Taylor v. Taylor

755 So. 2d 341, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 4, 2000 WL 4975
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 6, 2000
DocketNos. 32,517-CA, 32,516-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 755 So. 2d 341 (Taylor v. Taylor) 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
Taylor v. Taylor, 755 So. 2d 341, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 4, 2000 WL 4975 (La. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

JjDREW, J.

From judgments sustaining defendants’ exceptions of prescription and no cause of action and dismissing plaintiffs actions, Emma Taylor appealed. In two actions heard simultaneously by the trial court and consolidated by this court for purposes of the appeals, Taylor sought to have her ownership interest recognized in property which she allegedly inherited from her father. Taylor averred that her daughter sold her father’s property pursuant to an invalid power of attorney, since her father lacked procedural capacity to give plaintiffs daughter and his granddaughter a power of attorney. The judgments of the trial court are reversed and the actions are remanded for further proceedings.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Taylor alleged that Silas Taylor died on December 17, 1936, and left nine heirs including Joe Taylor, plaintiffs father. In Silas Taylor’s succession, Claiborne Parish Probate No. 1358, the heirs inherited undivided interests in immovable property in Claiborne Parish in a judgment of possession signed February 2,1937.

In a petitory action filed October 5, 1998 against Bryant Lewis and Heloise Carter Lewis, plaintiff alleged that she inherited from Joe D. Taylor his portion of Silas Taylor’s property. On September 23, 1988, a cash sale deed, No. 340799, was filed in the conveyance records of Claiborne Parish in which Willie M. Taylor (plaintiffs daughter and Joe D. Taylor’s granddaughter), acting under a power of attorney from Joe D. Taylor dated June 10, 1986, sold his interest in the property to the Lewis defendants. The power of attorney was filed in the public records along with the deed. While acknowledging that the power of attorney from Joe D. Taylor to Willie Marie Taylor appeared valid on its face, plaintiff alleged that Joe D. Taylor lacked capacity to execute a power of attorney. Because the property was owned in indivisión, plaintiff alleged that Willie Marie Taylor could not | ¿validly sell the property, as the co-owners did not concur in the sale. Plaintiff sought to be recognized as lawful owner of the property, to have undisturbed possession and to have sale documents erased from the public records.

In a companion suit for damages and declaratory judgment also filed October 5, 1998, Taylor named as defendants her daughter, Willie Marie Taylor, as well as the Lewises. Plaintiff again set out her allegations concerning her heirship to Joe D. Taylor and the property transfer to the Lewises from Willie Marie Taylor via Joe’s D. Taylor’s invalid power of attorney. Plaintiff alleged that on approximately June 10,1986, Willie M. Taylor, the granddaughter of Joe D. Taylor, obtained his power of attorney. Plaintiff again asserted that Willie M. Taylor could not transfer ownership without the consent of the co-owners. Maintaining Joe D. Taylor was an aged, homeless alcoholic who could neither read nor write, plaintiff averred that her father lacked procedural capacity to execute a valid power of attorney. Plaintiff also alleged that the mandate was invalid because it had not been recorded in the Claiborne Parish conveyance records.

[343]*343On November 3, 1998, in response to both actions, Bryant and Helen Lewis filed peremptory exceptions of no cause of action and prescription. A hearing held on December 17, 1998, consisted of argument of counsel and plaintiffs introduction of the power of attorney from Joe D. Taylor in favor of Willie Marie Taylor, the first page of the deed to the Lewises, the probate record of Silas Taylor, the federal express return receipt and a census record showing Joe Taylor’s date of birth, April 2, 1898.

At its conclusion, the trial court stated that the deed conveyed whatever undivided interest Joe Taylor had in the property. Noting that there were no allegations that the Lewises were parties to any fraud in acquiring Joe Taylor’s 13undivided interest, the trial court sustained the exceptions because the actions were filed more than 10 years after the filing of the power of attorney. In written reasons in the action for damages and declaratory judgment, the trial court found that the deed and power of attorney were filed in the public records on September 23, 1988, and that plaintiffs petition for declaratory judgment and damages was filed October 5, 1998. Citing La. C.C. art. 3499, the trial court held that the claim was barred by 10-years liberative prescription. Prescription runs against incompetents including minors and interdicts unless the law contains an exception. La. C.C. art. 3468. The trial court noted that there is no law suspending prescription against incompetents.

The January 14, 1999 judgment in plaintiffs petitory action sustained the exceptions and dismissed the action with prejudice. On December 29, 1998, the trial court signed the judgment sustaining the exceptions of no cause of action and prescription and dismissed plaintiffs action for damages and declaratory judgment with prejudice. Plaintiff filed these appeals.

DISCUSSION

Plaintiff mistakenly complained that the power of attorney was invalid because it was not recorded. Attached to her petition for damages and declaratory judgment was a copy of the power of attorney from Joe D. Taylor to Willie Marie Taylor and stamped with a conveyance book and page number, indicating recordation. As to plaintiffs complaint that the deed to the Lewises improperly conveyed the entire ownership of the land without the consent of the other undivided owners, the trial court correctly observed that the deed conveyed only Joe D. Taylor’s right, title and interest to the Claiborne Parish real estate; i.e., only what Taylor himself actually owned.

|4A just title is a juridical act sufficient to transfer ownership. The act must be written, valid in form and filed for registry in the conveyance records in the parish where the immovable is located. La. C.C. art. 3483. A just title to an undivided interest in an immovable is such only as to the interest transferred. La. C.C. art. 3484. The comments to this article note that if a co-owner transferred ownership of the entire immovable, a transferee could acquire title to the entire immovable in 10 years if the buyer is in good faith and his possession is sufficiently adverse to the other co-owners. When a co-owner transfers only his undivided interest in the immovable, the transferee acquires just title only to the part transferred. Although the deed did not specifically refer to Joe D. Taylor’s undivided ownership interest, the deed did not convey the property in its entirety but was limited to a transfer of whatever rights Joe D. Taylor had in the property.

Plaintiffs primary argument was that her father was an aged, illiterate, homeless drunkard who lacked procedural capacity to execute a power of attorney to his granddaughter, Wühe Mae Taylor. Therefore, she alleged the deed transferring the property to the Lewises is invalid because it was signed by Willie Mae Tay[344]*344lor under the authority of an invalid power of attorney.

Except for unemancipated minors, interdicts and persons deprived of reason at the time of contracting, all persons have capacity to contract. La. C.C. art. 1918. A contract made by a person without legal capacity is relatively null and may be rescinded only at the request of that person or his legal representative. La. C.C. art. 1919. A noninterdicted person who was deprived of reason at the time of contracting may obtain rescission of an onerous contract based on incapacity only upon showing that the other party knew of or should have known of that person’s incapacity. La. C.C. art.1925. La. C.C.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Succession of Samuel
158 So. 3d 27 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2014)
LeGardeur v. Coleman
131 So. 3d 1035 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
Gipson v. Fortune
30 So. 3d 1076 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
755 So. 2d 341, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 4, 2000 WL 4975, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-taylor-lactapp-2000.