Wooten v. Jones

18 So. 2d 581, 205 La. 956, 1944 La. LEXIS 722
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 22, 1944
DocketNo. 37095.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 18 So. 2d 581 (Wooten v. Jones) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wooten v. Jones, 18 So. 2d 581, 205 La. 956, 1944 La. LEXIS 722 (La. 1944).

Opinion

ROGERS, Justice.

This case comes here for the second time on an appeal from a judgment ordering Rufus L. Jones and William Jones to vacate and surrender within twenty-four hours a 79-acre cotton farm belonging to Miss M. Edith Wooten, and upon their íailure to do so, directing the sheriff to forthwith eject them in the manner provided by law. The judgment was rendered in two summary proceedings, which were consolidated and tried together, brought under the provisions of Act No. 298 of 1938 by Miss Wooten against Rufus L. Jones and William Jones who, she alleges, were unlawfully occupying her property.

Plaintiff alleges that on December 2, 1935, she acquired the property by purchase from the defendant, Rufus L. Jones, by notarial act which was timely recorded; that after acquiring the property she employed Jones as overseer and furnished him a house in which to live and also, leased him a portion of the property; that in October, 1941, she discharged Jones as her overseer and his lease having expired, she gave him the statutory notice to vacate; that he refused to obey the notice, and suit was brought to eject him.

Plaintiff alleges that she permitted the other defendant, William Jones, son of Rufus L. Jones, to occupy a small house situated near the principal farm dwelling on her property and that she gave him the required notice to vacate, which he refused to do, and suit was also brought to eject him.

Defendants answered the suits denying that plaintiff owned the land and that they occupied the land as lessee, overseer, or by sufferance. They particularly denied that Rufus L. Jones had ever executed a deed to plaintiff, but averred that if any deed was executed, it was obtained by fraud and misrepresentation, without the consent and knowledge of Rufus L. Jones or his wife, and was therefor void.

Upon the hearing of the consolidated cases, plaintiff offered in evidence the act of sale from Rufus L. Jones to her, dated December 2, 1935, and testimony to prove the other allegations of her petitions. When • the attorney for the defendants attempted to cross-examine Mrs. Maude E. Wooten, plaintiff’s mother and the main witness in her behalf, for the purpose of showing that Rufus L. Jones did not execute the act of sale to Miss Wooten or that his signature thereto was obtained through fraud and misrepresentation, the attorney for the plaintiff objected on the *959 ground that the testimony was irrelevant and immaterial; that the deed itself was the best evidence, and that it could not be changed, varied or altered in any manner by parol testimony. The objection was sustained by the trial judge on the ground it was almost impossible to prove that an authentic act had been obtained by fraud and that a party to such an instrument could not show what happened prior to the time of its execution.

The trial judge rendered two separate judgments in favor of the plaintiff, and the defendants appealed. Holding that the trial judge erred in excluding parol testimony to prove the averments of defendants’ answer that Rufus L. Jones did not execute the notarial act of sale conveying the land involved to plaintiff, or that his signature thereto was obtained by fraud and misrepresentation, this Court annulled the judgments and remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with the views expressed. Wooten v. Jones, 200 La. 333, 8 So.2d 46.

After the case was remanded, the defendants filed an amended and supplemental answer in the district court in which they admitted Rufus L. Jones signed the act of sale dated December 2, 1935, thus abandoning the plea of forgery and electing to stand on the defense of fraud, conspiracy and misrepresentation.

The defendant, Rufus L. Jones, alleged in the answer that he could neither read nor write except to sign his name and that he thought the instrument he was signing was the acknowledgment of a future indebtedness to Dr. Wooten, the father of plaintiff, and that he had no idea he was signing an act of sale because the instrument was not read to him. The answer then details various transactions alleged to have taken place between Rufus L. Jones and Dr. Wooten through a period of years.

In their answers, the defendants do not pray that the deed from Rufus L. Jones to plaintiff be annulled. They merely pray that plaintiff’s suit be dismissed.

The case went to trial on the issue of fact as presented by the pleadings, as amended, namely, whether there existed any fraud and misrepresentation in connection with the execution of the act of sale of December 2, 1935, as would justify the court to dismiss the suit. The trial judge after hearing the parties resolved this issue of fact against the defendants and we find nothing in the record that would warrant us to disturb his judgment.

The facts disclosed by the record are as follows: In 1919, Mrs. Emily Choate Jones, wife of Rufus L. Jones, inherited from her mother an undivided one-half interest in the property involved herein and she purchased from her sister the remaining undivided one-half interest thereby vesting her with title to the whole property. In the latter part of 1919, Mrs. Emily Jones and her husband, Rufus L. Jones, executed a mortgage for $1500 in favor of the Federal Land Bank of New Orleans. Some tifne thereafter- — the exact date is not shown — Rufus L. Jones, being in need of funds to pay taxes and installments due on the mortgage held by the Federal Land Bank and to carry on his farming operations, obtained a loan of $1000 from the Bank of Alto, giving the *961 bank two notes of $500 each as evidence of the loan. These notes were secured by an act of mortgage signed by Rufus L. Jones and his wife, Mrs. Emily Jones, covering the tract of land involved in this case. In 1924, these two mortgage notes were purchased from the Bank of Alto by Dr. M. W. Wooten, the father of the plaintiff. Dr. Wooten paid the Bank of Alto $1520 for the two notes, which, in 1926 or 1927, he pledged, as collateral security, to the Mangham State Bank. When one of the notes was about to prescribe, Mr. T. W. Stark, acting for the Mangham State Bank, insisted that Dr. Wooten replace the notes. As Dr. Wooten was unable to comply with the request of Mr. Stark and Rufus L. Jones and his wife, the makers of the mortgage notes, were unable to pay them, the Mangaham State Bank foreclosed the mortgage and bought in the property at sheriff’s sale. The property was adjudicated to the Bank for $2200, and the Bank in compliance with its bid paid the sheriff $155.71, being the amount of costs and taxes, retained in its possession $1923.17 to satisfy the prior mortgage held by the Federal Land Bank and three tax subrogations, and as owner of the notes sued on retained the remainder of its bid, to-wit $121.12, as a credit on the writ.

The Mangham State Bank, which acquired the property at sheriff’s sale on March 12, 1927, sold the property to Tegola, Inc., on December 31, 1927. This sale was made for a cash consideration of $2200. On October 31, 1929, Tegola, Inc., sold the property to Rufus L. Jones for $2248.12, represented by ten notes of $224.81 each, executed by Jones and made payable in from one to ten years after date, with interest.

Rufus L. Jones remained on the farm and was supplied by the plaintiff, through her mother acting as her agent. Jones failed to keep up his payments to the Federal Land Bank and also failed to pay his taxes. Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
18 So. 2d 581, 205 La. 956, 1944 La. LEXIS 722, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wooten-v-jones-la-1944.