Johnson v. Johnson

161 So. 3d 1002, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 37, 2015 WL 160671
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 14, 2015
DocketNo. 49,500-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 161 So. 3d 1002 (Johnson v. Johnson) 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
Johnson v. Johnson, 161 So. 3d 1002, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 37, 2015 WL 160671 (La. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

BROWN, Chief Judge.

11 Louis Perry Johnson appeals from the judgment of the trial court dismissing with prejudice his cross-claim against Lee Arthur Johnson. For the reasons stated herein, we affirm.

Facts and Procedural Background

Lynn Johnson and his wife, Girtha Iver-son Johnson, owned a 70-acre tract of land in Bienville Parish. They had seven children: Andrew, James, Melvin, Lee Arthur, Paul, Dorothy, and Louis Perry. Lynn Johnson died intestate in 1981. As a result, the 70-acre tract was divided as follows: ⅜ to Girtha as his surviving spouse; and, 1/7 of ½ (1/14) to each of the seven children.

On January 7, 1985, the seven children entered into an agreement regarding each one’s 1/14 share in which they stated that:

Now, the above named owners in undivision (sic) do hereby agree that if anyone of the owners decides to sell his or her interest, he/she must give the other owners first chance to purchase their undivided interest, at the price after the said interest has been appraised by a qualified appraiser, and a fair market value.

The agreement was recorded on January 29, 1985. Girtha Johnson died on July 8, 1995. She had a last will and testament leaving all of her property to her son, Paul Johnson. No succession proceedings, however, were opened until October 2006, at which time, the will was declared a nullity.

The members of the Johnson family have been involved in five lawsuits involv[1004]*1004ing the Johnson property. The issue presented in this appeal evolved out of the lawsuit filed by Andrew Johnson, through his curatrix, Mary Johnson, against Lee Arthur Johnson and by amendment against Louis Perry Johnson.

|2On March 6, 2000, Andrew Johnson sold his undivided interest in the property to Levon Parker. The undivided interest was a 1/7 interest, the 1/14 inherited from his father and 1/14 inherited from his mother. On February 18, 2004, Louis Perry Johnson sold his 1/7 interest to his brother, Lee Arthur Johnson, for $4,000.

On April 25, 2005, Lee Arthur filed suit against Levon Parker and Andrew seeking to rescind the sale of Andrew’s interest based on Andrew’s failure to give the other owners right of first refusal as set forth in the 1985 agreement. This suit was filed on behalf of, and listed as plaintiffs, all of the children, excluding Andrew. Pertinent to this appeal, Louis Perry Johnson was listed as a plaintiff. On December 9, 2005, the parties entered into a consent judgment whereby Lee Arthur acquired the 1/7 interest from Levon Parker for the original price ($7,250) paid by him to Andrew. In the case sub judice, Louis Perry is trying to rescind the sale to Lee Arthur and revive that lawsuit, Suit No. 38,996.

On October 20, 2006, probate proceedings were filed in the Succession of Girtha Johnson. In those proceedings, the will, giving all of her interest to Paul, was contested and declared annulled. The petition stated that Louis Perry had conveyed his 1/7 interest to Lee Arthur. It further stated that Lee Arthur owned an undivided 1/7 interest as his separate property and acquired an undivided 2/7 interest as community property (from Le-von Parker and Louis Perry). Louis Perry, as a petitioner, purportedly executed a verification dated October 11, 2006, attesting to the truthfulness of the petition. On December 31, 2006, a judgment of ^possession was rendered. The judgment did not recognize Andrew or Louis Perry as owners of any interest in the property.

On November 10, 2009, judgment was rendered on a suit brought by all co-owners against Paul Johnson, seeking a partition of the 70-acre tract. The judgment again recognized Lee Arthur as the owner of a 1/7 interest as his separate property and 2/7 interest as his and his wife’s community property. The judgment allocated a 19.14-acre tract to the community arid an 11.14-acre tract to Lee Arthur as his separate property.

James Johnson died intestate on May 19, 2009, while the aforementioned partition suit was pending. The judgment of possession in the Succession of James placed the six remaining siblings into possession of an undivided 1/6 interest in a 10.09-acre tract owned by the deceased. The 10.09-acre tract was acquired by James in the partition suit. Verifications to the petition for partial possession were purportedly signed by Louis Perry on October 25, 2010, and by Andrew’s curatrix on October 29, 2010.

The present litigation filed on October 9, 2009, by Andrew against Lee Arthur sought to invalidate the February 4, 2004, conveyance by Louis Perry to Lee Arthur. The petition sought to undo the sale based on the previously executed right of first refusal. After the filing of an exception of nonjoinder of a necessary party, Andrew filed an amended petition on March 2, 2010, joining Louis Perry as a defendant. On October 17, 2011, Louis Perry filed an answer admitting to the allegations in Andrew’s petition. Louis Perry also filed a cross-claim and third party demand. The third party demand was filed against Le-von Parker and the cross-claim |4against Lee Arthur. Louis sought to invalidate the sale to Lee Arthur from Parker and to [1005]*1005revive the lawsuit between Lee Arthur and Levon Parker, Suit No. 38,996.

In response, Lee Arthur filed exceptions of prescription, no cause of action, no right of action, res judicata, issue preclusion, failure to file compulsory claim, estoppel, collateral estoppel and lack of clean hands. Trial on the exceptions was held on September 12, 2013. Thereafter, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of Lee Arthur sustaining all of the exceptions but prescription (which was found to be moot) and dismissed the claims of Andrew and Louis Perry with prejudice. Only Louis Perry has appealed.

Discussion

Considering that the trial court neither specified which exceptions pertained to Andrew’s claim and which exceptions pertained to Louis Perry’s claim, nor went into any detail as to why it was granting any of the exceptions put forth by Lee Arthur, we will limit our review of the exceptions to see whether any apply to Louis Perry’s cross-claim against Lee Arthur.

An action can only be brought by a person having a real and actual interest which he asserts. La. C.C.P. art. 681. An exception of no right of action is a peremptory exception designed to test whether a plaintiff has a real and actual interest in the action. La. C.C.P. art. 927(A)(5). The function of the exception of no right of action is to determine whether the plaintiff belongs to the class of persons to whom the law grants the cause of action asserted in the suit. Hood v. Cotter, 08-0215 (La.12/02/08), 5 So.3d 819. The standard of review for an exception of no right of action is de novo.

In his cross-claim and third party demand against Lee Arthur and Levon Parker, respectively, Louis Perry seeks to have the consent judgment entered into between Lee Arthur and Levon Parker rescinded and the suit revived. Although a named plaintiff in that suit, Louis Perry claims that he was not provided an opportunity to purchase his share of the subject property; he was not given notice that a hearing on the matter had been set; and he was not given an opportunity to consent to or reject the compromise.

Lee Arthur, on the other hand, states that Louis Perry was a named plaintiff and, like him, was represented by attorney Jonathan Stewart.

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Bluebook (online)
161 So. 3d 1002, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 37, 2015 WL 160671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-johnson-lactapp-2015.