Crozat v. Louisiana Coastal, VII, LLC

830 So. 2d 319, 2001 La.App. 4 Cir. 2404, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 2771, 2002 WL 31097794
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 11, 2002
DocketNo. 2001-CA-2404
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 830 So. 2d 319 (Crozat v. Louisiana Coastal, VII, LLC) 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
Crozat v. Louisiana Coastal, VII, LLC, 830 So. 2d 319, 2001 La.App. 4 Cir. 2404, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 2771, 2002 WL 31097794 (La. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinions

| TTERRI F. LOVE, Judge.

The issue in this appeal is whether the trial court properly granted an exception of no cause of action filed by Louisiana Coastal, VII, L.L.C. (“Louisiana Coastal”) in a lawsuit brought by Lisette Crozat following her eviction from her family home, in which she claimed a right of habitation. For the following reasons, we reverse the trial court’s ruling.

On December 7, 2000, Louisiana Coastal purchased a house at 820 Pine Street in New Orleans at public auction conducted by the civil sheriff. The sale was facilitated by an August 16, 2000 judgment by the trial court judge in Bristow, et al. v. Crozat et al., CDC #2000-2834, partitioning the property by licitation. In the Bristow matter, Ms. Crozat’s sisters had sued her for partition of the property in question because Ms. Crozat would not agree to sell the family home, which under the terms of their father’s will could not be sold without the agreement of all his children. The record indicates that Ms. Crozat would not agree to the sale because she claimed a right of habitation pursuant to the will in which her father established a trust for the benefit of ,his children. Ms. Crozat did not seek review by this court in the Bristow lawsuit.

After purchasing the property, Louisiana Coastal proceeded, by writ of possession pursuant to La.R.S. 13:4346, to evict Ms. Crozat who still lived at the home. On January 24, 2001, Ms. Crozat filed a petition for injunction against ^Louisiana Coastal and its member/managers, James and Catherine MacPhaille, to stop her eviction. In her petition, Ms. Crozat alleged that she possessed a right of habitation to live in the house pursuant to the trust created in her father’s will. Ms. Crozat asked for a temporary restraining order. The trial court denied Ms. Crozat’s request for a temporary restraining order. Ms. Crozat was evicted on January 25,-2001.

On March 12, 2001, Ms. Crozat amended her petition, changing her action from an injunction request to a possessory action. The amendment added a wrongful eviction claim based on the allegation that Ms. Crozat lived in the house at 820 Pine Street pursuant to a right of habitation, a claim for damages, and a right to possess the premises by virtue of this right of habitation.

Louisiana* Coastal filed an exception of no cause or right of action, arguing that it was protected under the Louisiana public records doctrine as a third party purchaser from Ms. Crozat’s unrecorded claimed right of habitation. Louisiana Coastal also [322]*322asserted that Ms. Crozat was estopped by her own warranty of title in the partition lawsuit from later asserting a title claim against it. Finally, Louisiana Coastal asserted that, the law of the case doctrine prohibited re-litigation of the same issue presented to and denied by the trial court judge in the injunction request.

After a hearing, District Judge Nadine Ramsey granted the exception of no cause of action on July 10, 2001 and dismissed Ms. Crozat’s lawsuit. She also ordered cancellation of the notice of lis pendens filed by Ms. Crozat. We do not know the basis of the trial court’s decision because the hearing was not recorded and the court issued no reasons for judgment. Ms. Crozat appeals this judgment.

In her first assignment of error, Ms. Crozat argues that the trial court erred in granting Louisiana Coastal’s exception of no cause of action because her petition Instated two causes of action: a right of habitation, recognized by law and acknowledged by Louisiana Coastal, and a wrongful eviction.

The function of the peremptory exception of no cause of action is to determine the legal sufficiency of the petition. It questions whether the petition sufficiently alleges grievances for which the law affords a remedy. All well pleaded factual allegations must be accepted as true. Hoskin v. Plaquemines Parish Gov’t, 98-1825, p. 10 (La.App. 4 Cir. 8/4/99), 743 So.2d 736.

Further, with regard to this court’s review of a ruling on an exception of no cause of action, in Farmer v. Marriott Intern., Inc., 2001-0667 (La.App. 4 Cir. 12/27/01), 806 So.2d 89, this court stated:

Dismissal of a claim is justified only when the allegations of the petition itself clearly show that the plaintiff does not state a cause of action, or when the allegations show the existence of an affirmative defense that appears clearly on the face of the pleadings. City of New Orleans v. Bd. of Com’rs of Orleans Levee District, 93-0690 (La.7/5/94), 640 So.2d 237. A court appropriately maintains the peremptory exception of no cause of action only when, conceding the correctness of the well-pleaded facts, the plaintiff has not stated a claim for which he can receive legal remedy under the applicable substantive law. City of New Orleans v. Bd. of Directors of Louisiana State Museum, 98-1170 (La.3/2/99), 739 So.2d 748. In reviewing a trial court’s ruling on the exception, the appellate court should conduct a de novo review. City of New Orleans v. Bd. of Com’rs of Orleans Levee Dist., supra.

Id. at 91.

Governed by these standards, we must determine whether Ms. Crozat stated a cause of action to enforce a right of habitation within a possessory action. Since the basis of the trial court’s decision is unclear, we will first consider the argument offered by Louisiana Coastal to support its exception regarding the doctrine of estoppel. The argument involves portions of two exhibits submitted to the trial court: one with the petition and one with the exception. Because the record indicates no objection to these documents, we will consider the pleadings enlarged. l4See Wirthman-Tag Const. Co., L.L.C. v. Hotard, 2000-2298 (La.App. 4 Cir. 12/19/01), 804 So.2d 856, 860.

First, attached to Ms. Crozat’s petition was the Process Verbal of the Judicial Partition in the Bristow matter, which Ms. Crozat executed on January 18, 2001, and in which the notary reported that she declared she was “satisfied with this partition,” and she would sign a receipt upon receiving her portion of the sale price. [323]*323There is no reference in the proces verbal to Ms. Crozat’s alleged claim to a right of. habitation.

Second, Louisiana Coastal attached to its exception the Confirmation of Adjudication in the Bristow matter, executed by the civil sheriff and Louisiana Coastal on January 5, 2001, in which these parties acknowledged that the house was sold to Louisiana Coastal:

[W]ith all legal warranties and with full substitution and subrogation in and to all the rights and actions of warranty which the said parties involved in the partition proceeding ... have or may be entitled to against all former owners and possessors of said property, their heirs ■and assigns, all right, title and interests in and to the ... property....

Ms. Crozat’s “satisfaction” with the partition, after which she collected her portion of the sale proceeds, should not prevent her from later maintaining a right of habitation in the property partitioned and then sold to a third party. Louisiana Civil Code Article 630 provides that “habitation is the nontransferable 'real right of a natural person to dwell in the house of another.” Moreover, La. C.C. Article 634 provides that “[a] person having the right of habitation is entitled to the' exclusive use of the house or of the part assigned to him,....

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
830 So. 2d 319, 2001 La.App. 4 Cir. 2404, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 2771, 2002 WL 31097794, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crozat-v-louisiana-coastal-vii-llc-lactapp-2002.