Articles Posted in Real Estate

Normally, people pay extra for waterfront property but prefer for their yard to be on a lake front, have an ocean view, or even have a pond on the property. Most would not consider having a home built on an improperly graded yard that fills up with water every time it rains a desirable body of water to have on the property. This is exactly what happened to Debbie Shepard in May of 2009 when her backyard had a hole in it that was promised to be fixed before the closing of the house. Luckily for her, she was entitled to remedies under the Louisiana New Home Warranty Act (“NWHA”).

Debbie Shepard purchased a lot with a newly constructed home on it built by Robinson Construction. Before closing on the property, Shepard noticed that water was pooling up in the backyard every time that it rained, and notified Robinson Construction. Robinson said that it would be fixed before the finalization of the sale of the property. The problem was still not fixed by the time of closing and wasn’t addressed until months after Shepard had moved into the home. Robinson installed three pipes in the back yard that were meant to alleviate and reroute the water from the backyard but instead made the pooling problem much worse. Robinson then refused to fix the problem, which led to Shepard filing the lawsuit against the company.

Robinson argued that under La. R.S. 9:3144, the warranty did not include any damage that was caused or worsened by a change in grading of the ground made by anyone other than the builder or their agents, It also argued that the damage was not a result of poor construction by the builder.

Below is a case of a home sale in St. Bernard Parish that didn’t go all too well. In this case, communications between the parties to the sale were delayed and the sale never went through. The case highlights the need to be diligent when buying or selling real estate and the necessity of having a good real estate lawyer.

The sellers, David and Gwendolyn Hopkins, placed a home for sale in Arabi, Louisiana. Juanita Coco, an interested buyer, contracted with a representative of Prudential Realtors in order to buy that same home. Both the Hopkins and Ms. Coco signed an Act of Sale agreement that was contingent upon Ms. Coco being able to obtain financing in the amount of $152,200. The Act of Sale, by agreement, was supposed to be completed by a deadline of April 4, 2008, with the option to extend the deadline.

Ms. Coco hired an appraiser to determine the value of the home. The appraiser told Ms. Coco that because the house was located in an area that was previously affected by Hurricane Katrina, the appraiser had to list the home at a value that was considerably less than the asking price. The original asking price of the home was $152,500 and the appraisal price was $147,000.  Since it was appraised below the asking price, Ms. Coco’s lender, Countrywide Bank, stated that it would not approve Ms. Coco’s home loan if the asking price was not reduced. The Hopkins signed an amendment to the original Act of Sale to have the original price reduced to the appraisal price. They faxed it to Dane Ruffins, a Prudential representative, after business hours on April 3, 2008. Ms. Ruffins did not receive the amendment until the morning of April 4, 2008. The same day that, Ms. Ruffins also received a letter from Countrywide Bank stating that the loan would not be approved.

Expropriation is the act of the government taking privately owned property and using it for the benefit of the public. Generally, most expropriation cases deal with the construction of public roadways and highways. Where the land is expropriated, the private landowner is generally compensated. In one particular matter involving the expropriation of land to build a highway, valuing the trees on the land became more troublesome than anticipated.

In this Louisiana case, involving the expropriation of two parcels of land located in Avoyelles Parish, the court of appeals conducted an appellate review of the matter twice. After the judgment in the second trial of the matter, the State of Louisiana, through the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), appealed the trial court’s judgment which awarded compensation for the value of the land taken for construction of a new highway.

There were two parcels of land that were the subject of dispute. Parcel No. 2-1 and Parcel No. 2-2. The main dispute, among others, was the valuation of the trees on the respective parcels that were expropriated in order to build the new highway. The trial court awarded monetary compensation to the landowners for the presented value of the land taken.

When purchasing property, buyers should be aware of rights reserved by others in the deed. Certain reservations of rights made by an original owner can continue to haunt a parcel of property through successive conveyances and multiple owners. In Louisiana, the language in a deed can create a personal servitude,  a charge or burden on a piece of property for the benefit of another person. Personal servitudes are not automatically extinguished at death and may be inheritable by descendants of the beneficiary. For example, a seller may reserve hunting rights for his or her family on the newly purchased property for generations. Needless to say, disputes often arise regarding the breadth and depth of such reservations. When interpreted by a court, the intent of the original parties in negotiating the reservation is key, as shown by a recent decision of the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal.

The dispute, in this case, involved two adjoining parcels of property in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. One parcel was owned by Kirby Roy Jr. and his wife Marjorie. Kirby Roy, III and his wife Sheila owned the other. In 1980, the couples sold their parcels to Douglas and Ralph J. Bordelon, reserving any and all hunting rights on the property described in the deeds. After a foreclosure proceeding, Nelson A. Bordelon, Wayne L. Gremillion, and Richard Tassin purchased the property in 1991. The three purchasers partitioned the property among themselves.

