SUCCESSION OF CALDARERA v. Zeno

43 So. 3d 1080, 2009 La.App. 4 Cir. 1397, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1046, 2010 WL 2796440
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 16, 2010
Docket2009-CA-1397
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 43 So. 3d 1080 (SUCCESSION OF CALDARERA v. Zeno) 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
SUCCESSION OF CALDARERA v. Zeno, 43 So. 3d 1080, 2009 La.App. 4 Cir. 1397, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1046, 2010 WL 2796440 (La. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

JOAN BERNARD ARMSTRONG, Chief Judge.

| ,The defendant-appellant, Side by Side Redevelopment, Inc. (“SBS”), appeals a judgment in favor of plaintiffs-appellees, the Succession of Lorena P. Caldarera, et. al1, (hereinafter “the Caldereras”) ordering the redemption of a tax sale to SBS; ordering the plaintiffs to pay SBS he taxes for the years 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2002, together with a five percent penalty and one per cent interest per month from November 10, 2003; enjoining SBS from exercising ownership rights to the property; and condemning SBS to pay all costs.

The plaintiffs filed a motion to dismiss the appeal based on the contention that SBS acquiesced in the judgment of the trial court “by accepting the redemption payment of tax, penalty and interest for the redemption as declared in the judgment, thereby making the matter a moot question.” Another panel of this Court denied the motion to dismiss on February 4, 2010.

The plaintiffs also filed an answer to the appeal asking to have the tax sale declared to be an absolute nullity for lack of due process notice; contending that the trial court erred in awarding taxes for the years 1998 and 1999 because the|2taxes for those years had prescribed; and asking for an award of costs in the trial court and in this Court.

For the reasons hereinafter set forth, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

SBS purchased property belonging to the Caldareras, located at 2231 Milan Street at tax sale on November 10, 2003. The Tax Sale Deed was recorded on March 3, 2004. After the tax sale deed was issued, SBS noticed that the property description said 2237 Milan Street, which is next door to 2231 Milan, and was also owned by the Caldareras. Coincidentally, the 2237 Milan Street property was also for sale at the tax sale, and was a property that SBS also bid on. As the tax sale deed said 2237 Milan, SBS believed that the deed was correct and that its original belief that it had purchased 2231 Milan was in error.

The first issue to be addressed by this Court is the question of nullity raised in the plaintiffs’ Answer to the Appeal because that potentially could be dis-positive of the case. By ordering the redemption pursuant to the reasons quoted above, the trial court implicitly found that notice was valid2. Therefore, we shall proceed on the basis that the trial court implicitly found as a matter of fact that notice of the tax sale was given. Such implicit findings of fact are subject to the manifest error standard of review. Alexis [1084]*1084v. Alton Ochsner Foundation Hosp., 07-0355, p. 6 (La.App. 4 Cir. 8/29/07), 966 So.2d 673, 677; Delaney v. Humana Hosp., 01-0389, p. 7-8 (La.App. 4 Cir. 10/16/02), 830 So.2d 1072, 1078; Ruby v. Jaeger, 99-1235, p. 4 (La.App. 4 Cir. 3/22/00), 759 So.2d 905, 907.

⅞ Due process does not require that a property owner receive actual notice before the government may seize his property. Jones v. Flowers, 547 U.S. 220, 126 S.Ct. 1708, 164 L.Ed.2d 415 (2006). All that is required is notice reasonably calculated, under all circumstances, to apprise interested parties of the pendency of the action and afford them an opportunity to present their objections. Mitchell v. Valteau, 09-1095 (La.App. 4 Cir. 1/27/10), 30 So.3d 1108, n. 5, citing Mennonite Board of Missions v. Adams, 462 U.S. 791, 795, 103 S.Ct. 2706, 77 L.Ed.2d 180 (1983).

Although the plaintiffs offered testimony that they received no notice of the tax sale, there was evidence in the record that the owner who resided at the address to which notices were sent was aged, incoherent, and disabled and had been known to take mail up to her room without the knowledge of her caretakers. From this a reasonable fact finder could deduce that notice was received, but never dealt with properly.

Dr. W. Wesley Allen testified on behalf of SBS that he saw the tax sale notice in the newspaper and that he knocked on the door of 2231 Milan and was told by the tenant that the owners lived across the street. He testified that when he went across the street he met with two women whom he told about the tax sale, who informed him that they were already aware of it.

Plaintiffs’ witness, Lorena Hunsinger, said she thought she learned of it in the newspaper, from which we must necessarily infer that she received notice by publication. However, the Supreme Court of Louisiana noted in Lewis v. Succession of Johnson, 05-1192 (La.4/4/06), 925 So.2d 1172, that:

We have traditionally found that advertisements of tax sales provide insufficient notice, except in the case of unknown owners whose identities are not reasonably ascertainable.

⅛,Id., 05-1192, at p. 11, 925 So.2d at 1179.

In Mennonite, supra, the United States Supreme Court concluded that notice by publication and posting was “designed primarily to attract prospective purchasers to the tax sale” and, consequently, is “unlikely to reach those who, although they have an interest in the property, do not make special efforts to keep abreast of such notices.” Id., 462 U.S. at 799, 103 S.Ct. 2706, 77 L.Ed.2d 180. As a result, the Court concluded that “notice by mail or other means as certain to ensure actual notice is a minimum constitutional precondition to a proceeding which will adversely affect the liberty or property interests of any party, whether unlettered or well versed in commercial practice, if its name and address are reasonably ascertainable.” Id., 462 U.S. at 800, 103 S.Ct. 2706, 77 L.Ed.2d 180. Thus, the notice of the tax delinquency by publication of an advertisement for an upcoming tax sale, alone, does not pass constitutional muster if the owners of the property can be identified or are easily discovered. Lewis, supra, 05-1192, at p. 12, 925 So.2d at 1179.

Plaintiffs argue that there is no evidence in the record that the 20-day notice required by La. R.S. 47:21803 was [1085]*1085served on the plaintiffs. SBS offered the tax sale deed into evidence. A tax sale deed by a tax collector is prima facie evidence of a valid sale. La. Const. Art. VII, § 25 A; Lewis v. Succession of Johnson, 05-1192 (La.4/4/06), 925 So.2d 1172, 1177. Tax sales are presumed valid. Id. Therefore, the burden is not on SBS to produce evidence to prove notice.

The plaintiffs also argue that La. R.S. 47:2180 B4 requires the tax collector to file a proces verbal attesting to the manner in which notice was given to the tax |fidebtor. The plaintiffs further contend that no such proces verbal was filed. However, we find that the proces verbal recitation incorporated into the tax sale deed in the instant case is sufficient to satisfy this requirement and that the proces verbal does not have to be in a separate, stand alone document.

The proces verbal recitation in the tax sale deed refers only to Mrs. Lorena P. Caldarera. The plaintiffs offered evidence in the form of the Judgment of Possession dated February 1, 1991, in the Succession of Charles V. Caldarera that the Succession of Mrs. Lorena P. Caldarera owned a 5/6 interest in the property and that Virginia Caldarera Hunsinger owned the remaining 1/6 interest in the property.

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SUCCESSION OF CALDARERA v. Zeno
43 So. 3d 1080 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2010)

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Bluebook (online)
43 So. 3d 1080, 2009 La.App. 4 Cir. 1397, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1046, 2010 WL 2796440, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/succession-of-caldarera-v-zeno-lactapp-2010.