Smith v. Marino

28 So. 2d 780, 1947 La. App. LEXIS 620
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided January 29, 1947·No. No. 2867·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

DORE, Judge.

This case has been before us on appeal. See 12 So.2d 71. That appeal was taken by plaintiff from a judgment sustaining an exception of no cause or right of action filed by the defendants. In that opinion, the allegations of plaintiff’s petition are stated, and we see no reasons to re-state them. We reversed the judgment of the lower court and overruled the exception of defendants and remanded the case for further proceedings.

On November 18, 1940, Tony Marino, defendant, filed answer, with reservation of all exceptions urged and overruled, and in which answer he practically admitted the essential allegations of plaintiff’s petition, but denied the conclusions of law. ' In further answer, he interposed pleas of res adjudicata and estoppel, based principally on the ground that the plaintiff did not claim any interest in the property in the divorce proceedings instituted by her husband against her, and therefore her claim for any interest is now “a thing adjudged”. Furthermore, defendant avers, that by failing to point out the property in question as community property, by the payment of rent for several months to defendant, and by removing and surrendering the property at his request, the plaintiff became estopped from claiming any interest in the property. He further alleges that he purchased the property from plaintiff’s husband without any knowledge of the declaration of homestead and was only informed of such declaration by the filing of the suit.

On April 23, 1941, defendant Marino filed a supplemental answer in which he avers that the plaintiff is further estopped to claim any interest in the property in question for the reason that in the partition had between her husband and herself she had accepted certain properties in full settlement of her community estate, and further that plaintiff, after the decree of divorce, had sold to him an abstract of title to the property for $10.00. In further answer, in the alternative, he avers that he is entitled to recover from the community which formerly existed between plaintiff’s ■ husband and herself the sum of $1,125.00, made up •of such sums as (1) $350.00, the original purchase price; (2) $150.00, city, parish and state taxes; (3) $25.00, insurance premiums paid on the property; (4) $150.00, for repairs on the improvements; (5) $300.-00 for loss incurred in the surrender of the property; and (6) $150.00 as attorneys’ fees incurred in defending the suit. In the further alternative, he calls in warranty William Mack Smith, his vendor, against whom he seeks a judgment for the amount of $1,125.00.

On May 12, 1941, plaintiff filed a supplemental petition making Sherman Dieson and his wife, Nettie Dieson, parties defendant, to which the defendants filed an exception of no cause or right of action, which exception of no cause or right of action was sustained, hence the appeal and our opinion supra.

Thereafter, defendants Sherman and Nettie Dieson answered and adopted the answer of Tony Marino, their vendor, represented by the attorney of record of Tony Marino, and calling defendant Tony Ma-rino as warrantor in damages.

On June 2, 1943, all of the defendants, Tony Marino, Sherman Dieson and Nettie Dieson, filed a supplemental answer, in which they pleaded the unconstitutionality of Section 4 of Act 35 of 1921, Ex.Sess., as being in contravention of Article XI of Paragraph 1 of the Constitution of 1921, as amended by Act 42 of 1938.

Under these issues, the trial judge, with written reasons assigned, gave judgment in favor of plaintiff and against defendants, recognizing her to be the owner of an undivided one-half interest in and to Lot Two (2), Block “Q”, Plat No. 3, D. J. Reid Subdivision of the City of Lake Charles, Louisiana, with improvements thereon; further decreeing that an accounting be made of all revenues produced by the said property since plaintiff was deprived of her residence therein, subject to rights of defendant to credit for all taxes paid on said property, and all repairs and improvements placed thereon, said credit to be for one-half of the amount expended oh the whole property; and further awarding the plaintiff a fair rental for the use of her one-half interest in said property from the time she was forced to vacate the same, and she to [782] recover one-half the rentals paid by her to Tony Marino; the accounting to be made within a reasonable time. The defendants have appealed. The plaintiff has answered the appeal praying that the judgment be affirmed in so far as it decrees her to be the owner of an undivided half interest in the property involved, but that it be amended so as to give her a money judgment under the evidence in the record.

After a careful review of the record, we find the following facts to be well established: During the marriage of William Mack Smith and plaintiff, the property in contest was acquired by deed dated September 14, 1928, duly recorded in the conveyance records for the Parish of Cal-casieu, from Julia DeVaughan, thus falling into the community then existing between plaintiff and her husband. On July 15, 1935, while plaintiff and her husband were occupying the property as their home, plaintiff executed and filed for record a notarial declaration and designation of this property as a homestead under and by virtue of the provisions of Act 35 of 1921, which notarial declaration and designation was duly recorded in the Conveyance Records of the Parish of Calcasieu. It appears that shortly thereafter, on or about September 10, 1935, plaintiff and her husband became separated, plaintiff continuing to reside on the property while her husband moved away from the property. While thus living separate and apart from each other, plaintiff’s husband, on May 9, 1938, executed a general warranty deed purporting to sell this property to defendant Marino, for a purported cash consideration of $350.00.

Defendant Marino, on or about the date of his purported purchase, notified the plaintiff that she would have to pay him rent thereafter at the rental of $12.00 per month if she desired to continue to occupy the premises, which rental plaintiff paid up to and until the latter part of August, 1938; at which time she became delinquent and eviction proceedings were instituted against her. Plaintiff maintains that she, in the very beginning, informed the defendant Marino that she had had recorded a homestead declaration and could not see wherein her husband could sell the property without her signature, and upon the insistence of Marino, being without means to contest the same, she involuntarily paid him rent.

It further appears that on August 25, 1938, at the time or before the eviction proceedings were taken, defendant Marino attempted to convey, under a contract of sale, the property to Sherman and Nettie Dieson, the other two defendants in this case. Due to the eviction proceedings, the plaintiff involuntarily surrendered the property to these defendants.

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Smith v. Marino, 28 So. 2d 780, 1947 La. App. LEXIS 620 (La. Ct. App. 1947).

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