Cusimano v. Port Esplanade Condominium Ass'n

55 So. 3d 931, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 0477, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 20, 2011 WL 116877
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 12, 2011
DocketNo. 2010-CA-0477
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 55 So. 3d 931 (Cusimano v. Port Esplanade Condominium Ass'n) 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
Cusimano v. Port Esplanade Condominium Ass'n, 55 So. 3d 931, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 0477, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 20, 2011 WL 116877 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

PAUL A. BONIN, Judge.

| ,The immovable property located on the lakeside corner of Dauphine Street and [933]*933Esplanade Avenue in the French Quarter is subject to a regime established by the Declaration of Condominium for Port Esplanade Condominium Association. The Port Esplanade condominiums include two distinct residential buildings.1 The plaintiffs and appellants are the current owners of the condo units located in the building facing Dauphine, and for convenience we refer to them as the “Dauphine Owners”.2 The defendant and appellee is the condominium association, and for convenience we refer to it as the “Association”. The current owners of condo units located in the building facing Esplanade Avenue, whom for convenience we refer to as the “Esplanade Owners”3, are no longer party defendants.

|20n July 31, 2002, the Esplanade Owners, or in some cases their predecessors-in-title, adopted a Second Amendment to the original Declaration which purported to transfer the use of certain Common Elements, such as a swimming pool and passageways, to the exclusive use (as Limited Common Elements) of the Esplanade Owners.4 The Dauphine Owners’ common predecessor-in-title, The Meaghan Frances Hardcastle Trust, which for convenience we will refer to as the Trust, did not join in the adoption of the Second Amendment. Sometime later, however, the Trust transferred its ownership interest in the Dau-phine condo units to Michael Wilkinson, and that transfer was expressly “made, executed and accepted subject to” the publicly recorded Second Amendment.

The Dauphine Owners argue that the Second Amendment is invalid and of no legal effect because such a change in ownership of the Common Elements required the unanimity of all unit owners. The Association argues that the validity of the adoption of the Second Amendment depends upon the agreement of only at least 66.66% of the ownership interests, according to their interpretation of the Declaration’s requirements, and that the vote of 69.96% of the ownership interests exceeded that requirement. Alternatively, if unanimity is required, the Association argues that the Second Amendment was merely a relative nullity when adopted and |sthat the Trust, as the sole owner of the outstanding 30.04% required for unanimity, confirmed the Second Amendment by the terms of its transfer to Mr. Wilkinson.

Both the Dauphine Owners and the Association moved for summary judgment. The district judge granted summary judgment in favor of the Association and dismissed the Dauphine Owners’ lawsuit with prejudice.5

[934]*934Upon our de novo review of the summary judgment, we conclude as a matter of law that the requisite unanimity for the adoption of the Second Amendment was achieved by the Trust’s subsequent confirmation of that amendment in its transfer of its ownership interest to its successor-in-title, Mr. Wilkinson (who is also the Dauphine Owners’ common predecessor-in-title) because as an express condition of that transfer Mr. Wilkinson’s ownership was “made, executed and accepted subject to” the publicly recorded Second Amendment. Accordingly, we affirm the lower court’s dismissal with prejudice of the Dauphine Owners’ lawsuit.

In the Parts which follow we explain our decision in greater detail. In Part I-A we consider the de novo standard of review applicable to summary judgments and in Part I-B we explain why we do not consider materials proffered as evidence in the trial court and which were the object of the Dauphine Owners’ motion to strike. In Part II we consider the legal and conventional requirements for transferring or re-designating Common Elements to Limited Common Elements in a condominium regime in Louisiana. In Part III we address why the Second Amendment is characterized as a relative nullity, not an absolute nullity, and why |4it was confirmed by subsequent action. In Part IV we specifically describe the property with particularity in order to comply with the directive of La. C.C.P. art. 1919.

I

In this Part we first address the standard we employ when considering a trial court’s ruling on summary judgment. We then resolve an incidental evidentiary issue which arose in this matter because the trial judge excluded certain materials from evidence offered by the Association in support of its motion for summary judgment; we also address the standard we employ when considering trial court rulings on evidentiary issues.

A

We review the granting of summary judgment under the de novo standard. Hutchinson v. Knights of Columbus, Council No. 5747, 03-1533, p. 5 (La.2/20/04), 866 So.2d 228, 232, n. 2; Independent Fire Insurance Co. v. Sunbeam Corp., 99-2181, p. 7 (La.2/29/00), 755 So.2d 226, 230. “An appellate court reviews a district court’s decision granting summary judgment de novo, using the same standard applied by the trial court in deciding the motion for summary judgment.” Lingoni v. Hibernia Nat’l Bank, 09-0737, p. 3 (La.App. 4 Cir. 3/3/10), 33 So.3d 372, 375. Because we review the summary judgment de novo, we look at the facts and evidence in the record before us, inspecting it without regard or deference to the judgment of the trial court or its reasons for judgment. While ajjtrial court’s reasoning for granting a summary judgment may well be informative, it is not determinative of the legal issues to be resolved by the appellate court.6

[935]*935B

Before we consider the merits of the Association’s motion for summary judgment, however, we must dispose of a preliminary evidentiary matter concerning whether certain materials proffered by the Association, the party which prevailed in the trial court, may be considered in our review of the summary judgment. See Brungardt v. Summit, 08-0577, p. 12 (La. App. 4 Cir. 4/8/09), 7 So.3d 879, 887. When the trial court refused to admit the materials offered, the Association properly proffered the materials. See La. C.C.P. art. 1636; La. C.E. art. 103 A(2).

Contending that three documents, which were proffered by the Association in the trial court, were not part of the record and therefore should not be reviewed by this court, the Dauphine Owners brought a motion in this court to strike portions of the Association’s brief. The three documents proffered are (1) a letter from Michael Sommers to Stephen Broussard, the attorney for the Trust and the Association, (2) an affidavit of Shaun Rafferty, Michael Sommers’ attorney who in 2001 drafted the Second Amendment defining the Board and dividing it into two ^separate subcommittees to manage the two buildings and establishing that the Esplanade Owners had the exclusive use of the patio and pool, and (3) an affidavit of Mr. Wilkinson.

In response to the motion to strike, the Association has argued only that its counsel proffered the materials, thereby preserving the record for our review of the correctness of the trial court’s exclusion of the materials from evidence; it has not, however, briefed us on what it contends is erroneous regarding the trial court’s ruling. A prevailing party who has properly preserved for our review the excluded evidence through a proffer is not required to appeal or answer the appeal or even seek supervisory review. See La. C.C.P. art.

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Bluebook (online)
55 So. 3d 931, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 0477, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 20, 2011 WL 116877, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cusimano-v-port-esplanade-condominium-assn-lactapp-2011.