin and prevent Byrd *658 from ejecting them from the land in question. They claim to have possession together as owners of an undivided one-half of the tract in their own right and by authority and consent of the heirs of Tom Hartfield, owners of the other one-half, and that Byrd is illegally attempting to dispossess them, etc. They allege as before the nullity of the sale, made by the constable of the city court of Bogalusa, and of the sale subsequently made by the sheriff for the purpose of effecting a partition. etc.

In suit No. 5397 Byrd, defendant, filed a plea of estoppel, claiming that subsequent to the sale made by the constable aforesaid and subsequent to that made by the sheriff, Bolton had leased the property from him and paid him rent and was thereby estopped from questioning his title. In suit No. 5551 he filed an exception, that plaintiff’s petition disclosed no right or cause of action.

Warren Edgar Byrd filed an answer, in each of the said suits, including the intervention of Mrs. Kilpatrick, in which he denied that the sales under which he claimed the land were invalid. He alleges in his answers that his title is good, sets up that Henry B. Bolton has recognized his title by paying him rent in the amount of $75, and prays for further rent while plaintiffs continue to occupy the land, etc.

All the cases were consolidated for the purpose of trial and submitted to the court on an agreed statement of facts. The lower court rendered judgment holding, that the sale made in the execution of a writ of fieri facias from the city court of Bogalusa in the ease entitled Mrs. Margana Byrd and Warren Edgar Byrd v. Henry B. Bolton, No. 3447 on the docket of the city court of Bogalusa, was null and void and of no force or effect, and ordered that it be canceled from the Conveyance Records of Washington Parish. It was further decreed that the sale made for the purpose of effecting a partition by Imitation in the suit entitled Warren Edgar Byrd v. Politha Hartfield, No. 5221 on the docket of the district court, was also null and void, and it was ordered that the record made thereof in the Conveyance Books of Washington Parish be canceled. It was also decreed that Henry B. Bolton and Eva Bolton Kil-patrick and the heirs of Tom Hartfield were together the'owners of the land in question. There was further judgment enjoining Byrd from disturbing Henry B. Bolton in his possession of the land in question. Judgment was rendered in favor of Henry B. Bolton and against Warren Edgar Byrd for $75, and Byrd was condemned to pay the costs in both suits.

Byrd, defendant, has appealed. The plaintiffs, Henry B. Bolton and Mrs. Eva Bolton Kilpatrick, have not favored us with a brief analyzing their positions in the case. The appeal brings up all the1 orders and decrees entering into and forming part of the judgment appealed from. The exception of no right or cause of action, filed by Byrd in the suit No. 5551, and the plea of estoppel, filed by him in suit No. 5397, do not appear to have been ruled on in the lower court. Consequently, there is nothing in connection with the exception or plea' of estoppel on which we ■can rule in review. The exception of no right or cause of action and the plea of estoppel are therefore looked on as having been abandoned in the lower court.

The grounds of nullity alleged by Henry B. Bolton in suit No. 5397, and in which Mrs. Eva Bolton Kilpatrick is intervener, have reference to a tract of land desci’ibed as follows: Twelve acres of land being situated in Washington parish, La., with buildings and improvements thereon, said land being in the S.W. ⅛ of N.W. ¼ of section 2, township 4 south, range 13 east, St. Helena Meridian, starting at the Northeast corner of above land; thence south along east line 7.93 chains to stob, the point of beginning; thence south parallel with east line 12.28 chains to stob on the south line of S.W. ½ of N.W. ¼; thence east along south line 10.08 chains to S. E. corner of S.W. ⅛ of N.W. ¼; thence north along east line of forty 12.30 chains to point of beginning, being the same property acquired by Henry B. Bolton jointly with Tom Hartfield per title recorded in O. B. 32, p. 604.

Henry B. Bolton alleges in his petition in suit No. 5397 as the first ground of nullity: “That the property was never legally seized and petitioner had no legal notice of the seizure in that Robert L. Pittman, who attempted to make the seizure and served notice was not a constable, deputy constable, sheriff or deputy sheriff and was without authority to execute the writs of the City Court of Boga-lusa in said proceeding.” The attack is based on the alleged lack of official capacity on the part of Robert L. Pittman to make a seizure and serve a notice of seizure in the execution of a writ of fieri facias emanating from the city court of Bogalusa in the suit heretofore mentioned entitled Mrs. Margana Byrd and Warren Edgar Byrd v. Henry B. Bolton, No. 3447 on the docket of the city court.

The record shows that R. H. Lambright was *659 constable of the city court of Bogalusa at the time in question. The office of constable is provided for by Act No. 14 of 1914, § 45 (amended Act No. 112 of 1922).

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154 So. 657, 1934 La. App. LEXIS 706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bolton-v-byrd-lactapp-1934.