Landry v. Connely

4 Rob. 127
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 15, 1843
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 4 Rob. 127 (Landry v. Connely) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Landry v. Connely, 4 Rob. 127 (La. 1843).

Opinion

Simon, J.

The plaintiff is appellant from a judgment, rendered on the verdict of a jury, confirming and maintaining the defendant in his title to the property in controversy, as acquired by him from one James Anderson. The judgment complained of was rendered, after an unsuccessful attempt on the part of the plaintiff to obtain a new trial.

The facts of the case, as disclosed by the evidence, are these. On the eighteenth of November, 1835, James Anderson became the purchaser, at the public sale at auction of all the property belonging to the succession of Louis Marcellin Comes, (which sale was made by order and under the authority of the Court of Probates of the parish of Ascension,) of a lot of ground situated in the town of Donaldsonville, for the price of four hundred dollars, which, according to the conditions of the sale, was to be paid in three equal instalments to become due in March 1836, 1837, and 1838, the purchasers giving good and approved security in solido, with special mortgage reserved on the property sold, and paying ten per cent interest per annum on all sums remaining unpaid [130]*130at maturity. On the margin of the prods verbal of adjudication, was attached with a wafer, the foliowing writing: “ I will be security for Mr. Anderson for the lot where he lives, and will sign the note when made. T. C. Nicholls.” On the seventh of March, 1839, a rule was obtained by the widow and heirs of Comes, from the Court of Probates of the Parish of Ascension, on James Anderson, to show cause within ten days from the service thereof, why the lot of ground and improvements adjudicated to him, should not be resold ten days after the customary notices, at his risk and costs for cash, on his failing to comply with the terms of the first adjudication, by paying the purchase money with interest; which rule appears to have been regularly served on the defendant Anderson, Anderson having failed to file any answer to the rule within the legal delay, a final judgment was rendered, and signed against him on the 5th of April, 1839, making the rule absolute, and ordering the property to be resold at public auction, for cash, according to the demand of the applicants. On the 18th of the same month, the property in dispute was oifered for sale at public auction, according to the terms of the aforesaid judgment, and was finally adjudicated to the plaintiff in that suit, for the sum of $480 cash.

It appears further, that on the 11th of May, 1841, a certain act, under private signature, was executed between James Anderson and Landry, purporting to be a lease of the property in controversy, and a promise of sale from Landry to Anderson. This act was signed by both parties, in two originals, one of which was kept by each, and contains the following stipulations : “Narcisse Landry will lease to James Anderson, the lot of ground, &c. by the said Anderson now occupied, for the sum of fifty dollars per annum, the lease dating back from the last of March, 1841, and terminating on the last of March, 1842, &c., and further, I, Narcisse Landry, do hereby promise and bind myself upon the payment of the said sum of sixty dollars, being for the rent then due, and for the additional sum of $480, to be then, in March, 1842, paid by Anderson in cash, to make and pass to the said Anderson, a full and absolute title to the said lot, conveying to him all the rights which I have acquired thereto by purchase at a probate sale dated the first of April, 1839.” Anderson continued to oc[131]*131cupy the property under the lease; and on the sixth of May, 1842, he sold and conveyed the same to the defendant Connely, for the sum of one hundred dollars cash, the vendee assuming all the obligations of the vendor towards the estate of Louis Marcellin Comes.

The parol evidence shows, that before the 12th of May 1842, (the witness is uncertain whether it was before the defendant had already concluded the purchase, or. only had it in view, but inclines to the belief that he had not yet made the purchase,) defendant had a conversation with the witness, Nicholls, (the subscribing witness to the lease,) in which said lease was spoken of, and in which he thinks he told the defendant how the transaction had taken place. Another witness proves that, on the 24th of April, 1842, the defendant offered, in his presence, to purchase the property from the plaintiff; that the plaintiff replied that he would sell the lot to Anderson for the price he had given for it, and the rent which Anderson owed him; but refused to sell to any other person.

The parish judge testifies that previous to the sale from Anderson to Connely, the latter went to his office to examine the claims of the plaintiff under the adjudication made to him at the probate sale; that they were exhibited to him, and that he examined them; but the witness cannot say positively whether the lease was then made the subject of conversation. It is also admitted by the defendant that he had a knowledge of the plaintiff’s claim under said adjudication, previous to his purchase from Anderson.

Under the pleadings in this suit, and the above synopsis of the facts and circumstances disclosed by the evidence, several questions have been. raised, and divers authorities quoted, as they seemed to favor the pretensions of the respective parties. The defendant’s counsel has contended, that the plaintiff never acquired any title to the property in dispute, under the adjudication made to him at the sale made by order of the Court of Probates ; as that sale, and all the proceedings by virtue of which it was made are null and void, for want of jurisdiction in the said court: that Anderson never was legally divested of his title thereby; and that the contract of lease, relied upon by the plaintiff, was made in error of law and fact, and is, therefore, null and void.

[132]*132On the part of the plaintiff, it has been insisted, that the proceedings had by the Court of Probates were legal, and within its jurisdiction but that, even supposing them to have been null, the nullity was cured by the defendant’s vendor, who ratified the plaintiff’s title, and acquiesced in the judgment on which it is based.

The view we have taken of the question of ratification and acquiescence, as resulting from the lease and promise of sale produced by the plaintiff, and other circumstances of the case, renders it unnecessary to examine the question, (which perhaps could not be inquired into collaterally in this suit,) relative to the validity of the judgment of the Court of Probates on which the plaintiff’s title is based, and to inquire fully into its jurisdiction in rendering said judgment. But. we cannot forbear remarking, that it does not appear to us that the Court of Probates was utterly without jurisdiction, in granting the rule and ordering the second sale of the property in controversy. The rule had for its main object to compel the purchaser to comply with the conditions of the sale, or in case of his failure to do so, to cause the property to be sold anew, á la, folie ene,here. He was cited for that purpose and as one of the consequences of the purchaser's not complying with the terms of the sale, was to bring the property back to the succession ; and, as being succession property, partly owned by minors, it could not be sold in any other manner but by virtue of an order of the Court of Probates.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
4 Rob. 127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/landry-v-connely-la-1843.