Hamilton v. Cortinas

110 So. 2d 200, 1959 La. App. LEXIS 829
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 16, 1959
DocketNo. 21203
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 110 So. 2d 200 (Hamilton v. Cortinas) 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
Hamilton v. Cortinas, 110 So. 2d 200, 1959 La. App. LEXIS 829 (La. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

McBRIDE, Judge.

The questions presented by the case now before us are whether the trial judge abused his discretion in granting a new trial upon the application of defendants, Cortinas and Gulotta, and whether a tax adjudication to the State is null and void because the deed did not reasonably identify the property.

On November 7, 1931, certain property described as:

“A certain portion of ground and improvements thereon in the Fifth District of the City of New Orleans, in Square bounded by Alluvial Land Purchase Co., Inc., Tract, designated as Lots Nos. 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 in Square No. 1, Bk. 4; Fol. 228; said lots measure various feet front by depth of various feet,”

was adjudicated to the State of Louisiana by the State Tax Collector for the Parish of Orleans for delinquent taxes due the State for the year 1930, on an assessment made in the name of F. Hamilton, notice of which was duly spread upon the Conveyance Records of this parish. During 1956 the State sold the property to Joseph M„ Cortinas and Bernard Gulotta under the aforesaid description, and a patent evidencing the sale was issued to said persons whcc still appear as the registered owners. On November 12, 1956, the widow and heirs of the delinquent tax debtor, F. Hamilton, who died subsequent to the date of the tax adjudication to the State, brought this suit seeking to have decreed null and void both the tax sale to the State and the State’s sale to Cortinas and Gulotta on the ground that the description of the property therein is insufficient in that the number of this square in which the lots are located is er[202]*202roneous and the description is, moreover, too vague and indefinite to identify the property purportedly sold. The plaintiffs impleaded as defendants the Register of State Land Office, the State Tax Collector for the Parish of Orleans, and Cortinas and Gulotta, the State’s vendees.

The defendant State officials filed pro forma answers generally denying plaintiffs’ allegations that the description of the property was insufficient to identify it. Cor-tinas and Gulotta first filed an exception of no cause or right of action which was referred to the merits of the case, and they then filed a joint answer denying plaintiffs’ charge that the two transactions are illegal; they averred that their title to the property was good, and pray for judgment recognizing them to he the lawful owners of the property as it is described in their answer (i. e. the legal description of the property as acquired by Fred J. Hamilton) and confirming their title thereto.

After a trial of the matter, the court below rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs as prayed for, but upon a motion for a new trial alleging that the judgment was contrary to the law and the evidence being filed by Cortinas and Gulotta, the judge granted a new trial which was had, after which the court reversed himself and rendered and signed a judgment in favor of all defendants dismissing plaintiffs’ suit and in favor of Cortinas and Gulotta recognizing and confirming their title to the property. The plaintiffs have appealed from that judgment.

Trial, courts may revise their judgments by granting a new trial. C.P. art. 557. A new trial must be granted if there be good ground for the same. C.P. art. 558. If the trial judge thought he had erred in rendering the judgment in favor of plaintiffs, it then became his proper duty to grant a new trial and the appellate court must assume in that the new trial was ordered that the judge disapproved of his first judgment. The granting or refusal of a motion for a new trial, when the ground is not one of those contained in C. P. art. 560, is within the sound discretion of the trial judge, and his action in granting or refusing a new trial will not be disturbed on appeal unless it clearly appears that he has abused his discretion. DeFrances v. Gauthier, 220 La. 145, 55 So.2d 896. We fail to find there was any abuse of discretion by the court below in the matter of granting the new trial in this case.

The advertisement and sale of property for delinquent taxes is provided for in LS A-R.S. 47:2181 which in part reads:

“For the purpose of tax sales it shall be sufficient to assess and describe all property assessed in the following manner: by designating the tract or lot by the name by which it is commonly known, or by the number or letter by which it may be usually designated upon the regular assessment rolls or upon an official or private plan or sketch or by giving the boundaries or the names of the owners upon each side, or by the dimensions or description or name given in the act translating the ownership thereof, or by such other further description as may furnish the.means of reasonable identification.”

LSA-R.S. 47:2184 sets forth what a tax sale conveys and what a tax purchaser acquires in the following language:

“The tax sale shall convey, and the purchaser shall take, the whole of the property assessed to the delinquent taxpayer if it is the least quantity sufficient to satisfy the aggregate of all taxes, interest, 'penalties and costs. * * * The tax sale shall convey and the purchaser shall take the entirety of the property intended to be assessed and sold as it was owned by the delinquent taxpayer regardless of any error in the dimensions or description of the property as assessed and sold. The tax collector in the advertisement or deed of sale may give the full description according to original titles.”

[203]*203In litigation involving the legality of a tax sale made under an erroneous or insufficient description of the property intended to be assessed, the cases generally turn on the point as to whether the description is such as will enable interested persons to reasonably identify the property which was intended to be the subject of the sale. There are many such cases

In Knapp v. Jefferson-Plaquemines Drainage Dist., 224 La. 105, 68 So.2d 774, 778, the Supreme Court was concerned with an uncertain description and said:

“In the jurisprudence of this state it is well settled and established that, where a tax sale is made under an assessment in the name of the owner and an error is made in the description of the land intended to be assessed, the tax sale under such assessment is valid if, notwithstanding the error in description, the land can be reasonably identified by the assessment or description as found in the tax deed, or if the description therein furnishes the means for such identification. Further, if a description of the property intended to be assessed or sold is so indefinite and uncertain as to be defective, resort may be had to evidence outside the assessment roll or tax deed to identify the property, provided such evidence establishes unmistakably the identity of the property. The cases generally hinge on the point as to whether the description is such as to enable interested persons to identify the property. Tillery v. Fuller, 190 La. 586, 182 So. 683, and the numerous authorities therein cited; Jackson v. Irion, 196 La. 728, 200 So. 18, 133 A.L.R. 566; Yuges Realty, Ltd. v. Jefferson Parish Developers, Inc., 205 La. 1033, 18 So.2d 607.”

In addition to the cases cited in Knapp v. Jefferson-Plaquemines Drainage Dist., supra, see, also, Gayle v. Slicer, 188 La. 940, 178 So. 498; Brown v. Tauzin, La.App., 163 So. 764 (rev. on other grounds 185 La. 86, 168 So. 502); and Cobbs v. Jackson, La.App., 85 So.2d 368, wherein many cases are cited and quoted from.

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Bluebook (online)
110 So. 2d 200, 1959 La. App. LEXIS 829, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hamilton-v-cortinas-lactapp-1959.