Ormond Country Club v. Dorvin Developments, Inc.

498 So. 2d 144, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 8241
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 10, 1986
Docket86-CA-314
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 498 So. 2d 144 (Ormond Country Club v. Dorvin Developments, Inc.) 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
Ormond Country Club v. Dorvin Developments, Inc., 498 So. 2d 144, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 8241 (La. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

498 So.2d 144 (1986)

ORMOND COUNTRY CLUB
v.
DORVIN DEVELOPMENTS, INC., and Edwin C. Dorvin, Jr.

No. 86-CA-314.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

November 10, 1986.
Writ Denied January 23, 1987.

*145 Wiedemann & Fransen, Fritz Wiedemann, New Orleans, for defendants-appellants.

*146 Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Toler & Sarpy, John N. Kennedy, Christian T. Brown, New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellee.

Before CHEHARDY, C.J., and GAUDIN and GRISBAUM, JJ.

CHEHARDY, Chief Judge.

The plaintiff, Ormond Country Club, sought an injunction to prevent defendants, Dorvin Development, Inc. and Edward C. Dorvin Jr., from interfering with the country club's use of an area known as "the golf driving range" located within the Ormond Country Club Estates subdivision in St. Charles Parish. From judgment in favor of plaintiff, defendants appeal.

The background of the case, as set forth in the pleadings, is as follows: Edward C. Dorvin Jr. is president and major stockholder of Dorvin Development, Inc. Dorvin Development is the developer of Ormond Country Club Estates, an exclusive subdivision in Destrehan, St. Charles Parish. Ormond Country Club is a not-for-profit corporation that operates a country club within the subdivision, including a clubhouse, tennis courts, a golf course and a golf driving range.

In connection with the expenses incurred in developing Ormond Country Club and its facilities, Mr. Dorvin signed a personal continuing guaranty for a loan to the Club. In November 1977 Dorvin Developments and Ormond Country Club entered into an Act of Exchange, in which Dorvin transferred several large tracts of land to the Club and the Club transferred to Dorvin Development 1,000 shares of Class B stock in Ormond Country Club. In October 1978 these parties entered into another act of exchange, in which Ormond exchanged the land originally received for land in a slightly different configuration.

The land received in the 1978 exchange is the land on which the Club's golf course and tennis courts were built. Adjacent to the land on which the tennis courts are located is an area subject to right-of-way servitudes in favor of a gas pipeline company, an oil company and an electric company. Since approximately 1979 this area has been used by the Club as a golf driving range. It is undisputed that the October 1978 Act of Exchange did not specifically include the land on which the driving range is situated.

In June 1985, Dorvin Development returned all its Class B stock to Ormond Country Club in exchange for the Club's release of Mr. Dorvin from his personal continuing guaranty of the Club's indebtedness. At the time of that agreement, Mr. Dorvin was president and a director of the Club and also president and chief stockholder of Dorvin Development.

On August 9, 1985 Mr. Dorvin, as president of Dorvin Development, wrote to the manager of Ormond Country Club advising that Dorvin had not received the $1.00 rental payment due on June 1, 1985 pursuant to the driving range lease. He also requested confirmation of the insurance coverage required by the lease.

On August 21, 1985 the Club manager responded to Mr. Dorvin's letter, enclosing a check for $1.00. He stated the Club's board of directors had been unable to find a copy of the lease and requested Mr. Dorvin furnish a copy. He advised Mr. Dorvin the Club's insurer would forward confirmation of the insurance coverage.

On August 22, 1985 Mr. Dorvin wrote to the directors of the Club, notifying them to vacate the driving range effective September 24, 1985. On September 27, 1985 the president of the board of directors wrote to Mr. Dorvin advising that the Club was interested in entering into a written lease and/or lease-purchase agreement regarding the driving range as well as some other lots Dorvin Development was offering for sale.

On October 4, 1985 Mr. Dorvin wrote to the Club's board of directors, advising they were not to trespass on the driving range and that any violation of his order would be billed at $115 per day or $3,500 per month. On October 11, 1985 the board of directors responded with a lengthy letter stating, among other things, that although naked ownership of the property was in Dorvin *147 Developments, they had been assured repeatedly by Mr. Dorvin that the Club would continue to enjoy use of the property. The Board advised they were receptive to a "reasonable rental fee lease arrangement" but would not agree to the "punitive figures" set forth in Dorvin's October 9th letter. On October 14, 1985, Mr. Dorvin sent a tractor to plow under all the grass on the driving range.

On October 16, 1985 the Club filed this suit for injunction. Plaintiff alleged that it had an oral 99-year lease of the driving range from Dorvin Development, that Dorvin Development wrongfully attempted to terminate the lease, that Dorvin Development had disrupted the Club's use of the driving range by plowing over the grass and that the plaintiff suffered irreparable injury thereby.

As against Edward C. Dorvin Jr., plaintiff alleged he had breached his fiduciary duty to plaintiff while he was a director of Ormond Country Club by the arrangements he made with Dorvin Development regarding the driving range, because he was at the same time principle stockholder and president of Dorvin Development.

Plaintiff subsequently amended its petition to add alternative causes of action. First, asserting a possessory action, the Club alleged it had possessed the property as owner and should be maintained in that possession. In the second alternative, it alleged it had acquired a servitude over the land by destination of the owner and by use of the driving range for the preceding five years. In the third alternative, plaintiff sought damages of $50,000 for repair of the driving range, loss of use of the area and loss of reputation.

The trial court heard the application for preliminary injunction on the verified pleadings and affidavits only, as allowed by LSA-C.C.P. art. 3609. Rather than specifically granting a preliminary injunction, however, the court rendered judgment decreeing that Ormond Country Club had the right to possession of the property under the provisions of LSA-R.S. 9:2971 (which establishes a conclusive presumption that any transfer of land described as fronting on or bounded by a right-of-way shall be deemed to include all of the grantor's interest in the right-of-way, unless there is an express provision excluding the transfer of that interest). The defendants have appealed devolutively.

The pleadings in the record and the parties' briefs on this appeal raise numerous issues. There has been no trial on the merits of the permanent injunction, however, and the evidence presented at the hearing on the preliminary injunction is wholly inadequate to address all the issues raised.

Although a hearing on summary proceedings to obtain a preliminary injunction may touch on or tentatively decide merit issues, the principal demand is to be determined on its merits only after a full trial under ordinary process, unless the parties have expressly agreed to submit the case for final decision at the hearing on the rule for preliminary injunction. Smith v. West Virginia Oil & Gas Co., 373 So.2d 488 (La. 1979). The parties here did not stipulate that the hearing on the preliminary injunction would take the place of a full trial. Accordingly, we cannot decide all the questions on this appeal and we limit our opinion to the issues pertinent to the preliminary injunction.

First we address a jurisdictional question.

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498 So. 2d 144, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 8241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ormond-country-club-v-dorvin-developments-inc-lactapp-1986.