Scott v. Scott

132 So. 3d 460, 2014 WL 131061, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 64
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 15, 2014
DocketNo. 48,716-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 132 So. 3d 460 (Scott v. Scott) 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
Scott v. Scott, 132 So. 3d 460, 2014 WL 131061, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 64 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

GARRETT, J.

11 Reginald Scott appeals from a city court eviction judgment rendered in favor of his former wife. For the reasons given below, we reverse and vacate the city court judgment because the city court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over this dispute.

[461]*461FACTS

Reginald and Angela Scott, a married couple, bought a house on South Grand Street in Monroe in August 2003. They failed to pay the 2004 city property taxes and the property was adjudicated to Delores Manuel for $223.40 at the tax sale held on June 29, 2005. The Scotts were divorced by judgment rendered on February 25, 2011. On April 25, 2012, Ms. Manuel executed a quitclaim deed conveying all of her right, title and interest in and to the property to Mrs. Scott, without any warranty of title and without any amount of consideration being shown on the deed.

On March 22, 2013, Mrs. Scott filed a rule for eviction in Monroe City Court to remove Mr. Scott from the house. She alleged that she acquired the property as a single woman after the divorce, and Mr. Scott has no ownership interest in it. Mrs. Scott also asserted that Ms. Manuel had record title to the property when she quit-claimed it to Mrs. Scott in 2012 since the three-year redemptive period had run out. Mrs. Scott alleged that written notice to vacate the property had been given to Mr. Scott but he refused to comply.

The matter was tried as a summary proceeding in Monroe City Court on April 3, 2013. At the outset, Mr. Scott, who was unrepresented, informed the court that Mrs. Scott had tried to evict him twice the previous month before a different city court judge, but both times the judge dismissed |gthe case for lack of jurisdiction and advised Mrs. Scott that the appropriate forum for the dispute was district court. Mrs. Scott’s attorney argued that in the previous court appearances Mrs. Scott had been proceeding in proper person and had been unable to show that she alone owned the property. However, the attorney was not present during the earlier proceedings and had no first-hand knowledge of the reasoning behind the two prior dismissals. Without addressing the legal effect of the prior dismissals, the city court judge proceeded to hear evidence on the instant rule to evict.

Mrs. Scott testified that after she moved out of the house, the taxes were not paid and the house was sold at a tax sale. She stated that she began talking to Ms. Manuel in 2010 to verify her husband’s claims that he was making payments to redeem the house from Ms. Manuel. After she learned from Ms. Manuel that he had stopped after making only one payment, she began paying to acquire the house for herself. However, she received legal advice that if she made the payments while she and Mr. Scott were still married, “it would just go back to the way it was.” Mrs. Scott reached an agreement with Ms. Manuel whereby Ms. Manuel allowed her to wait until after the divorce to make the final payments. Mrs. Scott testified that she and her husband divorced in February 2011, and there was no community property settlement because they no longer owned the house or any other community property at the time she filed for divorce. After the divorce, Mrs. Scott resumed making payments, ultimately paying Ms. Manuel a total of $1,045 to reimburse her for the property taxes she had paid over the years.

According to Mrs. Scott’s testimony, at the time she began making payments, Mr. Scott was not living in the house. He moved back in only Rafter she paid Ms. Manuel and she told him that she intended to live there herself.

Mr. Scott testified that after the 2005 tax sale, he reached an agreement with Ms. Manuel whereby he would pay her the amounts she had paid in order to redeem the property for his family. Ms. Manuel acknowledged that she did receive one payment in the amount of $180 from Mr. Scott. Although he promised her re[462]*462peatedly that he would make additional payments, Ms. Manuel testified that he failed to do so. Later Mrs. Scott visited her and offered to pay. Although Ms. Manuel tried to call Mr. Scott and give him another chance to pay, she was unable to contact him. Consequently, she accepted payment from Mrs. Scott. Ms. Manuel testified that she and Mrs. Scott went to a lawyer and had the quitclaim deed to Mrs. Scott prepared and executed.

During cross-examination by Mrs. Scott’s lawyer, Ms. Manuel stated that the $180 payment from Mr. Scott was not rent, but repayment of the taxes she had paid on the house. She also stated that the one payment made by Mr. Scott was before the Scotts’ divorce. She denied any written agreement between herself and Mr. Scott to sell the property back to him. She testified that she was aware that the couple was divorced when she quitclaimed the house to Mrs. Scott and that she intended to convey it to Mrs. Scott alone. She further testified that she had paid more than $1,000 in taxes and that she only sought to recoup what she spent.

The city court judge granted judgment in Mrs. Scott’s favor and signed a judgment of eviction on April 3, 2013, ordering Mr. Scott to vacate the premises within 24 hours. A return filed in the record showed that the Reviction judgment was served at the residence that same day. Also that same day, Mr. Scott — now represented by counsel — filed a petition for appeal. He asserted that the community property between the parties was never divided and that the quitclaim deed did not grant full title to Mrs. Scott. He further argued that the two prior eviction cases based on the same facts had been dismissed for lack of jurisdiction by another city court judge. He was granted a sus-pensive appeal on April 4, 2013; however, the record does not indicate that he posted the appeal bond.

Mrs. Scott then obtained a warrant for possession on April 5, 2013. On April 8, 2013, the warrant of possession was received by a deputy city marshal. The record indicates that a deputy city marshal evicted Mr. Scott on April 19, 2013, with a notation that Mrs. Scott had given him time to move and that Mr. Scott had removed all of his items from the residence.

LAW

Jurisdiction is the legal power and authority of a court to hear and determine an action or proceeding involving the legal relations of the parties, and to grant the relief to which they are entitled. La. C.C.P. art. 1. Jurisdiction over the subject matter is the legal power and authority of a court to hear and determine a particular class of actions or proceedings, based upon the object of the demand, the amount in dispute, or the value of the right asserted. La. C.C.P. art. 2. The jurisdiction of a court over the subject matter of an action or proceeding cannot be conferred by consent of the parties. A judgment rendered by a court which has no jurisdiction over the subject matter of the action or proceeding is void. La. C.C.P. art. 3.

| sCity courts have limited jurisdiction. La. C.C.P. art. 4832. The subject matter jurisdiction of city courts is limited by the amount in dispute and by the nature of the proceeding. La. C.C.P. art. 4841. In relevant part, La. C.C.P. art. 4847 provides:

A. Except as otherwise provided by law, a ... city court has no jurisdiction in any of the following cases or proceedings:
(1) A case involving title to immovable property.
[463]*463(4) A claim for annulment of marriage, divorce, separation of property, or alimony.
B. In addition, city courts shall not have jurisdiction in ...

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
132 So. 3d 460, 2014 WL 131061, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 64, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-scott-lactapp-2014.