Estate of Rice v. Deville

240 So. 2d 379, 1970 La. App. LEXIS 4991
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 2, 1970
DocketNo. 3224
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 240 So. 2d 379 (Estate of Rice v. Deville) 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
Estate of Rice v. Deville, 240 So. 2d 379, 1970 La. App. LEXIS 4991 (La. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinions

HOOD, Judge.

This is a possessory action filed by Mrs. Gracie Rice Normand, in her capacity as executrix for the Succession of Mrs. Emma W. Rice, deceased. The sole defendant is Tilford Deville. Plaintiff alleges that defendant has caused to be recorded in the Conveyance Records of Rapides Parish a document which constitutes an impediment in her title, as executrix, to a tract of land located in that parish. She demands a judgment ordering defendant to assert an adverse claim to the property within a period of time to be allowed by the court, or be precluded thereafter from asserting ownership.

The defendant made no appearance in the trial court. A preliminary default was entered against him, but when the default came up for confirmation judgment was rendered by the trial court rejecting plaintiff's demands and dismissing the suit. Plaintiff appealed from that judgment of dismissal. The defendant has made no appearance on this appeal.

The following issues are presented: (1) Does plaintiff, as executrix of this estate, have the legal capacity to maintain a posses-sory action? (2) If she does have the [381]*381capacity to maintain such an action, does the instrument which defendant has filed for record constitute a disturbance of plaintiff’s title sufficient to entitle her to the relief sought?

The record does not contain a transcript of the testimony which was taken when the matter came up for confirmation of default. Several documents were filed in evidence, however, and the trial judge assigned written reasons for judgment in which he set out his factual findings based on the evidence. We accept the facts which are set out in those reasons as being the pertinent facts which were established at the trial.

The record, including the trial court’s findings of fact, shows that Mrs. Emma W. Rice died testate on February 6, 1969, leaving as her sole legal heirs her four children, Gracie Rice Normand, Rachel Rice, James R. Rice and Mary Rice Lewis. The last will and testament left by the decedent named Mrs. Normand as the executrix of her estate. The will was probated and Mrs. Normand was duly appointed as executrix of the succession. Letters Testamentary were issued to Mrs. Normand on August 25, 1969.

Among the assets which were owned by Mrs. Rice at the time of her death was a tract of land, containing 8.78 acres, more or less, located in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. The decedent had acquired this property in 1950, and she had maintained physical possession of it from that time until the date of her death. Immediately after her death, the plaintiff in this suit, Mrs. Normand, took physical possession of the property, and she has remained in actual possession of it since that time, although she alleges that a “disturbance in law” of her possession occurred on April 15, 1969, by the filing of the instrument which is more fully described below.

On April 14, 1969, an act of sale was executed by James R. Rice and Mary Rice Lewis, two of the legal heirs of the decedent, purporting to convey to defendant, Tilford L. Deville, for a cash consideration of $2,000.00, the following-described property:

All of vendors’ right, title and interest in and to the following described property, to-wit:
A certain piece, parcel or tract of ground, together with all rights and ways thereunto appertaining, and all buildings and improvements thereon, being, lying and situated in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, and being 8.78 acres, more or less, being Lot 2 of the Partition had by and between Marion Wiley, et al of the East One-Half of the Southeast Quarter, Section 8, Township 4 North, Range 3 East, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, as per act filed February 19, 1934, at Conveyance Book 194, Page 40, Records of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, and being that portion of the said property acquired by Emma Wiley Rice in said act of partition as ratified by Earl B. Sanders, et al on June 17, 1950, at .Conveyance Book 390, page 279, Records of Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
Vendors further declare that they, along with Rachel Rice and Grace Rice Normand are the sole and only heirs at law of their mother, Emma Wiley Rice, who departed this life at her domicile in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, on-, and that the said Emma Wiley Rice never adopted anyone.

The property affected by that sale is the tract of land which plaintiff contends is owned by the estate and which forms the basis for this suit. Defendant Deville, the purchaser, caused the above-mentioned deed to be recorded in the Conveyance Records of Rapides Parish on April 15, 1969. The deed thus was executed and recorded after Mrs. Rice died, but before plaintiff was formally appointed and qualified as executrix of her estate.

Plaintiff alleges that the deed asserts or implies a right of ownership or possession to the property, and that the filing of that deed constitutes a “disturbance in law” of her possession. She alleges that it will be [382]*382necessary for her, as executrix, to cause this property to be sold for the payment of debts and charges of the estate, and that the continued presence of the instrument constitutes an impediment to her title.

The trial judge found that the act of sale by James R. Rice and Mary Rice Lewis to Tilford L. Deville “was no more than the sale of the rights, titles and interests of the two heirs to an unopened succession and not a sale of the land or an undivided interest in the land.” He also concluded that the executrix could not maintain a possessory action “as the Code of Civil Procedure, Article 3656, states that a possessory action shall be brought ‘by one who possesses for himself.’ ” For those reasons judgment was rendered dismissing the suit.

We address ourselves first to the question of whether plaintiff, as executrix, has the legal capacity to maintain this posses-sory action.

Although LSA-C.C.P. art. 3656 provides that a plaintiff in a possessory action shall be one “who possesses for himself,” we think other articles of the Code of Civil Procedure show that the legal representative of a succession may possess for himself, and thus is entitled to maintain such an action.

Article 3211 of the Code of Civil Procedure, for instance, provides that a succession representative shall be deemed to have possession of all property of. the succession and shall enforce all obligations in its favor. Article 3196 provides that in the performance of his duties, a succession representative may exercise all procedural rights available to' a litigant.

Under LSA-C.C.P. art. 685, “the succession representative appointed by a court of this state is the proper plaintiff to sue to enforce a right of the deceased or of his succession, while the latter is under administration,” and “the heirs or legatees of the deceased * * * need not be joined as parties, whether the action is personal, real, or mixed.”

Comment (b) under that article contains the statement that:

“There is no reason today why a succession representative alone should not be able to enforce judicially all rights of the deceased, or of his succession, whether the action is personal, real or mixed. This article accomplishes this result, and the language employed is emphatic enough to indicate clearly the legislative intent to overrule all cases to the contrary.”

In Simpson v. Colvin, 138 So.2d 438 (La.App. 3 Cir. 1962) we held that under LSA-C.C.P. art.

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Related

Collins v. Baggette
549 So. 2d 878 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1989)
In re the Succession of Bickham
506 So. 2d 910 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)
Succession of Cutrer v. Curtis
341 So. 2d 1209 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
240 So. 2d 379, 1970 La. App. LEXIS 4991, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-rice-v-deville-lactapp-1970.