English Turn Property Owner's Ass'n v. Short

204 So. 3d 672
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 30, 2016
DocketNO. 2016-CA-0460, NO. 2016-CA-0532
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 204 So. 3d 672 (English Turn Property Owner's Ass'n v. Short) 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
English Turn Property Owner's Ass'n v. Short, 204 So. 3d 672 (La. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

Judge Daniel L. Dysart

| iThis is a consolidated appeal of a judgment ordering defendants-app'ellants, Donald Short and his wife, Karen Sovensky Short (the “Shorts”), to pay $14,190.00 to the English Turn Property Owner’s Association (“the ETPOA”) in outstanding homeowner association fees and the costs incurred in maintaining the lawn of the Shorts’ property, a vacant lot.’ The judgment also awarded late charges/penalties, legal interest and court costs. Both the ETPOA and the Shorts have appealed this judgment, which we amend and, as amended, affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On October 15, 1998, the Shorts purchased a lot located at 23 Cypress Point in New Orleans, Louisiana, from the English Turn Limited Partnership. The Cash Sale documents reflect that the sale was subject to certain conditions, including “Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions” recorded in the mortgage records. A little over a year later, on December 28, 1999, the Shorts purchased the lot adjacent to theirs, located at 25 Cypress Point. The Credit Sale documents reflect that this |?,sale was subject to the same covenants, conditions and restrictions as the initial sale.

The Shorts built a home on'the lot located at 23 Cypress Point. The adjacent lot, however, remained vacant. The Shorts sold their home on January 10, 2006 and moved to North Carolina; however, they retained ownership of the vacant lot at 25 Cypress Point.

On March 12, 2013, the ETPOA filed this suit against the Shorts, alleging that they failed to pay assessments from July 1, 2009 through January 1, 2013, and failed to pay grass cutting assessments for the years 2008-2012, all of which totaled $11,649.59. The ETPOA also sought late charges of 10% for each unpaid assessment and interest of 1.5% per month on the total indebtedness and attorney’s fees. Its Petition stated that an Affidavit of Privilege had been filed in the mortgage' records for Orleans Parish and sought recognition of the lien by the trial court.

After the matter was tried on July 9, 2015, the trial court rendered judgment on September 23, 2015 in favor of the ETPOA. The judgment and incorporated reasons noted that “[t]he terms of the homeowner’s association are clear and unambiguous and no homeowner has ever had assessments waived.” The trial court concluded that the Shorts had been “properly assessed” and it rendered judgment in the amount of $19,000.62, representing the unpaid annual assessments and the grass cutting fees. The judgment also awarded reasonable attorney’s fees of $8,000.1

| ¡¡Following the rendition of the judgment, the Shorts and the ETPOA filed motions for new trial. The ETPOA’s mo[676]*676tion raised issues concerning the trial court’s failure to award certain items of damages (including grass cutting fees, late charges, interest and court costs and its capping of attorney’s fees) as well as the trial court’s failure to state the date through which assessments and late charges would be calculated and its failure to recognize the ETPOA’s lien. The Shorts’ motion raised the issue (although it was raised at trial) of the ETPOA’s Board of Directors’ financial interest in the assessments. After a hearing on both new trial motions, held on July 9, 2015, the trial court issued an amended judgment dated February 26, 2016.2 The amended judgment, also in the ETPOA’s favor, provided as follows:

- $14,190 in past due assessments, through and including January 2015;
- $3,919 in grass cutting fees through December 31,2105; 3
- $1,810.00 in late charges and/or penalties;
- $6,791.91 representing attorney’s fees of 35% of the property assessment, grass cutting fees and penalties;
- Legal interest from the date of judicial demand; and
- Court costs including the cost to preserve the lien and privilege.

The judgment also stated that “the Court recognizes a lien and privilege by the plaintiff against #25 Cypress Point Lane ... in accordance and consistent with | ¿this judgment.” It is from this judgment that both the ETPOA and the Shorts have appealed.

DISCUSSION

Standard of review

It is well-settled that our review of the factual findings in this case are “governed by the manifest error-clearly wrong standard.” , Lakewood Estates Homeowner’s Ass’n, Inc. v. Markle, 02-1864, p. 4 (La.App. 4 Cir. 4/30/03), 847 So.2d 633, 637. “The two-part test for the appellate review of a factual finding is: 1) whether there is a reasonable factual basis in the record for the finding of the trial court, and 2) whether the record further establishes that the finding is not manifestly erroneous.” Id. With that standard in mind, we turn to the issues presented by this case.

Annual assessments

Because the issue of the assessments is at the crux of this case, we address the issues associated with the assessments first.

As their first assignment of error, the Shorts ■maintain that the trial court erred in allowing the ETPOA to verbally amend its petition at the time of trial to incorporate those unpaid assessments that accrued after it filed its petition. They argue that the original petition only sought “the amounts claimed to be owed from 2010 to 2013.” This assignment of error has no merit. '

First, a review of the trial transcript does not reflect any such verbal motion to amend the petition. While there was some discussion by the parties as to ^assessments accrued after 2013, counsel for the ETPOA never moved to amend the petition. To the contrary, counsel for the [677]*677Shorts objected to .testimony regarding those assessments and suggested that an amendment to the petition was necessary. The trial court overruled the objection and allowed the testimony. -

A plain reading of the original petition indicates that the ETPOA did not limit its demand for assessments to those; which were owed at the time it filed its petition. Paragraph VII of the petition expressly states:

Plaintiff is entitled to a judgment for not only the association fees, and grass cutting charges which have accrued to date, but also for the unpaid fees and charges, and grass cutting charges accruing after the filing of this petition and until the judgment is rendered.

It is clear that the ETPOA sought to recover all unpaid association fees, both those which were owed at the time it filed its petition and those whieh became due after that time. We find no error in the trial court’s overruling counsel for the Shorts’ objection.

We now turn to the Shorts’ argument that the trial court erred in its determination that they owed association fees in the amount determined by the ETPOA. The Shorts do not dispute that they owe the assessments but take issue with the amount that they owe. They maintain that the ETPOA’s annual assessments are contrary to their “laws and regulations.”4 In this regard, the Shorts argue that the ET-POA wrongfully assessed the vacant lots at the same rate has lots with improvements (houses). Their position is that, under the covenants, there is a difference between a “lot” and a “dwelling” in that a “dwelling” includes both a lot and a home (dwelling).

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Bluebook (online)
204 So. 3d 672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/english-turn-property-owners-assn-v-short-lactapp-2016.