Succession of Scott

480 So. 2d 1022, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 10573
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 16, 1985
DocketNo. 85-CA-461
StatusPublished

This text of 480 So. 2d 1022 (Succession of 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
Succession of Scott, 480 So. 2d 1022, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 10573 (La. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

CHEHARDY, Judge.

Hilliard C. Fazande II appeals a judgment in favor of his half-brother, Lorenzo A. Scott II, annulling a 1978 judgment under which Fazande had been declared owner of certain real estate formerly a part of their mother’s succession. On appeal Fa-zande asserts the trial judge erred in failing to find that the annulment action had prescribed; alternatively, that the trial court erred in finding Scott was a “defendant who has not been served with process as required by law” within the meaning of LSA-C.C.P. art. 2002.

Hilliard Fazande II is the elder son of decedent Alther Scott, the offspring of her marriage to Hilliard Fazande Sr. Lorenzo Scott II, her younger son, was born during her marriage to Lorenzo Scott Sr. Fa-zande II and Scott II are" her only forced heirs. Mrs. Scott died on September 15, 1975, apparently intestate, and her husband Lorenzo Scott Sr. was appointed administrator of her succession.

Subsequently an olographic testament by Mrs. Scott was discovered in which her son Hilliard Fazande II was named executor. Fazande, an attorney at law, had the court remove his stepfather as administrator and was himself duly appointed executor. Among the assets of the succession was an undivided interest in a house and lot located at 1411 Franklin Avenue in Gretna, Louisiana. The other co-owners of the property were Lorenzo Scott Sr., decedent’s husband, and Emma Tasker Loveless, who is [1024]*1024decedent’s mother and the grandmother of the two litigants before us.

On February 9, 1978, Fazande filed a document styled “Petition to Establish Ownership in Succession Property and to Invalidate Sale,” which alleges that Hilliard Fazande II’s mother, stepfather and grandmother had conspired fraudulently to deprive him of ownership of the property at 1411 Franklin Avenue. Specifically, the petition alleged that 1411 Franklin Avenue had been the separate property of Hilliard Fazande Sr.; that Fazande II had inherited that property in full ownership from his father and was placed in possession of it on November 21, 1961; that, at that time, Fazande was a college student in Nebraska; that Fazande had granted one Henry Huckabee power of attorney for the exclusive purpose of placing Fazande in possession of his father’s succession; that on December 6, 1961 the power of attorney was used to confect an act of sale transferring the Franklin Avenue property from Fazande to Alther Scott, Lorenzo Scott Sr. and Emma Loveless, without Fazande’s knowledge; that he never received any of the monies recited as consideration in the act of sale; that he had learned of the nature of the transaction only recently.

On its face, the petition lists Lorenzo Scott II, Lorenzo Scott Sr. and Emma Task-er Loveless as joint petitioners with Hilli-ard Fazande. Attached to the petition are verifications purportedly signed by Fa-zande, Scott Sr. and Loveless. Although the petition recites that Scott II joins in the petition it contains no verification by him.

On the same date the above petition was filed, the district judge signed an ex parte judgment entitled “Judgment of Possession in Regards to Ownership of Succession Property and to Invalidate Sale.” That judgment declared Fazande II to be owner of the property at 1411 Franklin Avenue, charged the Succession of Alther Scott, Lorenzo Scott Sr. and Emma Loveless 16 years of rental for use of the property and gave them credit for improvements made thereon. It is this judgment that is the subject of the nullity action.1

On February 10, 1983, Lorenzo Scott II and Emma Loveless filed a petition to annul the judgment of February 9, 1978. They alleged that the judgment had been rendered ex parte; that although Scott II, Scott Sr. and Loveless had been listed as petitioners in Fazande’s “Petition to Establish Ownership of Succession Property and to Invalidate Sales,” upon which the judgment was based, none of those three were aware of the contents of the petition or of its existence; that at the time Fazande’s petition was filed, Lorenzo Scott II was a college student in Texas and knew nothing of the petition; that as a legal heir of Alther Scott, Scott II had seizen of a one-sixth interest in the property at 1411 Franklin Avenue, Gretna; that alienation of succession property under administration may take place only after compliance with the rules set forth in the Code of Civil Procedure; that accordingly the judgment of February 9, 1978 should be annulled for vices of form and of substance.

Fazande filed an exception of prescription on the ground that more than one year had passed since Scott II learned of the existence of the judgment.

At the combined trial of the exception and the merits, counsel stipulated that a letter dated May 6, 1980 to Hilliard Fa-zande II was written by Daniel Ranson, attorney at law, on behalf of his client Lorenzo Scott, II. That letter contained a statement that the ex parte judgment of February 9, 1978 had no effect on Lorenzo Scott II because he had not joined in the petition and had not been served with the petition regarding ownership.

Fazande argued this proved that Scott knew of the alleged fraud or ill practice by May 6, 1980 yet he had not brought his action to annul within the one year limita[1025]*1025tion of LSA-C.C.P. art. 2004. Scott argued that , although an action for annulment on the ground of fraud may have prescribed, the judgment was also void for a vice of form under LSA-C.C.P. art. 2002, in that he had no knowledge of the petition and had not been served. Fazande responded that, as a named petitioner in the 1978 petition, Scott was not required to be served with the petition and that even if the inclusion of Scott as a petitioner was unauthorized, that was a fraudulent practice and therefore a vice of substance.

Scott testified that he was a student at Bishop College in Dallas, Texas from January 1977 until November 1980. He first learned of the February 9, 1978 judgment in the fall of 1980 through his grandmother. He contacted an attorney, Ranson, who filed a motion of some kind. Scott did not know why that motion had never been pursued.

He stated he had never received a copy of the petition upon which the 1978 judgment was based and he had no knowledge of that proceeding or the judgment. Scott said even if he had known Fazande had filed it he would never have agreed to it.

The trial judge concluded that the ground for annulment asserted by Scott fit under both C.C.P. arts. 2002 and 2004, that it was a vice of form as well as a vice of substance. Accordingly, the judge denied the exception of prescription and granted judgment in Scott’s favor, annulling the judgment of February 9, 1978 and ordering inscription of the judgment cancelled from the parish mortgage and conveyance records.

C.C.P. art. 2002 states,
“A final judgment shall be annulled if it is rendered:
“(1) Against an incompetent person not represented as required by law;
“(2) Against a defendant who has not been served with process as required by law and who has not entered a general appearance, or against whom a valid judgment by default has not been taken; or
“(3) By a court which does not have jurisdiction over the subject matter of the suit.
“Except as otherwise provided in Article 2003, an action to annul a judgment on these grounds may be brought at any time.”

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Bluebook (online)
480 So. 2d 1022, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 10573, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/succession-of-scott-lactapp-1985.