Giuffria Realty Company v. Kathman-Landry, Inc.

173 So. 2d 329, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 4478
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 8, 1965
Docket1672
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 173 So. 2d 329 (Giuffria Realty Company v. Kathman-Landry, Inc.) 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
Giuffria Realty Company v. Kathman-Landry, Inc., 173 So. 2d 329, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 4478 (La. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

173 So.2d 329 (1965)

GIUFFRIA REALTY COMPANY, Inc.
v.
KATHMAN-LANDRY, INC., et al.

No. 1672.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

March 8, 1965.

*331 Charles E. Richards, New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellant.

Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Burke, Toler & Hopkins, Gordon O. Ewin, B. Lloyd Magruder, New Orleans, for defendant-appellee, Mrs. Elma Landry Bendernagel.

Sydney J. Parlongue, New Orleans, for defendant-appellee, Kathman-Landry, Inc.

Before SAMUEL, CHASEZ and HALL, JJ.

CHASEZ, Judge.

Plaintiff brought this action styled as an "Action to remove cloud from title" against Mrs. Elma Landry Bendernagel, Mr. Edmond J. Bendernagel, Kathman-Landry, Inc., and Mr. Salvador Giuffria. Exceptions of vagueness, non-joinder of necessary parties and prescription of 5, 10 and 30 years, were filed by the defendant, Kathman-Landry. Defendant, Edmond J. Bendernagel, filed an exception of no right of action based on the fact that his wife acquired the property as her separate property. Mrs. Elma Landry Bendernagel urged exceptions of prescription of 5, 10 and 30 years, no cause of action based on estoppel, and that an action to remove cloud from title does not lie to remove one's own deed from the public records. The trial court upheld Mr. Bendernagel's exception of no right of action, in which the plaintiff acquiesced. It maintained the exceptions filed by Kathman-Landry and Mrs. Bendernagel of 5 and 10 years prescription. Salvador Giuffria did not make an appearance. Plaintiff appeals from this judgment.

Briefly, the transactions which give rise to this litigation are as follows:

On May 26, 1927, the Giuffria Realty Company, appearing through its President, Anthony Giuffria, by virtue of a resolution of the Board of Directors, transferred certain property to Salvador Giuffria for the stated consideration of $74,000.00. The property is the subject matter of this suit. Approximately a year later, i. e., on April 9, 1928, an act of correction was executed and recorded in the Jefferson Parish records. The parties to that act were Giuffria Realty Company, appearing through Anthony Giuffria, its President, by resolution of its Board of Directors, dated April 7, 1928; and Eugene Giuffria and Salvador Giuffria, appearing in their own right. The act, in part, follows:

"Which said appearers declared that by two acts of sale before the undersigned Notary Public, each bearing date May 26, 1927, your appearer firstly named sold to Salvator Giuffria certain property described in said act of sale, and to Eugene Giuffria, certain other property described in sale act; which said acts of sale are recorded in C.O.B. 86, folio 277 and C.O.B. 86, folio 284, respectively, Parish of Jefferson, State of Louisiana.
"That the sale by the Giuffria Realty Company to Salvator Giuffria was made for a purported cash consideration of $74,000.00, and the sale by the Giuffria Realty Company Inc., to Eugene Giuffria was made for a purported cash consideration of $29,000.00. That said sales were made in said form *332 for a matter of convenience only, that in truth and in fact no cash consideration was paid by either the said Salvator Giuffria or Eugene Giuffria, and that the said sales were made for the purpose of effecting a partition.
"That the said Salvator Giuffria and Eugene Giuffria with Anthony Giuffria were the sole stockholders of the Giuffria Realty Company Inc., which corporation was the sole owner of certain real property situated in the Parish of Jefferson, State of Louisiana, constituting what is commonly known as Pointe Vista Subdivision, as designated on a map of Adloe Orr, Civil Engineer, dated November 8, 1925, all of which said property is on the east bank of the Mississippi River.
"That they transferred their respective interests in said corporation to the said Anthony Giuffria, and received in return therefor the property described in said acts of sale, but, as stated before, they paid no cash for said property.
"That in fixing the cash price same was through inadvertence made excessive; that in truth and fact the entire Pointe Vista Subdivision was owned by the said Giuffria Realty Company, and in which corporation the interest of Salvator Giuffria was fixed at 5/12ths of the whole, and the interest of Eugene Giuffria fixed at 2/12ths of the whole, and the entire property was purchased in the year 1925 for $43,500.00, and that the property had not enhanced in value at the time of the said acts of sale by the Giuffria Realty Company Inc., to Eugene Giuffria and Salvator Giuffria respectively, passed before the undersigned Notary Public, and that, therefore, the sale to Eugene Giuffria should have been for $7250.00, in lieu of $29,000.00, and the sale to Salvator Giuffra should have been for $18,125.00 in lieu of $74,000.00.
"Appearers further declare that the object and purpose of this declaration is to correct the consideration set forth in the sale by the Giuffria Realty Company Inc., to Eugene Giuffria, and the sale by the Giuffria Realty Company Inc., to Salvator Giuffria, passed before the undersigned Notary Public on May 26, 1927, and recorded in C.O.B. 86, folio 284 and C.O.B. 86, folio 277 respectively, Parish of Jefferson, State of Louisiana."

Salvador Giuffria transferred the property involved herein to Kathman-Landry, Inc., on July 8, 1947. Subsequently, on November 5, 1954, an act of exchange was entered into between Kathman-Landry, Inc., and Mrs. Elma Landry Bendernagel by which Mrs. Bendernagel acquired the property in question.

The petition, as heretofore stated, is styled as an "Action to remove cloud from title." It alleges that plaintiff is the legal owner of the property in question by virtue of a deed in which it acquired the property from Salvador J. Giuffria in 1926; that the plaintiff assumed actual, physical, corporeal and civil possession of the property in 1926, and that the petitioner continued in the civil possession of the property in 1926, and that the petitioner continued in the civil possession of this property up to the date of the filing of the petition. It alleges that the act transferring the property from plaintiff to Salvador Giuffria in 1927, and the act of correction filed in 1928, constitute a cloud on plaintiff's title; that the two acts when considered together are a mere agreement for convenience and did not convey title for: 1) no valid sale occurred for no price was received by plaintiff; 2) the acts did not constitute a liquidating dividend for such dividend was not authorized by the stockholders of the plaintiff and 3) the acts did not constitute a partition of a corporation for such procedure is not authorized or recognized by the laws of Louisiana. It further alleges that the *333 defendants, Kathman-Landry, Inc., Mrs. Elma Landry Bendernagel and Salvador Giuffria have caused two other notarial acts (the sale to Kathman-Landry, Inc., and exchange between Kathman-Landry, Inc., and Mrs. Bendernagel) to be recorded in the conveyance records which also constitute a cloud on the title of plaintiff; it alleges that these acts can have no legal effect against the property in question because the grantors therein had no property rights in the property. It admits that since 1927, other parties have been paying ad valorem taxes on the property and it is willing to reimburse those parties for all taxes paid by them. Its prayer asks for the following relief:

1.

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