Saucier v. Crichton, 11155.

• Decision Date: 08 February 1945
• Docket Number: No. 11155.,11155.
• Citation: 147 F.2d 430
• Parties: SAUCIER v. CRICHTON et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

147 F.2d 430 (1945)

SAUCIER v. CRICHTON et al.

No. 11155.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

February 8, 1945.

E. Leland Richardson, of Baton Rouge, La., for appellant.

R. D. Watkins, of Minden, La., for appellees.

Before SIBLEY, WALLER, and LEE, Circuit Judges.

LEE, Circuit Judge.

In appropriate condemnation proceedings the United States on April 9, 1942,¹ acquired title to certain lands in Webster Parish, Louisiana, including three tracts referred to as A-12, A-38, and D-1. All the property taken was described with particularity, all known and unknown claimants were cited to appear, and the sum of money estimated to be just compensation for the land was deposited in the registry of the court. A curator ad hoc was appointed to represent absent and unknown claimants, and the market values of the three tracts were determined by a jury. On this appeal we are only concerned with a controversy between appellant and appellees, who filed answers in the condemnation proceedings setting up adversary claims upon two-thirds of the amount found by the jury to be just compensation for the three tracts.

Appellant's claim of title was founded upon two deeds. The first, from Mrs. Ida F. Neal to appellant dated October 31, 1923, purported to convey certain described lands in Webster Parish, Louisiana, and "all my right, title, and interest in any other land situated in Webster Parish, Louisiana, whether here described or not. My interest in said lands having been inherited by me under the terms of the will of my late husband, T. B. Neal, deceased." The property in controversy was not particularly described in this deed, but the records of the Parish at the time showed that a two-thirds interest therein stood in the name of T. B. Neal at the time of his death. The second deed was executed on August 24, 1942, by Wachovia Bank and Trust Company, as trustee for Mrs. Martha Ashcraft Chandler and as trustee and guardian for Clarence Ashcraft Chandler, Jr., which deed conveyed to appellant by quitclaim without warranty all the rights, titles, and interests of the grantors in the three tracts. Both deeds were duly recorded. Appellees asserted title under a deed dated October 17, 1900, from T. B. Neal to Thomas Crichton.

After the respective claimants had filed answers to the petition in condemnation, appellees moved to dismiss appellant's claim for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The court denied this motion, holding that, though appellant's deed from Mrs. Neal conveyed nothing because the description was inadequate, appellant might have acquired some interest in the fund under his deed from the Wachovia Bank. Appellees also deposited in court the amount, with interest, of the purchase price paid by appellant to Wachovia Bank for the quitclaim deed and moved that appellant be required to accept same and to release to appellees all rights that he had acquired under the deed. The ground of this motion was that the sale to appellant involved the transfer of a litigious right which, under Louisiana law, appellees were entitled to have released to them upon payment of the purchase price. The court granted this motion, and from the judgment entered thereon this appeal was brought.

On April 2, 1884, T. B. Neal, the common author from whom all parties claim, acquired the three tracts by act duly recorded in the conveyance records of Webster Parish, Louisiana. On July 23, 1887, he sold and conveyed to A. Goodwill, by deed duly recorded, an undivided one-third interest in said properties. On October 17, 1900, he executed and conveyed to Thomas Crichton, under whom appellees claim, an undivided one-third interest in lands in Webster Parish, the description of which was identical to said three tracts except that the deed recited that the lands were located in Township 18 North, Range 10 West, instead of Township 18 North, Range 9 West, the true location.

On April 11, 1902, T. B. Neal died testate at his home in Georgia. His will left certain interests in his properties to Mrs. Ida F. Neal, his surviving widow and second wife, and the remaining interests in said properties to Mrs. Emma Neal Douglas, a daughter by his first wife. Mrs. Ida F. Neal, on October 31, 1923, executed to appellant the deed hereinbefore described. Mrs. Emma Neal Douglas, subsequent to her father's death, married Clarence A. Chandler; whether she was divorced from Douglas or he in the meantime had died is not made clear in the record. On May 21, 1922, she died testate at her home in New York. Under her will all of her properties were devised to her husband, Clarence A. Chandler. Clarence A. Chandler died testate on October 25, 1932, at his home in North Carolina. Under his will, after making certain bequests, his properties were devised to his surviving widow and second wife, Mrs. Martha A. Chandler, and his minor son, issue of his marriage to her, Clarence A. Chandler, Jr.

