FELICIANA BANK v. Manuel & Sessions, LLC

943 So. 2d 736, 61 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 352, 2006 Miss. App. LEXIS 870, 2006 WL 3361834
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedNovember 21, 2006
Docket2005-CA-01296-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 943 So. 2d 736 (FELICIANA BANK v. Manuel & Sessions, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
FELICIANA BANK v. Manuel & Sessions, LLC, 943 So. 2d 736, 61 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 352, 2006 Miss. App. LEXIS 870, 2006 WL 3361834 (Mich. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

943 So.2d 736 (2006)

FELICIANA BANK & TRUST, Appellant
v.
MANUEL & SESSIONS, L.L.C., Appellee.

No. 2005-CA-01296-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

November 21, 2006.

*737 Jay Max Kilpatrick, Jackson, attorney for appellant.

Bruce M. Kuehnle, Natchez, attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

SOUTHWICK, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. A bank brought suit for damages resulting from the cutting of timber on land in which it held a deed of trust. The defendant was granted summary judgment because a deed of trust was found not to provide a security interest in timber. We disagree. Therefore we reverse and remand.

FACTS

¶ 2. Louis Owen Ducote owned approximately fifty-one acres of land in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. In 1995, Ducote borrowed $20,000 from Feliciana Bank & Trust, then in 1998 he borrowed $100,000 from the same bank. Each time he conveyed the Wilkinson County property in trust to Feliciana to secure the loan. The deeds of trust were then filed in the land records.

¶ 3. On August 19, 1999, Ducote signed a piecemeal timber sale contract with Pat Conerly Forestry Services. Under this contract Conerly was "to secure a logging contractor, to manage all logging activities, to perform all activities normally performed by a forester, to secure market price and to sell and disburse stumpage through Woodville Logging." Ducote warranted the title to the timber and agreed to hold Conerly harmless from any third party claim of ownership.

¶ 4. Woodville Logging Services is a Mississippi corporation. Tom Manuel and Jody Sessions are its principals. Woodville contracts with mills and then acts as a broker to acquire timber to be sold to the mills. The defendant's initial motion for summary judgment states that "Woodville Logging Services, Inc. is a corporation *738 owned by the Defendant, Manuel & Sessions, L.L.C." That named defendant is a limited liability company owned solely by Tom Manuel and Jody Sessions.

¶ 5. Conerly's affidavit asserted that he asked Manuel & Sessions, L.L.C. to find a mill that would purchase the Ducote timber. Conerly also asked if it could recommend a logger to cut the trees. Manuel & Sessions recommended Benjamin Groom, who regularly obtains work from Manuel and Sessions. Conerly selected the trees to be cut. Groom cut and delivered the trees to a mill. The record implies that the timber was cut in the spring of 2001. Conerly states that the mill paid Manuel & Sessions, and the money was then disbursed to Groom, Conerly, and Ducote. Ducote received $13,500 for the timber.

¶ 6. At some point after the timber was cut, Feliciana foreclosed because Ducote defaulted on the loan. Feliciana purchased the property at the foreclosure sale and later sold the property to Bryan Development Company, but Feliciana did not recover the full amount of the debt.

¶ 7. In 2002, Feliciana filed a complaint against Manuel & Sessions, arguing that it had a valid security interest in the timber on Ducote's property. Feliciana sought $60,000 under the doctrine of waste. In 2005, Manuel & Sessions filed for summary judgment, arguing that no perfected security interest in the timber existed because Feliciana did not file in accordance with the Uniform Commercial Code. After a hearing, the motion was granted. Feliciana perfected this appeal.

DISCUSSION

¶ 8. We perform a de novo review of a trial court's decision on a motion for summary judgment. Wilner v. White, 929 So.2d 315, 318 (Miss.2006). We examine all the evidence in a light favorable to the non-moving party. If the moving party carries its burden of proving that there is no dispute of material fact and that it is by law entitled to judgment, we will affirm. Id.

1. Effect of Uniform Commercial Code on timber deed of trust

¶ 9. The trial court found that a Uniform Commercial Code section had altered the long-standing efficacy of deeds of trust on land as security interests in the timber that grows on the land. The interplay of the UCC with the common law of real property is not a new issue. The UCC itself recognizes that the codified commercial law might impact on traditional real property concepts. In a provision in the section on sales, the Code provides this:

Section 75-2-107. Goods to be severed from realty; recording.

(1) [Contract for the sale of minerals or of a structure to be removed from realty].
(2) A contract for the sale apart from the land of growing crops or other things attached to realty and capable of severance without material harm thereto but not described in subsection (1) or of timber to be cut is a contract for the sale of goods within this chapter whether the subject matter is to be severed by the buyer or by the seller even though it forms part of the realty at the time of contracting, and the parties can by identification effect a present sale before severance.
(3) The provisions of this section are subject to any third party rights provided by the law relating to realty records, and the contract for sale may be executed and recorded as a document transferring an interest in land and shall then constitute notice to third parties of the *739 buyer's rights under the contract for sale.

Miss.Code Ann. § 75-2-107 (Rev.2002). How to read this section alongside other Mississippi law is one of the principal issues on this appeal.

¶ 10. In Mississippi, timber is part of the realty until cut. South Miss. Electric Power Ass'n v. J.F. Miller Timber Co., Inc., 314 So.2d 346, 348 (Miss.1975). The adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code in Mississippi and specifically the just-quoted section 75-2-107(2) altered some traditional principles. This code is a nationally-created, nationally-adopted set of statutes that after enactment by this state's legislature is to be interpreted within the entire legal environment. Pre-existing law inconsistent with the Code would be replaced; consistent law would not be.

¶ 11. A deed of trust may specifically refer to timber and create explicit obligations such as not to cut without authorization. Taylor v. Fed. Land Bank of New Orleans, 162 Miss. 653, 656, 138 So. 596, 597 (1932). Conveyances of real property, though, without further elaboration and whether the conveyance is in trust, in fee simple or otherwise, grant everything that is part of the realty. Albritton v. Williams, 198 So. 573, 574 (Miss.1940). In Albritton, several deeds of trust either specifically on timber or specifically excluding timber had been executed. Id.; Albritton v. Williams, 184 Miss. 857, 186 So. 324 (1939). The Mississippi Supreme Court held that when a deed of trust was executed "without reserving the timber, [it] thereby conveyed the timber, for ordinarily timber is a part of the land on which it stands." Albritton, 198 So. at 574. Since growing timber is part of the realty, a conveyance of the realty without excepting the timber will also convey that timber.

¶ 12. The deed of trust in issue conveyed to the trustee "the land described," as well as "improvements and appurtenances now or hereafter erected on, and fixtures," which is sufficient language to cover everything that is by law part of the realty. The Code section quoted above is "subject to any third party rights provided by the law relating to realty records. . . ." Miss.Code Ann.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
943 So. 2d 736, 61 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 352, 2006 Miss. App. LEXIS 870, 2006 WL 3361834, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/feliciana-bank-v-manuel-sessions-llc-missctapp-2006.