Guerin v. Guerin

449 So. 2d 1053, 1984 La. App. LEXIS 8543
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 3, 1984
DocketNo. 83 CA 0530
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 449 So. 2d 1053 (Guerin v. Guerin) 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
Guerin v. Guerin, 449 So. 2d 1053, 1984 La. App. LEXIS 8543 (La. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinions

COLE, Judge.

The issue in this case is whether or not a transfer of immovable property from parents to a son was a valid sale.

This litigation arises out of a transfer of immovable property in Pointe Cou-pee Parish from Joseph H. Guerin and Sarah D. Guerin to their son, John Roy Guerin, on March 6, 1971. The transfer was by authentic act on a standard “sale with mortgage” form. The property was fully described, as were three prior sell-offs from the larger tract. (See Appendix I for the complete description.) The description gave no total acreage or arpent figure but described the property as a tract having a front of three arpents, more or less, on the Upper Chenal of False River, by a depth of forty arpents, more or less. Following this, specific boundaries or tenements were given for all four sides. Such a sale would therefore be classified as a sale per aver-sionem rather than a sale by measure or by lump. See Civil Code Article 2495,1 Kile v. Louisiana Limestone Aggregates, Inc., 378 So.2d 978 (La.App. 3rd Gir.1979), writ refused 380 So.2d 71 (La.1980).

The act of sale stated the consideration was $40,000.00 plus the vendors’ reservation of the right of usufruct on a portion of the property sold. The $40,000.00 was represented by the buyer’s promissory note, payable in monthly installments of $150.00 with interest from maturity at five percent per annum. Sellers retained a vendors’ lien and special mortgage. The sellers also reserved the usufruct of their residence and the grounds surrounding it (measuring [1056]*1056250 feet by 175 feet) for the remainder of their natural lives. Further, they retained the exclusive right to harvest the annual pecan crop from all pecan trees on the property. Both usufructs were to continue until the death of the survivor of the two sellers.

Joseph H. Guerin died on March-26,1977. This suit was filed on October 28, 1980 by his surviving spouse, Sarah D. Guerin, and three of their children: Joseph W. Guerin, Sr., Thomas D. Guerin and Nancy Guerin Couvillion. John Roy Guerin, the vendee,' and his wife, Sandra Fairchild Guerin, were named as defendants.

Plaintiff, Sarah D. Guerin, contended she never consented to transfer the property and was forced to sign the act of sale against her will. The other plaintiffs contended the transaction was a simulated sale; that no money was actually paid, and that the transaction was for the sole purpose of depriving petitioners of their rightful share of the property. All petitioners prayed the purported sale be declared a simulated sale and hence null and void, thereby entitling them to be recognized as owners in indivisión with John Roy Guerin. In the alternative, petitioners prayed the transaction be declared a donation in. disguise and that their legitime be recognized. There followed objections of vagueness and no cause of action and an intervention by Wagner and Brown, a Texas general partnership. The partnership asserted its ownership of an undivided interest in a certain oil, gas and mineral lease which was executed by John Roy Guerin, as lessor, in favor of Ennex, Inc., as lessee, on November 18, 1977 and recorded on December 8, 1977.

After the objections of vagueness and no cause of action were partially sustained, the plaintiffs filed a supplemental and amended petition. They alleged that if the conveyance to John Roy Guerin was not a simulation or if it was found that he had in fact paid or obligated himself to pay a consideration for the property, then the conveyance was a donation in disguise because the consideration for the transfer was less than one-fourth of the fair market value of the property. Plaintiffs further contended that the transfer was absolutely null because it was in fact a donation and the donors had reserved the usufruct over the property in contravention of Article 1533.2 In the further alternative plaintiffs also sought to have the property collated to the succession of Joseph H. Guerin. They alleged further that a portion of the disputed property was the separate property of Joseph H. Guerin and a portion of it was community property belonging to Joseph H. Guerin and Sarah D. Guerin. Sarah Guerin sought to be restored as the owner of her share of the community property.

By further supplemental and amended petitions, Wagner and Brown, Ennex, Inc., Ennex, Ltd., Frank’s Petroleum, Inc., EPX Company, Bank of New Roads, Loretta K. Guerin, Kathleen Guerin Thomas and John Roy Guerin, as the administrator of the estate of his minor child, John Robert Gue-rin, were named as additional defendants. (For purposes of this opinion, we will refer to Wagner and Brown, Ennex, Inc., Ennex, Ltd., Frank’s Petroleum, Inc., EPX Company and their successors as the “oil company” defendants, their interests all having arisen out of the mineral lease executed by John Roy Guerin on November 18, 1977.) The interest of the Bank of New Roads arose out of a collateral mortgage executed by John Roy Guerin on October 20, 1976, recorded on the same date, affecting the entire tract of land. The remaining defendants are children of John Roy Guerin and Sandra Fairchild Guerin who were made beneficiaries of an act of donation to an irrevocable inter vivos trust which was duly recorded on August 28, 1980.

As a further complication, an intervention was filed by Mid American Oil & Gas Investments, Ltd. (which will be considered as one of the oil company defendants) and [1057]*1057by Sarah D. Guerin as the provisional ad-ministratrix of the succession of Joseph H. Guerin.

After various motions for summary judgment and other exceptions were disposed of by the trial court, trial on the merits was held and the court found as follows:

“The 1971 transfer to John Roy Guerin was not a simulated sale under Civil Code Article 2480.
“The 1971 transfer to John Roy Guerin was a donation-in-disguise under Civil Code Article 2444 because the price was less than one-fourth (Vi) the value of the immovable.
“The partial usufruct reservation did not render null and void the donation because Article 1583 applies only to gratuitous donations.
“The property is ordered returned to the mass of the succession to restore equality among the heirs. All fruits and revenues, and any advantages or benefits which John Roy Guerin may have received as an advance of his inheritance must also be returned.
“The property returns to the mass of the succession, subject to and encumbered with the 1976 mortgage in favor of the Bank of New Roads and the 1977 ‘oil, gas and mineral lease.’
“Any diminuition (sic) in value of the immovable due to the real rights burdening the property must be accounted for by John Roy Guerin under Civil Code Article 1264.”

The formal judgment, purportedly in conformity with the written reasons of the trial judge, was signed on the 24th of November, 1982. Therein the sale in question was declared to be a donation in disguise within the meaning of Article 2444.3 The judgment stated that as such this transfer constituted an advance on the inheritance of John Roy Guerin and ordered the property to be collated in accordance with Articles 1227, et seq., and returned in kind to the mass of property comprising the succession of Joseph H. Guerin.

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Bluebook (online)
449 So. 2d 1053, 1984 La. App. LEXIS 8543, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guerin-v-guerin-lactapp-1984.