White v. Jones

251 So. 3d 577
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 27, 2018
DocketNo. 52,166–CA
StatusPublished

This text of 251 So. 3d 577 (White v. Jones) 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
White v. Jones, 251 So. 3d 577 (La. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

PITMAN, J.

Defendants Lester L. Jones and Ed White Sr., L.L.C. ("the LLC"), appeal a judgment which granted an injunction prohibiting them from entering or disturbing the house and other outbuildings constructed by Lawrence Edmond White ("LEW"), and currently occupied by heirs of his succession ("the succession"), on 160 acres of land owned by the LLC, until further order of the court. The judgment also recalled and vacated a judgment of eviction obtained by the LLC against the occupant of the house and outbuildings and granted the heirs of LEW the right to use, possess and occupy them until further order of the court. Although the judgment addressed other issues, they were not raised in this appeal. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

FACTS

Ed White, Sr., and his wife owned 160 acres of land in Claiborne Parish located in the NE ¼ of Section 16, Township 23N, Range 7W. After his death, his wife was recognized in his succession's judgment of possession, rendered in December 1953, as the owner of a ½ interest in the 160 acres, and his nine children were recognized as owning a 1/18 interest each.

Through various unestablished transactions, Claiborne Manor Nursing Home, Inc., acquired an interest in the property through a sheriff's deed dated December 15, 1999. After the nursing home acquired its interest in the property, 12 owners of the 160 acres created the LLC and each donated his interest in the 160 acres to the LLC. Although no cash exchanged hands, the transfers appear in a document entitled "cash deed" filed in the Claiborne Parish Conveyance Records on September 12, 2001, which stated that they were conveying their interest "together with all and singular improvements thereon and all rights thereunto belonging." Although the document is styled as a cash deed, the consideration for the transfer of ownership states it is made,

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD said described property unto said purchaser, its heirs and assigns forever.
*579This sale is made for the consideration of an ownership interest in ED WHITE, SR., L.L.C. proportionate to the interest owned in the land [.] (Emphasis added.)

Once the LLC was formed, it purchased the nursing home's interest in the 160 acres by cash deed dated September 25, 2001, to reconsolidate ownership in the family LLC. Jones was named as its manager. At the time of the creation of the LLC, all 12 of the transferees to the LLC were direct lineal descendants of Ed White, Sr. One of these transferees was LEW. He was the only transferee who lived on the 160 acres when the LLC was established and at the time he transferred his interest in the land in return for a 5.6 percent interest in the LLC and its assets. He reinforced his continuous possession and use of the land by improving the home in which he was living and by moving various other buildings, workshops, and storage units (collectively, "the buildings") on the land. None of the other members of the LLC or Jones ever challenged LEW's right to live on the property, and LEW never sought permission to do so since he had lived there for many years before and after the LLC was created.

When the LLC was created, LEW was not given an increased percentage in the LLC or additional compensation for the value of the buildings on the property. Those improvements were separately assessed to him by the Claiborne Parish Tax Assessor as owner until one week following his death on May 26, 2014. On June 2, 2014, Jones unilaterally directed the tax assessor to change the assessment of the buildings in the parish records from LEW to the LLC.

The land and buildings were appraised in 2016, and the total value was $440,000, with LEW's house being valued at $139,932, and the other buildings at $15,000, for a total of $154,932. The remaining value of $285,068 was attributed to the land. The value LEW had in the buildings at the time he made his transfer to the LLC was not established.

LEW's daughter, and administratrix of his succession, Audrey White Wiley, filed the succession in Claiborne Parish and alleged that LEW had three children, Audrey White Wiley, Margaret Ann White and Shaneque Sherill White. Following LEW's death, Audrey gave Margaret permission to occupy LEW's home. Although it is unclear, LEW's heirs believed they were entitled to occupy the home since it was their father's property, and so they put up a "No Trespassing" sign, but Jones believed the property had reverted to the LLC at LEW's death and, therefore, belonged to the LLC.

Jones began the process of evicting LEW's heirs from the property. In addition to having the tax assessor change the assessment to the LLC, he sent a demand letter to Audrey and Margaret stating that they had no right to be in their father's home despite the fact that all of his personal assets were there.

On July 8, 2014, Gwendolyn Livingston, a member of the LLC, filed a petition for eviction against the heirs of LEW. On August 28, 2014, Audrey received a judgment of eviction signed by a justice of the peace ("JOP") ordering delivery of the home on August 25, 2014. LEW's heirs claim they never received any notices pertaining to the eviction proceeding and did not appear at the hearing held before the JOP.

As a result of receipt of this judgment of the JOP, the succession filed this suit against Defendants. It claimed that during his lifetime, LEW was not advised that anyone was claiming ownership of the buildings and that the LLC did not pay him for them when it only gave him compensation *580of the 5.6 percent ownership in the LLC. Further, it claimed that the deed contained inadvertent language that did not identify what he was conveying as reflected by the fact that, thereafter, he was taxed 100 percent for the buildings. It also claimed that Jones's unilateral change in the tax assessment was fraudulently made without legal authority. It requested that the succession at least be compensated for the value of the buildings LEW had placed on the land. For these reasons, it prayed for review of the judgment of eviction from the JOP, for an injunction as to the relief granted by the JOP pending the trial on the merits, and that an injunction be issued prohibiting Jones and any member of the LLC from entering upon LEW's property, including all of his buildings, equipment and vehicles, and ordering them to return all assets they had already removed.

The succession filed a motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of whether the transfer to the LLC included the separate immovable buildings without further payment for them and whether extra consideration should be paid or the sale rescinded. It claimed that these issues could be determined by the trial court since there were no genuine issues of material fact as to the effect of the transaction from LEW to the LLC.

A hearing was set on the injunctive relief request for October 13, 2014; however, it was continued at Defendants' request. At a status conference in March 2017, the parties agreed that the full case and the succession's motion for summary judgment would be heard on March 16, 2017. On that date, the record was held open for Defendants to obtain and submit another appraisal or to evaluate the succession's appraisal; however, they never provided another appraisal, and the court considered the matter to be submitted for decision.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
251 So. 3d 577, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-jones-lactapp-2018.