Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. v. Mire

238 So. 2d 365, 1970 La. App. LEXIS 4777
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. v. Mire. Read the opinion of the Court — 1970 La. App. LEXIS 5257
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided July 29, 1970·No. No. 3214·Published

Opinion

SAVOY, Judge.

This case involves a concursus proceeding by Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation and Continental Oil Company, lessor and operator, respectively, of certain producing property, to have the court determine the ownership of certain royalty interest in said minerals being produced from said land, and to determine the ownership of funds deposited in the Registry of the court. The contest in the instant case is among three sets of claimants, known as Group 1, 2 and 3, defendants. Group 1 and 3 defendants have interests in common, as opposed to Group 2 defendants.

Group 1 is claiming title to the property in dispute through their ancestor, Leon Mire, who purchased the land by deed dated January 5, 1898.

The heirs of Aurelien Caruthers and Aledia Caruthers comprise Group 2 and claim ownership by inheritance.

Group 3 claims ownership of an undivided one-half interest by inheritance from their mother, Emetile Thibodeaux, the wife of Lize Mire, Jr.

The controversy in the instant case is the result of an administrator’s sale wherein Raymond Caruthers, as administrator of the Successions of Aurelien and Aledia Caruthers, husband and wife, secured an order of court on December 2, 1897, to sell said property, and the sale to Leon Mire on January 5, 1898, pursuant to said order of court. Said sale was for the purpose of affecting a partition among the heirs of the successions.

Counsel for Group 2 contend that the administrator’s sale of the succession property is an absolute nullity in view of the provisions of LSA-C.C. Articles 1668 and 1669 which governed such sales at the time of the obtaining of the court order in the above successions. These articles are as follows:

Article 1668: “In default of funds sufficient to discharge the debts and legacies of sums of money, the testamentary executor shall cause himself to be authorized by the court to sell the movables, and if they are insufficient, the immov-ables, to a sufficient amount to satisfy those debts and legacies.”
Article 1669: “Except in the cases provided for in the preceding article, he cannot cause the immovables to be sold, unless he is authorized by the will to do so.”

The contention of Group 2 is that the succession was solvent, and the sale to effect a partition was prohibited by the above cited articles; and therefore was an absolute nullity.

Groups 1 and 3 contend that the validity or invalidity of the sale is of no moment because these parties and their ancestors in title are the owners of said property by virtue of ten and thirty years acquisitive prescription.

The district judge held that the administrator’s sale was an absolute nullity, and that Groups 1 and 3 did not acquire the property by acquisitive prescription and decreed Group 2 to be the owners of the minerals in contest and entitled to the funds in the Registry of the court. Groups 1 and 3 have appealed.

While the district judge discussed the prescription of ten and thirty years in his written reasons for judgment, we were unable to find where Groups 1 and 3 defendants filed any pleas of prescription in the instant case. By letter counsel informed us that there was an agreement of counsel that the litigation could be decided upon the prescriptive questions without the necessity of filing additional pleadings; however, we did not locate any stipulation to this effect in the record before us.

Exercising our authority to correct deficient records, LSA-C.C.P. Art. 2132, and our discretion to prevent a miscarriage of justice through pleading inadvertence, LSA-C.C.P. Art. 2164, we remanded this appeal, see Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation et al. v. Mire et al., 238 So.2d 364, (La.App. 3 Cir. 1970), for purposes [367]*367of permitting the parties to supplement the record by appropriate showing as to ■ the circumstances of the submission of the litigation on the pleas of prescription, including permission for the parties to file such formal pleas in accordance with any agreement of the parties that the issues thereby presented were to be decided by the court even without benefit of formal plea.

The case was returned to this Court by the Clerk of Court for further consideration. We find the following stipulation in the record as supplemented, namely:

“It is stipulated by and between the parties defendant herein on remand the following:
“1. At the time this matter was tried no specific agreement or stipulation was entered into as to filing of any type of special pleas other than the fact that all evidence was introduced without objection by any parties.
“2. Groups one and three offer, file and introduce Pleas of Prescription of two, three, five and thirty years, to which Group Two objects on the following grounds, namely, (a) there was no agreement whatsoever relating to the filing of such pleas or to the effect that such pleas would be considered without the necessity of the filing of formal pleas; (b) the record of all proceedings in the trial is contained in the transcript as originally lodged with the Court of Appeal; (c) there is no authority under the facts of this case and remand order to allow the filing of such pleas or otherwise add to or supplement the record of the proceedings in the trial court; and (d) such pleas cannot be filed after the submission of this case to the Court of Appeal. Subject to these objections the trial court allows the filing of these pleas of prescription.”

As stated before, the trial judge held that the administrator’s sale mentioned herein was an absolute nullity. With this holding we disagree.

In the case of Prestridge v. Humble Oil & Refining Company, 131 So.2d 810 (La.App. 3 Cir. 1961), on rehearing commencing at page 825, this Court thoroughly discussed when a sale is an absolute nullity, and when it is a relative nullity. We conclude that the sale in the instant case is a relative nullity for the reason there is nothing in the sale which derogates from the forces of laws made for the preservation of public order or good morals as set forth in LSA-C.C. Article 11.

In the above stipulation counsel for Group 2 objected to the filing of the pleas of prescription for the reason that they were filed after the case had been submitted to the court for decision. LSA-C.C. Article 3464 provides:

“Prescription may be pleaded in every stage of a cause, even on the appeal, but it ought to be pleaded expressly and specially before the final judgment.”

Since a final decision had not been rendered in this case, we are of the opinion that the pleas of prescription were properly filed under the above codal provision.

We are of the opinion that the pleas of prescription of two and five years as set forth in LSA-C.C. Article 3543, are valid and act as a bar to Group 2’s claim in this case. This article reads as follows:

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Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. v. Mire, 238 So. 2d 365, 1970 La. App. LEXIS 4777 (La. Ct. App. 1970).

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Related

Prestridge v. Humble Oil & Refining Company
131 So. 2d 810 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1961)
Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. v. Mire
238 So. 2d 364 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1970)