Hebert's Holdings, L.L.C. v. Mouton

709 So. 2d 983, 97 La.App. 3 Cir. 1238, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 392, 1998 WL 100376
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 6, 1998
DocketNo. 97-1238
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 709 So. 2d 983 (Hebert's Holdings, L.L.C. v. Mouton) 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
Hebert's Holdings, L.L.C. v. Mouton, 709 So. 2d 983, 97 La.App. 3 Cir. 1238, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 392, 1998 WL 100376 (La. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

JiYELVERTON, Judge.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment ordering a judicial partition of property by licitation. Hebert’s Holding, L.L.C. sued its co-owner in indivisión, Welton P. Mouton, Jr. Hebert’s Holding moved for summary judgment. The trial judge stated the facts and gave summary judgment for the following reasons:

In the present case, the property is a city lot upon which is located a commercial building. (This is established by the Peti[984]*984tion and Defendant’s Answer). The ownership is 60/40%. The Court concludes that there is no way to divide this property (and building) into five equal lots to effect a partition in kind. Considering the recent amendment to C.C.P. 966, which provides that summary judgment is favored, and the Court wishing to avoid needless time and expense of further litigation, grants the Plaintiffs Motion For Summary Judgment decreeing that the property be partitioned by licitation and assessing all costs against the Defendant.

Welton Mouton appeals arguing that summary judgment was not appropriate because there is still a question of whether a private sale is available as an alternative to a sale by licitation.

MOTION TO FILE TEXTUAL MATERIAL

Mouton has moved in this court for permission to file documents from two committees of the Louisiana State Law Institute, the Civil Law Committee and the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Committee, and to file a portion of the legislative history of the new Louisiana Civil Code Articles on Ownership in Indivisión. These materials relate to La.Civil Code art. 811.

These materials were not part of the record below at the time summary judgment was granted. The materials were filed later with an application for a new trial. Mouton cites Uniform Rules-Courts of Appeal, 2-15.4 which provides that “[a] book, treatise, or other textual material not conveniently available to the court, used as authority during argument by counsel, shall, on request of court, be deposited with the court until the ease is decided.”

Although this court considers legislative history of a statute when interpreting a statute, many of the materials submitted by Mouton are not part of the legislative history. Also, we find that these materials, even the incomplete legislative Ishistories, do not help us in the exegesis of the subject matter. We therefore have not considered them, and we deny the motion.

OPINION

La.Civ.Code arts. 809-811 are applicable to this case.

Art. 809. Judicial and extrajudicial partition
The mode of partition may be determined by agreement of all the co-owners. In the absence of such an agreement, a co-owner may demand judicial partition.
Art. 810. Partition in kind
The court shall decree partition in kind when the thing held in indivisión is susceptible to division into as many lots of nearly equal value as there are shares and the aggregate value of all lots is not significantly lower than the value of the property in the state of indivisión.
Art. 811. Partition by licitation or by private sale
When the thing held in indivisión is not susceptible to partition in kind, the court shall decree a partition by licitation or by private sale and the proceeds shall be distributed to the co-owners in proportion to their shares.

The Code of Civil Procedure article particularly applicable to this case is as follows:

Art. 4607. Partition by licitation
When a partition is to be made by licitation, the sale shall be conducted at public auction and after the advertisements required for judicial sales under execution. All counsel of record, including curators appointed to represent absentee defendants, and persons appearing in proper person shall be given notice of the sale date. At any time prior to the sale, the parties may agree upon a nonjudicial partition.

14“Appellate courts review summary judgments de novo under the same criteria that govern the district court’s consideration of whether summary judgment is appropriate.” Kumpe v. State, 97-386, p. 3 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/8/97); 701 So.2d 498, 499-500. A motion for summary judgment “shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to material fact, and that mover is entitled to judgment [985]*985as a matter of law.” La.Code Civ.P. art. 966(B).

“If the mover’s supporting documentation is sufficient to establish that no genuine issue of material fact exists, the burden of proving the existence of a genuine issue of material fact shifts to the nonmoving party.” Kumpe, 701 So.2d at 500. The legislature’s 1987 amendment to Article 966 increases the burden of proving the existence of a genuine issue of material fact by favoring summary judgment and by requiring that the nonmover establish the existence of proof of an element of his claim for which he will bear the burden of proof at trial. Id.

Mouton, in brief, concedes that “a division in kind is not permissible under current Louisiana Law” and acknowledges “the correctness of Judge Broussard’s decision and that this property cannot be divided in kind.” Therefore, there is no issue of material fact regarding whether the property is susceptible to partition in kind. It is not. That portion of the summary judgment was properly rendered. The issue that appellant has raised as to the summary judgment was its argued incompleteness; appellant’s argument is that the summary judgment was improper because it ordered a partition by licitation without considering the possibility of a partition by private sale. Mouton argues that a partition by private sale is a third method of partition, the first Rtwo being division in kind and partition by licitation. Although it is not explicitly set forth, we interpret appellant’s argument to be that a trial court handling a judicial partition does not complete its adjudicatory function under Article 811 until it has considered, and presumably rejected or ordered, the alternative of a private sale. In other words, Mouton’s contention is that the trial court cannot, under any circumstances, after having found that the property is not subject to a partition in kind, simply order a partition by licitation.

We reject this notion and affirm the judgment. First, the issue of private sale was never raised in the summary judgment proceedings, and Mouton has neither pleaded nor offered any proof that a private sale is actually available as an alternative to a sale by licitation. Indeed, there is on file in this case Mouton’s statement in response to an interrogatory that “no agreement has been made to a non-judicial partition of the property. Whether one can be made is speculative and objected to on that basis.” A private sale is one means of effectuating a nonjudieial partition. In addition to the admission that there exists no agreement, or prospect of one, regarding a private sale between the co-owners, there were likewise no facts, evidence, requests for relief, or even arguments suggesting the availability of a private sale to third parties as an alternative to a public sale.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
709 So. 2d 983, 97 La.App. 3 Cir. 1238, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 392, 1998 WL 100376, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heberts-holdings-llc-v-mouton-lactapp-1998.