Wise v. Johnson

229 So. 2d 197, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5589
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 18, 1969
DocketNo. 11290
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 229 So. 2d 197 (Wise v. Johnson) 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
Wise v. Johnson, 229 So. 2d 197, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5589 (La. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

BOLIN, Judge.

George W. Wise sues to annul .two deeds executed by him purporting to transfer property in Red River Parish to his sister, Jake Wise Johnson, wife of M. S. Johnson, both of whom were made parties defendant. Prior to judgment, Mr. Johnson died and his heirs, children of defendants, were ordered to appear and substitute themselves as defendants. In response to this order the children appeared and disclaimed any interest in the property and requested to be excused from further answering. They prayed that their mother, Jake Wise Johnson, be decreed the owner of the property. Following hearing on a motion for summary judgment the court ruled in favor of plaintiff. Judgment was rendered on the pleadings, the deeds filed in the records and answers to interrogatories propounded by both parties. From judgment declaring the deeds simulations Jake Wise Johnson appeals.

The two transfers under attack are by authentic acts, each reciting a cash consideration of $1000 for the property conveyed by plaintiff to his sister. One deed, dated April, 1962, was filed for record on April 17, 1962; the other, dated May 7, 1963, was filed for record on July 24, 1963. [199]*199Plaintiff alleged no price was paid by defendants and none was agreed upon; that the described deeds were executed for the “convenience” of his sister; that the recited consideration of $1000 in the deeds was fictitious; and that for these reasons the deeds should be declared null and plaintiff should he recognized as owner of a %sth interest in one tract and a fi&th interest in the other.

Plaintiff, by supplemental petition, alleged defendants are acting in fraud of his rights in refusing to reconvey the property to him, and are using the simulations to defraud him of his property. There is no allegation of fraud in the confection of the deeds and from plaintiff’s brief we conclude he no longer pursues any claim of fraud.

Accompanying the original and supplemental petitions were interrogatories to defendants asking if, in fact, the recited cash consideration had been paid and, if not, how much defendants did pay, and in what manner and to whom it was paid.

Defendants filed a motion to suppress the interrogatories and contemporaneously therewith filed an exception of no cause or right of action and a motion for summary judgment. In effect the trial court overruled the motion to suppress by reserving a ruling on the exception pending answers to the interrogatories. The exception of no cause of action was predicated upon plaintiff’s attempt to vary the recitals in an authentic act without alleging fraud, error or duress in the confection of the deeds.

In response to the original interrogatories propounded by plaintiff, defendants answered partly, as follows:

“1. It is a fact that the sum of $1000 in cash was not paid, but there was an equivalent consideration given in the form of the transfer of an undivided interest in another parcel of real estate in Red River Parish, to-wit: the store building and lot now occupied by George Wise Variety Store in Coushatta as will appear from a cash sale deed filed for record in Red River Parish under Registry No. 101, 389 and recorded in Volume 109, Page 524 of the Conveyance Records of said Parish.” (Emphasis added) * * *

After consideration of the above interrogatories and answers thereto, defendants’ exception of no cause of action was sustained. On hearing of an application for a new trial filed by plaintiff the lower court reversed its judgment and rejected defendants’ exception.

Defendants answered, denying plaintiff’s right to question the recitations of receipt of consideration in the deeds from George Wise to Jake Wise Johnson. In the alternative, they alleged the transfers to Mrs. Johnson were all a part and parcel of an arrangement to divide jointly-held properties between plaintiff and Jake Wise Johnson; that the true consideration of the transfer by plaintiff to his sister of his undivided interests in the property described by him in articles 2 and 3 of the original petition was the transfer by Jake Wise Johnson, Mrs. Mattie Wilkinson Stanfill and Caroline Weathersby of their undivided interests in a tract of land, with improvements, in the Town of Coushatta, known as the Wise Department Store. This latter property was described with particularity in a cash sale deed executed by Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Stanfill on October 14, 1961, and signed by Caroline Wilkinson Weathersby on October 16, 1961, which deed was recorded as heretofore set out in the answer to interrogatories filed by defendants. Further, in the alternative, should the court hold the deeds executed by plaintiff were null, then defendant Jake Wise Johnson reconvened and asked to be recognized as owner of an undivided interest in the property conveyed by her to her brother, the plaintiff. Additionally, Mrs. Johnson asked recovery from George Wise on a quantum meruit basis for use by plaintiff of the building.

In connection with this answer interrogatories were propounded to George Wise [200]*200requesting him to state if the consideration recited in the deed of the variety store to him was actually paid. In answer to this question he responded in the negative as to that interest conveyed by defendant, Jake Wise Johnson.

To the reconventional demand, plaintiff filed a general denial and further asserted that the use of the property conveyed by plaintiff to defendant was of sufficient value to offset any demand of defendants for recovery on a quantum meruit basis for use of the Wise Variety Store property-

Sometime subsequent to the filing of the answer and reconventional demand plaintiff filed a motion for summary judgment alleging there was no genuine issue of a material fact. Opposition to this motion was filed by defendants on numerous grounds, the two we deem most pertinent being:

“(a) there are, as is shown by the pleadings, the interrogatories and the answers thereto, which are already before the Court, disputed issues of fact, and the disputes among the parties are not subject to disposition in a summary way;
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“(c) though it appears from the interrogatories and answer thereto already before this court that the recited cash considerations were not paid in the several deeds involved, it is contended by defendants that there was consideration for the transfers of title effected by those deeds, and determination of this factual issue must be made on the basis of evidence to be adduced

The court granted plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, annulled the transfers to defendant and reserved any right plaintiff might have to bring appropriate action to recover any loss he may have suffered as a result of the execution and filing for record by defendants of any deed or mortgages affecting the property described.

Appellant specifies numerous errors were committed by the trial court, urging that the court should have rejected plaintiff’s demands, without requiring appellant to answer interrogatories in view of the clear and positive language found in the following articles of Louisiana Civil Code:

Art. 2236:

“The authentic act is full proof of the agreement contained in it, against the contracting parties and their heirs or assigns, unless it be declared and proved a forgery.”

Art. 2237:

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Related

Barnett v. Barnett
339 So. 2d 495 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1977)
Wise v. Johnson
241 So. 2d 534 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1970)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
229 So. 2d 197, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5589, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wise-v-johnson-lactapp-1969.