Miller v. Currier

713 So. 2d 497, 97 La.App. 3 Cir. 1194, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 653, 1998 WL 146214
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 1, 1998
DocketNo. 97-1194
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 713 So. 2d 497 (Miller v. Currier) 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
Miller v. Currier, 713 So. 2d 497, 97 La.App. 3 Cir. 1194, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 653, 1998 WL 146214 (La. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

PETERS, Judge.

This matter began as an action to partition both immovable and movable property. Pierre Valcour Miller, one of the owners in indivisión, appeals a judgment of the trial court, striking his attempt to add parties to the litigation who he claims are necessary for a partition of the immovable property. For the reasons set forth herein, we reverse the trial court’s judgment and remand for further proceedings.

DISCUSSION OF THE RECORD1

Pierre Valcour Miller owns an undivided interest in approximately 30,000 acres of im[499]*499movable property and the minerals thereunder, situated in Cameron and Vermilion Parishes. He and his seven siblings acquired the property from the estate |2of their parents, Dr. and Mrs. Martin 0. Miller. Some interests in the immovable property have since been transferred to nonfamily members, and other interests have been placed in trusts.

Although the original pleading is not a part of the designated record on appeal, the subsequent pleadings suggest that on October 20, 1989, Pierre Valcour Miller filed suit to effect a partition of the immovable property as well as the movable property owned in indivisión.2 The original defendants were identified as Mary Lynn Miller Currier; Gregory 0. Currier, in his capacity as trustee of the “Currier Trusts”;3 Margaret Marian Miller Green; F.L. DeSalvo,4 in his capacity as trustee of the “Boulet Trusts”;5 Mary Edna Miller Stoebner; Mary Edna Miller Stoebner and Richard Coleman Stoebner, in their capacities as trustees of the “Stoebner Trusts”;6 Martin 0. Miller II and the First National Bank of Commerce in New Orleans, in their capacities as trustees for the Edna K. Miller Foundation;7 Marie Diane Miller, interdict, through her curator, Martin 0. Miller II; Mary Rollins, wife offand Thomas Rollins; Hope E. Kaplan, wife of/and Gerald Kaplan; Susanne C. Hooper, wife of/and Charles Hooper; ¡-¡Max Kaplan;8 SASI Min-erais Company; and Lee & Hite, a Texas Limited Partnership.

For reasons not clear in the record,9 Pierre Valcour Miller dismissed his petition on March 14,1995. However, the dismissal executed by the trial court reserved to the original defendants the right to pursue any claims they had initiated by responsive pleadings to the appellant’s original petition and reserved to First South Production Credit Association and the Calcasieu Marine National Bank the right to pursue their claims initiated by their interventions in the original petition. These interventions are not a part of the designated record on appeal, but it appears that the intervenors' are creditors of Pierre Valcour Miller.

As of March 14, 1995, of the original defendants, only the Boulet Trusts had responded to the October 20, 1989 petition, and the response included a reeonventional demand against Pierre Valcour Miller. This recon-ventional demand is not a part of the designated record on appeal. Therefore, we have no record of the relief requested by the Boulet Trusts. On November 22, 1995, the reeonventional demand was amended to add Mary Lynn Miller Currier, the Currier Trusts, Margaret Marian Miller Green, Mary Edna Miller Stoebner, the Stoebner Trusts, the Edna K. Miller Foundation, and Marie Diane Miller as plaintiffs.10 In their plead[500]*500ing, these new parties, together with the Boulet Trusts, sought an “en globo” partition by licitation of the immovable property owned in indivisión, which was described as 18,000 acres in Cameron Parish and 12,000 acres in Vermilion Parish.

|4In an amending pleading filed on January 18, 1996, these plaintiffs named an additional co-owner of the property, Republic Royalty Company, as a party-defendant and clearly asserted that they sought a partition of both the surface and mineral interests in the property. In both the November 22, 1995 pleading and the January 18, 1996 pleading, the plaintiffs claimed an 86.84% ownership interest in the immovable property sought to be partitioned.11 These plaintiffs, together with Martin O. Miller II, are the appellees herein.

On May 10, 1996, Pierre Valcour Miller responded by filing a pleading in which, among other things, he asserted that the property should be partitioned in kind and that the plaintiffs’ ownership interest in the immovable property was less than 75%. In addition to the parties named in the original suit, he named the following parties as either defendants-in-reconvention, cross-claim defendants, or third-party defendants: Amoco Production Company; Myerl John Hebert; Martin O. Miller II; the State of Louisiana; Apache Corporation; Mobil Exploration & Producing U.S. Inc., as agent for Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast Inc.; Vintage Petroleum Inc.; Vastar Resources, Inc.; Scurlock Permian Corporation; Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company; Cholla Resources, Inc.; Presidio Exploration Inc.; Axix Energy Corporation;12 Bammer Engineering, Inc.;13 Williams Gas Marketing Company; Maxus Exploration Co.;14 Louisiana Resources Pipeline Company; Republic Royalty |5Company; heirs of Estelle & D.Y. Doland; and the trustees for the Mary Lynn Miller Trust, Margaret Marian Miller Trust, Pierre Valcour Miller Trust, Mildred Ann Miller Trust, Judith Owen Miller Trust, Mary Edna Miller Trust, Martin O. Miller II Trust, and Marie Diane Miller Trust. The appellant requested that a notary public be appointed to make an inventory and appraisal of the property involved “to assist this court in determining the rights and titles of the parties in and to the surface and mineral interests thereunder and, in its discretion, [to] assist the court in directing the manner and condition of effecting this partition....”

On May 24, 1996, the plaintiffs moved to strike the appellant’s pleading, asserting that a number of the parties named by the appellant were named solely for the purpose of delaying the proceedings. On June 7, 1996, the appellant filed a supplemental pleading asserting that the named parties were necessary and indispensable parties to the litigation. On July 18, 1996, John M. Currier, as trustee of the Mary Lynn Miller Trust, and Martin O. Miller II, as alleged trustee of the Marie Diane Miller Trust, the Margaret Marian Miller Trust, and the Martin O. Miller II Trust, filed pleadings seeking the same relief as that sought by the plaintiffs.

Thereafter, other pleadings not related to the issue before this court were filed by the parties, and on January 21, 1997, the trial court held a hearing to dispose of all pending motions and exceptions. At the hearing, no evidence was adduced, and on that day, the trial court rendered judgment on sixteen separate matters. One of the sixteen rulings granted the motion to strike. Rather than dismiss the reconventional demand and cross-claim, the trial court gave the appellant thirty days to amend his pleadings and “allege with specificity” why he believed any of those listed should be made a party to the suit.

[501]*501|60n February 20, 1997, Pierre Yalcour Miller15 attempted, by a supplemental pleading, to justify the addition of the parties stricken. In doing so, he identified eight categories of parties he considered necessary to the litigation.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Carr v. Abel
64 So. 3d 292 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2011)
Crozat v. Louisiana Coastal, VII, LLC
830 So. 2d 319 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2002)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
713 So. 2d 497, 97 La.App. 3 Cir. 1194, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 653, 1998 WL 146214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-currier-lactapp-1998.