The wills of T. B. Neal, Mrs. Emma Neal Douglas, and Clarence A. Chandler were duly probated, following their death, in the courts of the states wherein each was residing at the time of death; and in separate proceedings filed in November of 1942, in the District Court of Webster Parish, Louisiana, the probate of each of said wills was recognized and each of said wills ordered enforced in Louisiana.²

Subsequent to the death of Clarence A. Chandler, the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was duly qualified in that State under his will as trustee for the benefit of Mrs. Martha A. Chandler, his widow, and trustee and guardian of the estate of his minor son, Clarence A. Chandler, Jr. Under proceedings before the clerk of the Superior Court of Moore County, North Carolina, said bank was authorized by order of that court of date August 24, 1942, to convey to appellant, in consideration of the payment of $400.00 cash, all of the rights, titles, and interests of Mrs. Martha A. Chandler and of the minor Clarence A. Chandler, Jr., to said three tracts of land, and on August 24, 1942, said bank, as trustee for Mrs. Martha A. Chandler and as guardian of the minor, Clarence A. Chandler, Jr., executed a quitclaim deed, without warranty, to appellant, conveying all of their rights in and to the three tracts of land by specific description.

The two questions before us are:

1. Was the blanket clause in the deed from Mrs. Ida F. Neal to appellant null and void for want of description?

2. Was the purchase by appellant from the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company, as trustee and guardian, the purchase of a litigious right under Louisiana law?

The lower court held that the blanket clause in the deed from Mrs. Ida F. Neal to appellant conveyed nothing, "being void for want of description," citing, Daigle v. Calcasieu National Bank in Lake Charles, 200 La. 1006, 9 So.2d 394; and Baldwin v. Arkansas-Louisiana Pipe Line Company, 185 La. 1051, 171 So. 442, 445. We think the cases cited do not sustain the lower court's ruling. In the Baldwin case a patent had been acquired by Samuel W. Mays to certain lands in Caddo Parish, Louisiana; the patent was never recorded in that Parish. After his death in 1881, leaving other real estate in that Parish, his heirs conveyed specifically described property belonging to his estate, the deed reciting that it was the intention to convey all of the deceased's property, whether described or not. One claimant claimed title to the property in controversy under this blanket description; other persons claimed title to same under a recorded chain of title from a common author in which the property was specifically and correctly described and under which adverse possession had been had for more than ten years. Under such facts the court in a petitory action³ held that as between the defendants in possession under deed specifically describing the property and the plaintiff claiming title under the blanket clause in deeds out of the heirs of May, said deeds were void for want of description of the thing sold. In that case the court said: "The question as to what effect these deeds from heirs of May may have had between the parties to them is not before us."

In the Daigle case one Miller attempted to sell to Daigle the vendor's undivided one-half of the whole interest "in all the property that he now possesses in his name at the present date in Calcasieu Parish and St. Landry Parish, both real estate and personal property." 200 La. 1006, 9 So. 2d 395. At that time Miller owned some property in Calcasieu Parish; this property was seized and sold under a judgment obtained against Miller. The purchaser at the sheriff's sale under this judgment was held to have acquired a valid title, the reason given being that the description in the deed from Miller to Daigle was insufficient to affect third persons, meaning third persons acquiring a claim to the property out of Miller. In that case the court said:

"In the same way, in the present case, the deed from David Miller to Zepherin Daigle, of a half interest in all of the property owned by Miller in Calcasieu Parish might have given Daigle the right to demand a deed describing specifically the 202.18 acres owned by Miller. That fact was recognized by Miller's subsequent transfer of the 202.18 acres to Daigle by specific description; but the transfer was recorded too late to affect the title which in the meantime had been acquired from Miller by the sheriff's deed to Edward J. Sullivan and Pierre Theaux, from whom the defendant in this case holds title by mesne conveyances."

See also United Gas Public Service Co. v. Mitchell, 188 La. 651, 177 So. 697, 698, in which the right of a vendee, claiming under a blanket clause in his deed, to require execution of an instrument with specific description was recognized.

The situation with respect to the sale from Mrs. Ida F. Neal to appellant, however, was different from that before the court in any of the cases referred to. Appellees...