Vercher v. Cormie

150 So. 2d 818, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1413
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 5, 1963
DocketNo. 789
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 150 So. 2d 818 (Vercher v. Cormie) 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
Vercher v. Cormie, 150 So. 2d 818, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1413 (La. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinions

HOOD, Judge.

Plaintiff, Frank Vercher, by this action seeks to set aside a sheriff’s sale of his house and lot, to annul as a simulation a subsequent sale of that property, and to recover damages alleged to have been sustained by him as a result of his wrongful eviction from premises occupied by him as a .residence. The defendants named in the suit are Henry A. Reid, Jr., Sheriff of Calcasieu Parish, Nolan Cormie, the purchaser at the sheriff’s sale, and Willard J. Francois, the vendee in the deed which plaintiff seeks to annul. After trial on the merits, judgment was rendered by the trial court in favor of defendants dismissing the suit, and plaintiff has appealed from that judgment.

The evidence shows that on April 25, 1957, Home Finance Service, Inc., obtained a default money judgment against Vercher in a suit entitled “Home Finance Service, Inc. vs. Frank Vercher,” which had been filed in the Fourteenth Judicial District Court. A writ of fieri facias was issued under that judgment, and pursuant to that writ a house and lot owned by Vercher and described as “Lot Twenty four (24) of E. F. Gayle Subdivision of Block Ten (1Ó) of Libbyville Subdivision,” in Calcasieu Parish, was seized and was advertised for sale on July 31, 1957. At that offering no bids were received for two-thirds of the appraised value of the property, so the property was not sold. It was again advertised for sale without appraisement on August 28, 1957, and on that date the property was adjudicated to defendant Cormie, as the last and highest bidder, for $500.00. Vercher did not at any time file a claim for a homestead exemption, and he did not attend the sheriff’s sale.

Following the adjudication, Cormie obtained an order of the district court commanding the sheriff to place him, as the adjudicatee, in possession of the property. This order was executed by a deputy sheriff on December 9,1957, at which time Vercher was dispossessed and all of his furniture and belongings were removed from the premises. About seven months later, on July 10, 1958, Cormie executed an act of sale purporting to sell the property to defendant Francois for a price of $7,500.00. Sometime thereafter the property, and some adjoining tracts, were expropriated by the State for highway purposes, and the buildings located on these tracts were removed.

Plaintiff urges a number of grounds upon which he bases his demand for judgment annulling the sheriff’s sale. As one of such grounds he contends that he received no notice of the seizure and of the date on which the property was to be offered for sale. The record shows that the writ of fieri facias was issued on June 13, 1957. On the following day domiciliary service of the notice of seizure and date of offering for sale, and notice to appoint an appraiser, was made by Deputy Sheriff R. V. Kirk, the service being made by delivering the notice to a person living in the house, whose name appears on the return as “Morlline Vercher.” A .return, in proper form, was promptly made. Plaintiff contends that no such person lived on the property. Plaintiff’s wife, whose name is “Maggie Lee Vercher,” did live on the property, however, and we are convinced that the notice was actually delivered to. her, and that the return of such service [820]*820contains a reasonably accurate phonetic spelling of her given name.

Immediately after the first unsuccessful offering by the Sheriff, a notice of seizure and of the date scheduled for the second or postponed sale was issued and served. Deputy Sheriff Henry Little served this notice on Vercher, personally, on August 1, 1957, and a return of service in proper form was promptly made.

We are convinced that Vercher was properly and timely served with notice of seizure and of the dates scheduled for the offering of such property for sale, and that there is no merit to his contention that he received no such notices. In view of this conclusion it is unnecessary for us to consider defendant’s argument that plaintiff is barred by LSA-k.S. 13:3471(17) from attacking the returns of the sheriff’s office, because of the fact that no direct action attacking those returns has .been filed in the same proceeding.

Plaintiff further contends that although he owned Lot 24 of the E. F. Gayle Subdivision at the time of the sheriff’s sale, he had built his home and was living on Lot 25 of that subdivision, which lot is located adjacent to and immediately south of the property which was adjudicated at that sale. He contends that the domciliary service of the notice of seizure and sale made on June 14, 1957, was void because it was not made on a person living in the house which was located on Lot 24. He also contends that he is entitled to damages because he was wrongfully evicted from property which defendant Cormie did not own.

There is no merit to plaintiff’s argument that service of the notice was void, because the law at that time merely required that ■.domiciliary service on a person be made “at the domicile of said person” or “at his place of ordinary residence.” C.P. Articles 186.1 and 654; LSA-R.S. 13:3471 (8). (See also, LSA-C.C.P. Articles 1234 ■and 2293). That was done in this instance, and it is immaterial whether plaintiff’s domicile was or was not located on the property which had been seized.

Plaintiff’s testimony to the effect that he was evicted from Lot 25, instead of Lot 24, is supported by that of a retired right-of-way engineer for the State Highway Department, who stated that he investigated this property in 1957 for the Highway Department and determined at that time that plaintiff was living on Lot 25. A number of other witnesses, however, including that of a civil engineer who surveyed the property for the Highway Department in June, 1957, and Lugenia Duhon who owned and actually lived on Lot 25, testifiéd that at the time of the sheriff’s sale and subsequent eviction plaintiff .resided on Lot 24, being the property which was actually seized and sold. The trial judge concluded .that plaintiff, at that time, was actually residing on Lot 24, and accordingly, that he had been evicted from the property which Cormie had purchased at the sheriff’s sale. We think the evidence clearly supports the conclusion .reached by the trial court.

Plaintiff further contends that no seizure was made of the property prior to the sheriff’s sale, that the appraisers were not sworn as required by law, and that the amount at which the property was appraised was grossly and completely inadequate. The evidence shows that the property was seized and that the appraisers were duly sworn as required by law, so there is no merit to plaintiff’s contrary contentions. On the date scheduled for the initial offering of the property for sale, the two appraisers who had been sworn for that purpose valued the property at $2,000.00. The property was not sold on that date because no bids were received for two-thirds of the appraised value. At the second sale, Cormie’s bid of $500.00 was the highest bid which was received. The fact that no higher bid was received, although the property had been offered at two public sales, indicates that the appraisal was not “grossly and completely inadequate.” Plain[821]*821tiff points out, however, that about a year later, in July, 1958, Cormie purportedly sold the property to Francois for $7,500.00.

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Related

Vercher v. Cormie
152 So. 2d 563 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1963)

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Bluebook (online)
150 So. 2d 818, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1413, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vercher-v-cormie-lactapp-1963.