Durham v. Evans

377 So. 2d 423
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 30, 1979
Docket13957
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 377 So. 2d 423 (Durham v. Evans) 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
Durham v. Evans, 377 So. 2d 423 (La. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinion

377 So.2d 423 (1979)

Savannah DURHAM et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
William EVANS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 13957.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

October 30, 1979.

*424 Horton & Jones by Donald G. Horton, Coushatta, for defendant-appellant.

Piper & Brown, a Professional Law Corp., by Robert E. Piper, Jr., Shreveport, for plaintiffs-appellees.

Before MARVIN, JONES and HOOD, JJ.

HOOD, Judge.

Plaintiffs seek a judgment (1) annulling an act of sale which they executed purporting *425 to convey a tract of land to defendant, William L. Evans, and (2) vacating a judgment rendered previously by the same court in another suit which ordered a partition of the property affected by that deed. Defendant answered and reconvened for damages. The trial judge rendered judgment annulling the act of sale, vacating the earlier decree which ordered a partition, and setting aside the sheriff's sale and the sheriff's deed presumably held and issued pursuant to the above judgment. Defendant appealed. We affirm.

One of the principal issues presented is whether plaintiffs are entitled to have the act of sale executed by them annulled on the ground that the consideration recited in that deed was not paid. To determine that issue, it is necessary for us to decide whether, under the pleadings and circumstances presented here, parol evidence is admissible to show that the stipulated consideration was not paid, and if so, whether the evidence establishes that plaintiffs, in fact, did not receive payment of that consideration.

The five plaintiffs in this suit, Savannah Durham, Louvator Durham Bilton, Jack Durham, Camille Durham Henderson and Earie Durham Hollman, allege that they are owners of an undivided five-sixths (5/6) interest in and to a three-acre tract of land located in Red River Parish, and that they were owners of that interest prior to and during the first part of 1975. The remaining one-sixth (1/6) interest admittedly was owned in 1975 by Leander Durham, Jr., and Louisa Durham Tullis, both of whom are nonresidents of the State of Louisiana. The last two named persons are not, and have never been, parties to this suit.

Early in 1975, defendant Evans offered to purchase the above property for a price of $1,500.00, to be paid in cash, and plaintiffs accepted that offer insofar as it pertained to their interest in the land. As a step in completing the sale, plaintiffs met with Evans on February 14, 1975, in the office of D. Larry Gerald, president of the American Bank and Trust Company, Coushatta, Louisiana, for the purpose of executing a deed, and at that time plaintiffs (owners of 5/6 interest in the property) executed an act of sale, in authentic form, purporting to convey the three-acre tract to Evans. The deed was prepared for the signatures of all seven owners, but it was executed only by the five plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs and defendant then agreed that the original deed which plaintiffs had executed would remain in the possession of Gerald, president of the bank, with the understanding that if and when Evans acquired deeds from the owners of the remaining 1/6 interest, Leander Durham and Mrs. Tullis, the bank then would deliver to Evans the original signed deed, and at the same time it would send to each plaintiff his proportionate part of the purchase price.

Evans was not able to acquire deeds from the two nonresident owners of a 1/6 interest in the property. On May 19, 1975, however, more than three months after the above described deed was executed by plaintiffs, Evans obtained from the bank the original of that act of sale and he recorded it in the conveyance records of Red River Parish.

Plaintiffs contend that they have never received any payment at all for the property which they purportedly conveyed to Evans, while defendant contends that the payment was made for that property. A factual issue thus is presented as to whether payment of the consideration was or was not made, and that issue will be resolved later in this opinion.

On March 2, 1976, that being several months after the above mentioned deed was recorded, Evans instituted a suit in the Tenth Judicial District Court, for Red River Parish, against the two nonresident owners of an undivided 1/6 interest in the property, Leander Durham and Mrs. Tullis, in which he prayed for judgment ordering a partition by licitation of the subject property. In due course judgment was rendered by the trial judge in that case (which bears a separate docket number from the instant suit), recognizing defendant Evans as the owner of an undivided 5/6 interest in the above property, recognizing the defendants in that suit, Leander Durham and Mrs. Tullis, as the owners of an undivided 1/12 interest *426 each in such property, and ordering that the property be sold at public sale by the sheriff to effect a partition. The plaintiffs in this suit were not parties to the above action for a partition, the only parties to that action being Evans, as plaintiff, and Leander Durham and Mrs. Tullis, as defendants.

The record before us on this appeal does not contain a proces verbal of a sheriff's sale or a copy of the sheriff's deed. Counsel for all parties apparently concede, however, that a sheriff's sale was held on December 15, 1976, at which time defendant Evans was the successful bidder for the entirety of the property, and that a sheriff's deed was issued to Evans following that sale.

Plaintiffs instituted the instant suit against Evans on December 14, 1976. One of the principal demands in this suit is that the act of sale which they executed on February 14, 1975, purporting to convey the above property to Evans, be annulled. Plaintiffs allege several grounds for annulling the 1975 deed, one of which is that the defendant-purchaser failed and refused to pay the price or consideration set out in the deed. We have concluded that the 1975 deed is null because of the failure of the purchaser to pay the consideration, and having reached that conclusion, we find it unnecessary for us to consider any of the other grounds for nullity alleged by plaintiffs.

At the trial, parol evidence was presented by plaintiffs tending to show that the stipulated consideration in the 1975 deed was not paid. The trial judge admitted and considered that evidence, and he concluded that the price or consideration stipulated in the above deed had never been paid. He accordingly rendered judgment revoking and annulling that act of sale.

Defendant-appellant Evans argues that the court erred in rescinding the above sale, because plaintiffs did not allege "fraud, error, duress or wrongdoing on Mr. Evans' behalf." He points out that the deed which plaintiffs executed on February 14, 1975, was in the form of an authentic act, and we note that it provides for a price or consideration of $1,500.00, and it contains the stipulation that "the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged."

Under our law, the authentic act is full proof of the agreement contained in it as against the contracting parties and their heirs and assigns. LSA-C.C. Arts. 2236 and 2276.

The sale of immovable property executed in the form of an authentic act, which recites that the seller acknowledges receipt of payment of the consideration therein stipulated, cannot be attacked by a party thereto on the ground that the consideration actually was not paid, unless the attacking party alleges fraud, mutual error or force; or unless he produces written evidence in the nature of a counter-letter; or unless the lack of consideration is indicated by answers to interrogatories or requests for admissions of fact. LSA-C.C. Arts.

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Bluebook (online)
377 So. 2d 423, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/durham-v-evans-lactapp-1979.