Smitko v. Gulf South Shrimp, Inc.

77 So. 3d 1012, 2010 La.App. 1 Cir. 0531, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1228, 2011 WL 4962146
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 19, 2011
Docket2010 CA 0531
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 77 So. 3d 1012 (Smitko v. Gulf South Shrimp, 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
Smitko v. Gulf South Shrimp, Inc., 77 So. 3d 1012, 2010 La.App. 1 Cir. 0531, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1228, 2011 WL 4962146 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

KUHN, J.

| pThis appeal considers whether a trial court erred in granting a summary judgment that confirmed and quieted the title of a tax purchaser where a former property owner was served with a petition to quiet tax title and citation but failed to either timely file a petition to annul the tax sale or file a reconventional demand that prayed to annul the tax sale. We affirm because the former property owner did not institute a timely “proceeding to annul” as required by former La. R.S. 47:2228, and because appellants have not established that the manner in which the sale of the property was conducted deprived them of due process of law.1

[1015]*1015I. PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On June 25, 2003, Jerri G. Smitko acquired full ownership on three tracts of land by purchasing the subject properties at a sheriffs tax sale in Terrebonne IsParish.2 The tax deeds at issue were recorded in the mortgage and conveyance records of Terrebonne Parish on July 7, 2003. The tax sale listed the previous recorded owner of the land as Gulf South Shrimp, Inc. (“GSS”). During the three-year redemption period following recordation of the tax sale, GSS did not redeem the subject properties.3

More than three years after the tax deed was recorded, Smitko filed a petition to quiet tax title on November 16, 2006, pursuant to former La. R.S. 47:2228. Smitko’s petition named GSS as defendant and requested that a curator ad hoc be appointed to represent GSS or its assigns because the last known registered agent of GSS, Vincenzo Marsala, could not be located. Smitko prayed that if no proceeding to annul the tax sale was instituted within six months from 14the date of service of the petition that judgment be rendered in favor of Smitko, quieting and confirming her title in the property.

On December 11, 2006, the attorney ad hoc appointed to represent GSS’s interests accepted service of Smitko’s petition. On December 18, 2006, GSS, through its own retained counsel, filed an answer to the petition that generally denied the allega[1016]*1016tions of Smitko’s petition. GSS further alleged that no notice “was ever sent nor received of tax delinquency.” GSS’s answer prayed for the dismissal of Smitko’s petition.

On July 10, 2007, Source Business and Industrial Development Company, L.L.C. (“Source Bidco”), who claimed to be the holder of a recorded mortgage and security interest in the subject properties, filed a petition of intervention. Therein, Source Bidco united with GSS to resist Smitko’s demand to quiet title to the subject properties, claiming that the “sheriff failed to properly notify [GSS] ” of the tax sale. Source Bidco also identified other lienhold-ers and alleged that these lienholders also had not been notified of the tax sale. Other than admitting that the described tax sale had occurred, Source Bidco generally denied the allegations of the petition. Source Bidco claimed, however, that due to the lack of the proper notice having been sent to “all parties with an interest in the property,” the sale violated federal due process and is null and void. Source Bidco prayed for a judgment annulling the sale upon “the payment of the price and all taxes and costs ... and ten percent per annum interest ... to the ... tax sale purchaser.”

On August 10, 2007, Smitko sold, conveyed, and transferred all of her rights, title, and interest in the subject properties to Dulac Dat, L.L.C. (“Dulac Dat”). Soon after on August 15, 2007, Dulac Dat was formally substituted as the |r,proper party plaintiff. By order dated August 17, 2007, Dulac Dat was awarded possession of the subject properties.4 Thereafter, Dulac Dat filed an opposition to Source Bidco’s intervention in the form of a pleading captioned “Exceptions,” wherein it asserted that Source Bidco lacked procedural capacity, had no cause or right of action, and had no interest to institute the suit.

On April 24, 2008, almost a year-and-a half after GSS’s attorney ad hoc accepted service of Smitko’s petition, GSS filed a supplemental and amending answer, a re-conventional demand against Dulac Dat, and a third party demand against Jerry J. Larpenter, in his capacity as sheriff/e* of-ficio tax collector for Terrebonne Parish (“the Sheriff’ or “Sheriff Larpenter”). In a supplemental and amending answer and reconventional demand, GSS alleged for the first time that the tax sale was an “absolute nullity” on the alleged basis that it neither received any notices of the tax delinquencies from the sheriff nor did it receive any notices of the tax sales of its property. GSS further alleged that the tax sales were conducted by Sheriff Lar-penter on June 25, 2003, for the non-payment of the 2002 ad valorem property taxes, and the only notices sent by the Sheriffs office regarding non-payment of the 2002 taxes were notices purportedly sent to “[GSS], care of Source Bidco, 456 East Airport Avenue, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which address was never the mailing address of [GSS].”5

[1017]*1017|fiGSS also asserted that on April 15, 2003, a monetary judgment was rendered in favor of Coastal Commerce Bank and recorded in the mortgage records of Ter-rebonne Parish and that the Internal Revenue Service filed a notice of federal tax lien in the mortgage records of Terre-bonne Parish. GSS claimed that the June 25, 2003 tax sales are null and void due to the Sheriffs failure to send notices to GSS as the record owner of the property, Coastal Commerce Bank as a known judicial mortgage holder,6 and the IRS as a lien holder. GSS asserted such lack of notice violates procedural due process rights. GSS further claimed that its action to nullify the tax sales was timely filed “on or about December 18, 2005 when the original answer was filed.” GSS prayed for a judgment annulling the tax sale as to each tract of the subject property and the return of GSS’s ownership with recognition of the judicial mortgage and federal tax lien.

Sheriff Larpenter answered GSS’s third-party demand, generally denying GSS’s claims. Dulac Dat responded to GSS’s reconventional demand by filing another pleading captioned, “Exceptions,” wherein it argued that GSS’s “citation was insufficient!;,] the action [was] barred by prescription and p[er]emption[,] ... [GSS had] no cause or right of action to proceed^ and] ... [GSS had used] improper cumulation of actions.”

On July 25, 2008, GSS filed a motion for summary judgment, maintaining there were no genuine issues of material fact that the tax sales of GSS’s property were “nullities” based on “various due process violations.” In support of the motion, GSS filed Sheriff Larpenter’s responses to its request for admission of |7facts, wherein Sheriff Larpenter admitted that the only notices relating to the subject properties that he sent regarding either tax delinquencies or scheduled tax sales were sent to the East Airport Avenue address in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Further, Sheriff Larpenter admitted that he did not send any notice regarding property taxes owed, the delinquency, or scheduled tax sales to any mortgage or judicial lien holder, including First Louisiana Business & Industrial Development Corporation (“First Louisiana Bidco”) and Coastal Commerce Bank.7

Additionally, GSS submitted an affidavit of one of its stockholders, J. Peyton Parker, Jr., who asserted he was familiar with GSS’s business affairs.

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Related

Cititax Group, L.L.C. v. Gibert
108 So. 3d 229 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012)
Smitko v. Gulf South Shrimp, Inc.
94 So. 3d 750 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2012)
Smitko v. Gulf South Shrimp, Inc.
77 So. 3d 1012 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2011)

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Bluebook (online)
77 So. 3d 1012, 2010 La.App. 1 Cir. 0531, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1228, 2011 WL 4962146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smitko-v-gulf-south-shrimp-inc-lactapp-2011.