During the various conveyances, the Roy family continued to hunt on the property much to the dismay of the new owners. The new owners questioned whether the Roys retained their reservation of hunting rights after the 1991 purchase. Mr. Gremillion filed a criminal trespass complaint with the Avoyelles Parish Sheriff’s’ Department, reporting Mr. Roy III for hunting on the property without permission.

Property disputes can be complicated and confusing, so it is important to hire an excellent lawyer capable of untangling all of the issues involved in the case. Plaintiff Don Whitlock owns property in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana and brought a petition against Defendant Fifth Louisiana District Levee Board and its lessee, Jamie Isaac, seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent the defendants from trespassing on his property when they travelled across to access a hunting lease owned by the defendant Levee Board that is located west of Plaintiff’s property. Mr. Whitlock farms on the three lots of land at issue and alleged Issac caused damage as he crossed all three lots, creating ruts in the soil, damaging crops, and changing the flow of water. The defendants, however, argued that the land was conveyed to plaintiff’s ancestor with a public right of passage in the deed, and thus there could be no suit for trespass. The Trial Court agreed and with the defendants and held that there was no cause of action. It also held that since Mr. Whitlock was not the sole owner of the land (there were other owners on two of the three lots), he failed to join all the parties and further lacked the capacity to sue in a representative capacity for the other owners. Finally, it took a “strange” step in ruling on the merits of the preliminary injunctions despite the fact that it had sustained the exceptions raised by the defendants. It held that preliminary injunction could not be granted because Mr. Whitlock failed to show irreparable harm. Thus, the Trial Court dismissed the case. On appeal, Mr. Whitlock argued that the Trial Court’s rulings were improper.

The Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the Trial Court’s dismissal of the case. The Court of Appeal found that the exceptions were improperly sustained and the Trial Court applied the wrong burden of proof in ruling on the preliminary injunction. Mr. Whitlock is the sole owner of Lot 3 and is an owner “indivision” of Lots 1 and 2. Whitlock’s ancestor had purchased all three lots in 1973 and the lots were burdened by a “right of way twenty feet wide across the lands . . . to serve as a road for the use of the public and which right of way shall hereafter be located by said vendee.” This public right of way eventually became a gravel road named Parish Gravel Road No. 1205 or 1285. It ran across the east side of the property, entirely located within lot 1. However, when defendant Issac became the lessee of the Swan Lake property owned by the defendant Levee Board, he began crossing Whitlock’s property in various places because the Swan Lake property was located directly behind lot 3. Whitlock alleged that he told Issac to stop and attempted to address the issues with the Levee Board because of the ruts being created as Isaac and his friends drove vehicles across the property, damaging his crops and changing the natural flow of water. Whitlock argued that Issac was not taking the shortest route across the property nor was he taking a route that would cause the least disruption. The Levee Board refused to take any action and Issac continued crossing against Whitlock’s wishes. Eventually, Whitlock filed a lawsuit seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction and damages for the loss of 2.2 acres of land that he could not use.

The Defendants asserted that the case should be dismissed because of the right of way included in the deed. Further, they alleged that Whitlock was not the sole owner of all of the property and thus, was required to join his co-owners in the lawsuit. The Trial Court agreed with these exceptions. It also looked at the merits of the preliminary injunctions and ruled that Whitlock could not meet the burden of proof of irreparable injury. The exceptions were sustained and the case was dismissed.

Many Americans do not know that it is actually possible to legally acquire another person’s land without possessing fair title or good faith. Of course, specific guidelines must be followed, but with some will, knowledge, and close attention to detail, this process known as “adverse possession” can be surprisingly simple to accomplish.

In Louisiana, adverse possession occurs when an individual exercises actual, adverse, physical possession over the property of another.  See Crowell Land & Mineral Corp. v. Funderburk, 692 So.2d 535, 537 (La. App. 3 Cir. 1997). Furthermore the possession must be continuous, uninterrupted, peaceable, public, indisputable, and within discernible bounds. See La. Civ. Code art. 3476. While this may sound like a rather simple task, the kicker is that Louisiana law demands that all those requirements be met for a period of 30 years, making the whole process a bit more of a gamble, considering the time commitment and outside forces beyond one’s control. Additionally, once the requirements are met and the case is presented in court, the adverse possessor bears the burden of proving that all requirements were met. Accordingly, while acquiring land in such a way can be quite lucrative, it can also end up being a big waste of time if you are not able to meet all the requirements continuously for the entire 30-year period.

In 1969, Erne Plessala, Sr., used levees to construct a crawfish pond on Wayne Trahan’s and Larry Verret’s shared land in Iberia Parish. Sometime later, Mr. Plessala moved soil from a spoil bank of the canal bordering the pond so that he could build a campsite and then built a bridge over the canal to the campsite.