Williams v. Reynolds
| Decision Date | 26 March 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 16114-CA,16114-CA |
| Citation | 448 So.2d 845 |
| Parties | Rudolph WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Roy REYNOLDS, et ux., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Cameron C. Minard, Columbia, for plaintiff-appellant.
Paul B. Wilkins, Columbia, for defendant-appellee.
Before PRICE, HALL and NORRIS, JJ.
This is an eviction suit. Plaintiff appeals the trial court judgment denying his prayer for eviction of the defendants from the leased property.
He contends the trial court erred in allowing defendants-lessees to question the title of their lessor, in considering the outcome of a petitory action allegedly concerning the subject property which was pending at the time of plaintiff's rule to evict, and in taking the matter under advisement and failing to render judgment for more than six months.
In March 1982 plaintiff and defendants entered into an oral month-to-month lease of plaintiffs' small tract of land in the southwest corner of Section 18, T 14 N, R 5 E, fronting on the Boeuf River in Caldwell Parish. The price agreed upon was $35.00 per month which was paid for the month of March. Defendants placed their mobile home on the property. Defendants failed to pay the rent due for the months of April and May and on May 13, 1982, plaintiffs filed suit seeking the past due rent, recognition of his lessor's lien and privilege on defendants' mobile home, and eviction of defendants. Defendants responded to this suit with a general denial answer filed in proper person.
An intervention was filed by parties collectively known as the "Brown Heirs" who claimed to be the true owners of the property leased to defendants, and alleging that they had entered into a written lease of the property with defendants. The intervention was dismissed on an exception of no cause of action.
After trial of the matter, judgment was rendered in this first suit on August 5, 1982, awarding plaintiff four months' past-due rent in the amount of $140 and recognizing plaintiff's lien and privilege on defendants' mobile home, but denying the prayer for eviction. This judgment stated that the "lease contract is recognized and will continue in effect until further proceedings." No appeal was taken from this judgment.
At this point, plaintiff simply wanted the lease terminated and purportedly had his attorney so inform defendants by letter. However, there is no letter to this effect in the record. Sometime thereafter, defendants tendered to plaintiff a check dated August 30, 1982, in the amount of $70 purporting to be rent for August and September. Plaintiff took the check to his attorney who returned it and wrote defendants another letter dated September 1, 1982, stating plaintiff desired to terminate the lease. On October 13, 1982, plaintiff filed this rule in the same numbered proceedings as the first eviction suit. Hearing was held November 18, 1982, at which defendants did not appear but were represented by their appointed curator.
Plaintiff testified that he had a small piece of property located across the road from his house and fronting on Boeuf River which he leased to defendants on a monthly basis; that defendants paid one-month's rent, missed a month's rent and he sued them; that defendants paid the judgment resulting from that suit, satisfying the rent through July 1982; that he then refused to accept further rent and took steps to notify them of termination of the lease through his attorney.
Over objection of plaintiff's counsel, defendants introduced into the record a copy of the lease granted to them by the Brown Heirs on property which they claim to be the same land they leased from plaintiff. The trial court took the matter under advisement and after a long delay dismissed plaintiff's demand for eviction, continuing defendants in possession of the property. This conclusion was apparently reached on the basis of a trial court ruling in favor of the Brown Heirs in a suit concerning certain property located in Caldwell Parish and...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Williams v. Bass
...an ordinary proceeding. See Vicknair v. Watson-Pitchford, Inc., 348 So.2d 695 (La.App. 1st Cir.1977). See also Williams v. Reynolds, 448 So.2d 845, 847 (La.App. 2d Cir.1984): La. C.C.P. Articles 4701 through 4705 provide a summary process for eviction of a lessee by a lessor because the lea......
-
Jackson v. Campco of Monroe, Inc.
...Art. 3438. A lessee cannot question the title of his lessor. Stinson v. Marston, 185 La. 365, 169 So. 436 (1936); Williams v. Reynolds, 448 So.2d 845 (La.App. 2d Cir.1984). An eviction proceeding allows the lessor or the owner of immovable property to evict an occupant or lessee without obs......
-
Carriere v. Frank A. Occhipinti, Inc.
...as to ownership of property must be adjudicated in an ordinary proceeding and not in a summary eviction proceeding. Williams v. Reynolds, 448 So.2d 845 (La.App. 2d Cir.1984). Nor do we rule on Bank of Louisiana's mortgage rights, as evidence pertaining to that issue is not in the record. In......