Fontenot v. Garland

352 So. 2d 251
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 20, 1978
Docket6003
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 352 So. 2d 251 (Fontenot v. Garland) 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
Fontenot v. Garland, 352 So. 2d 251 (La. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

352 So.2d 251 (1977)

J. C. FONTENOT, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Succession of Robert Glen GARLAND, Hasker Garland and Sandra G. Trahan, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 6003.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

October 17, 1977.
On Motion to Correct Original Record Rehearing Denied November 29, 1977.
Writ Refused January 20, 1978.

*252 J. Clyde Fontenot, Ville Platte, C. Brent Coreil, Ville Platte, for plaintiff-appellant.

Preston N. Aucoin, L. O. Fusilier, Ville Platte, for defendants-appellees.

Before CULPEPPER, WATSON and STOKER, JJ.

STOKER, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment which denied plaintiff-appellant the relief he sought and granted the relief sought by defendants-appellees as reconvenors. Plaintiff, J. C. Fontenot, refused to comply with a bid for the purchase of real estate made by him at a public auction. Fontenot brought suit to nullify the sale and to be awarded damages. After plaintiff refused to comply with his bid, the property was readvertised and sold for $13,000.00 less than plaintiff's bid at the original sale. As reconvenors, defendants seek to recover the $13,000.00 difference in price plus $1,000.00 as the cost of the resale.

The issues posed in this appeal are as follows:

(1) Were the pleadings filed by the plaintiff enlarged to assert additional grounds for setting aside the sale at auction by reason of the taking of testimony touching on these grounds without objection from opposing counsel?

*253 (2) Where property is sold at public auction following legal advertisement, may the terms of the advertised sale be altered or varied by the auctioneer at the time of sale by a verbal announcement before the assembled bidders?

The property involved in this case was one of several tracts of land or property advertised for sale at public auction through a legal advertisement. Plaintiff bid in the subject property. According to defendants and reconvenors the auctioneers made a verbal announcement just prior to offering the property for sale. The announcement called attention to the fact that there was an outstanding timber deed affecting the property and also the fact that the owners of the property intended to reserve the mineral rights. Plaintiff bid in the property at $33,000.00. Later plaintiff discovered that the property was not suitable for the grazing of cattle which had been his principal objective in seeking to acquire the property. In his petition the plaintiff sought to be relieved from any obligation under the sale on the ground that the advertisement had been misleading, false and deceptive. When the case came to trial plaintiff also relied upon the contention that the timber deed was not made known to bidders and there had been no notice of the intended mineral reservation. There had been no amendment of the plaintiff's petition to allege these additional grounds.

The trial court assigned written reasons for judgment which we quote substantially in full as follows:

The plaintiff brought this action to set aside a "sale at auction" of real estate made to him on May 18, 1974. He alleges that the location and nature of the property advertisement in the newspaper were erroneous, false and deceptive; that he found this out after he had become the adjudicatee at the Public Sale. He also seeks damages for the fraud which was thus perpetrated on him.
The Defendants filed a general denial and a Reconventional Demand. The Reconventional Demand being that the Plaintiff failed to comply with his bid; that he failed and refused to pay the purchase price; that the property had to be re-advertised and re-sold at another and subsequent public sale; that the latter sale, the tract at public auction, brought only TWENTY THOUSAND ($20,000.00) DOLLARS, instead of THIRTY-THREE THOUSAND ($33,000.00) DOLLARS, which had been the bid price of Plaintiff in the first sale. Accordingly, defendants in their Reconventional Demand seek to recover of Plaintiff the sum of THIRTEEN THOUSAND ($13,000.00) DOLLARS, plus expenses of the sale amounting to and additional ONE THOUSAND ($1,000.00) DOLLARS, or a total of FOURTEEN THOUSAND ($14,000.00) DOLLARS.
* * * * * *
Considering all of the evidence presented, the court is convinced that the alleged false advertisements asserted by plaintiff as a reason to annul his bid, were not important or material in his bidding of the property at the public sale. The tract contained 81.11 acres. The judicial advertisement further described it as the West half (W/2) of the Southeast Quarter (SE/4) of Section 5, Township 3 South, Range 1 West, and gave boundaries. There was no falsity or deception. True, there was another ad, in the same newspaper, with large print, purportedly over the signatures of the auctioneers, but not a judicial ad, which stated this same tract above, was "part woodland and part openland", and that it was "one-fourth mile from New Crooked Creek Reservoir". The evidence developed that one of the heirs had caused this large print ad to be in the paper as an eye catcher, in addition to the judicial ad as the law requires.
Plaintiff testified that he read only the large print ad, the night before the sale, and he and a relative decided to go bid in the property the next morning, without going to see it. They intended to borrow the money from the bank, and use the land for cattle grazing. So, sight unseen, *254 they went to the public sale; it involved many tracts and lots. The bidding was "spirited" and Plaintiff became the adjudicatee for THIRTY-THREE THOUSAND ($33,000.00) DOLLARS as the last and highest bid. He signed a slip to that effect, and later decided not to comply with his bid, and refused to pay the price. The defendants filed a rule to make him comply. He excepted to the Rule, alleging summary process was not permitted. This was sustained by the court, and this suit followed.

The alleged causes of nullity were that:

(a) The tract was in fact all woodland;

(b) The tract was more than one-fourth mile from the reservoir—nearly a half mile;
(c) The adjudication was made subject to an outstanding timber deed and to a half oil, gas and mineral royalty reservation.[1]
The plaintiff was present at the auction sale; the great preponderance of the evidence is that the auctioneers read and used the judicial ad in crying out the property and it was accurate and not false or erroneous. Further the auctioneers made it plan, prior to the adjudication that the timber deed was still in effect and outstanding until August of that year. That the vendors were reserving half of the mineral royalty at the sale (though this was not advertised). The court is convinced there was no deception practiced by the auctioneers. The bidding was spirited. Crowell Spencer Lumber Company was bidding for the property along with Plaintiff, and he became the last and highest bidder. The court feels that Plaintiff bidded more than the property was worth, and used the technical defense above, to get out of paying the price. His main thrust in the trial, was to get out of paying the bid price by him. He offered no evidence of other damages he claimed in his suit.
The Court believes and holds that Plaintiff is not entitled to the relief prayed for by him, and that defendants are entitled to judgment against Plaintiff on their reconventional demand in the sum of THIRTEEN THOUSAND ($13,000.00) DOLLARS, plus legal interest and costs.

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Bluebook (online)
352 So. 2d 251, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fontenot-v-garland-lactapp-1978.