Constantin Land Trust v. Pitre Industries, L.L.C.

225 So. 3d 1089, 2016 La.App. 1 Cir. 0993, 2017 WL 2953622, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 1263
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 10, 2017
Docket2016 CA 0993
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 225 So. 3d 1089 (Constantin Land Trust v. Pitre Industries, L.L.C.) 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
Constantin Land Trust v. Pitre Industries, L.L.C., 225 So. 3d 1089, 2016 La.App. 1 Cir. 0993, 2017 WL 2953622, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 1263 (La. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

GUIDRY, J.

I?As part of ongoing litigation in this lease dispute, the lessor of a tract of land appeals a judgment denying its petition to evict the lessee based on the lessee’s failure to timely exercise the option to renew the subject lease, and the lessee has answered the appeal,

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In the fall of 2005, Constantin Land Trust (“CLT”) entered into a ten-year lease agreement with Pitre Industries, LLC for the lease of 2.35 acres of land in Lafourche Parish, known as the “Texaco Dock.” According to the lease agreement, the primary term of the lease began on October 1, 2005, with the lessee, Pitre Industries, being granted the option to renew the leasé for two additional terms of ten years each.

In December 2010, the parties executed a partial termination of the lease agreement, wherein Pitre Industries released approximately one-half of the leased property, the southern portion, which CLT, in turn, leased to a third party. Then, on October 23, 2015, CLT filed the instant action for eviction, alleging that due to Pitre Industries’ failure to give timely written notice of its decision to exercise the option to renew the lease, CLT chose not to renew the lease on the retained portion of the leased property and sought return of the property. CLT further alleged that despite issuance of a notice to vacate, Pitre Industries refused to vacate and continued to occupy and use and the leased property.

In conjunction with the petition for eviction, CLT also filed a statement notifying the trial court that other litigation was pending in a different division of the same court. In that litigation, CLT was also seeking termination of the ¡lease, but based on Pitre Industries’ alleged breach of the terms of the lease agreement.

In response to these filings, Pitre Industries filed a motion to transfer and [ .¡reassign the eviction proceeding to the same division of the trial court in which the breach of lease proceedings and other actions regarding the leased property were pending.1 By a judgment signed December 7,.2015, the eviction action was re-allotted and transferred to the same division of the trial court in which all the prior matters involving, the same parties and the leased property were pending.

Prior to the transfer .of the eviction action, Pitre Industries answered the petition for eviction raising several exceptions and affirmative defenses. After the matter was re-allotted and transferred, the trial court held a hearing on the exceptions raised by Pitre Industries and on the merits of CLT’s eviction action. At the hearing, the trial court overruled the objections of -lis pendens, lack of procedural capacity, and res judicata raised in the exceptions filed by Pitre Industries, but deferred ruling on the objection of no cause of action. The trial court then received testimony and documentary evidence on the merits of the eviction action, following which it took the matter under advisement.

On May 5, 2016, the trial court issued an oral ruling denying the petition for eviction, finding as follows:

While I do find that there was a clear term in the lease and that the renewal was not filed in a timely basis under that lease, I also find that CLT, by the interference and harassment of clients and customers of Pitre’s, interrupted their [1092]*1092peaceful possession—constructively interrupted their peaceful possession. And for that reason the eviction is hereby denied.

The trial court then signed a written judgment consistent with its oral ruling on June 14, 2016, which CLT appeals, and Pitre Industries has filed an answer to the appeal.

ASSIGNMENTS OP ERROR

Contending that the June 14, 2016 judgment is contrary to law and is manifestly erroneous, CLT alleges the following:

|41) The trial court committed manifest error in denying CLT’s Petition for Eviction as the evidence and testimony proved that Pitre Industries faded to provide timely written notice of its intent to renew the lease between it and CLT.
2) The trial court committed manifest error by concluding that constructive interruption of peaceful possession was grounds for denying CLT’s eviction action ... when there is no evidence of this alleged interruption in the record.
3) The trial court committed manifest error by denying CLT’s eviction action based on testimony presented in a separate ordinary proceeding seeking damages [for disturbance] of peaceful possession.

Pitre Industries has answered the appeal to assert that in the event this court should find that the trial court improperly dismissed the eviction action based on the finding that CLT had constructively interrupted Pitre Industries’ peaceful possession of the property, the eviction should nonetheless be denied because: (1) CLT’s acceptance of rental payments after the alleged expiration of the lease term effected a renewal of the lease;2 and (2) ambiguity existed in the lease agreement regarding the term and the time for exercising the option to renew.

DISCUSSION

A judgment either granting or denying eviction is appealable. Terrebonne Parish Port Commission v. Eagle Dry Dock & Marine Repairs, L.L.C., 14-0010, p. 13 (La. App. 1st Cir. 7/7/15), 2015 WL 4094331, at *7 (unpublished opinion). In this case, after expressly finding that Pitre Industries did not timely exercise the option to renew the lease on the subject property, the trial court nonetheless denied the action to evict based on its determination that CLT had wrongfully disturbed Pitre Industries’ peaceful possession of the property. In its second and third assignments of error, CLT contests the trial court making this determination and rendering judgment based on evidence not of record in the proceedings before the Rcourt. We find merit in this assertion.

The only evidence offered at the eviction hearing were copies of the petition for eviction, the lease in dispute, letters between the parties, rental payment checks from Pitre Industries, and the testimony of Elmo Pitre III, the managing member of Pitre Industries, and James Constantin Jr., one of the co-owners of the leased property owned by CLT.

At the eviction hearing, Pitre Industries asked Mr. Constantin to acknowledge that three other legal actions had been initiated by CLT and were pending that sought to terminate and/or enjoin enforcement of the lease in dispute. When CLT attempted to object to this line of questioning, the trial court responded, “I think he’s trying to [1093]*1093argue that the suits filed by Constantin have interrupted the term of the lease so I’m going to allow him to ask the questions.” Mr. Constantin then acknowledged that the three other actions had been filed and were pending. Following that line of questioning, Pitre Industries asked the trial court to take judicial notice of the three other legal actions, which were pending before the same court.

One of the principal obligations a lessor has to his lessee is to protect the lessee’s peaceful possession for the duration of the lease. La. C.C. art. 2682; McCurdy v. Bloom’s Inc., 39,854, p. 7 (La. App. 2d Cir. 6/29/05), 907 So.2d 896, 901. Specifically, the lessor warrants the lessee’s peaceful possession of the leased thing against any disturbance caused by a person who asserts ownership, or right to possession of, or any other right in the thing. La. C.C. art. 2700.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
225 So. 3d 1089, 2016 La.App. 1 Cir. 0993, 2017 WL 2953622, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 1263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/constantin-land-trust-v-pitre-industries-llc-lactapp-2017.