Case Name: Jason HUGHES, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William R. SANDERS and All Occupants, Defendant-Appellant
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 2003-05-14
Citations: 847 So. 2d 165
Docket Number: No. 36,968-CA
Parties: Jason HUGHES, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William R. SANDERS and All Occupants, Defendant-Appellant.
Judges: Before WILLIAMS, CARAWAY and DREW, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 847
Pages: 165–170

Head Matter:
Jason HUGHES, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William R. SANDERS and All Occupants, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 36,968-CA.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.
May 14, 2003.
F. Scott Straub, for Appellant.
Walter F. Johnson, III, Shreveport, for Appellee.
Jason Hughes, In Proper Person.
Before WILLIAMS, CARAWAY and DREW, JJ.

Opinion:
I,WILLIAMS, Judge.
The defendants, William Sanders and all occupants, appeal a judgment of eviction in favor of the plaintiff, Jason Hughes. The city court ordered defendants to vacate the subject premises. For the following reasons, we affirm.
FACTS
In January 2002, the parties signed a "lease/purchase" agreement, which provided that the lessees, William Sanders and Deborah Sanders, would make monthly rental payments of $495 to the lessor, Jason Hughes, for a mobile home located at # 97, 6900 Buncombe Road in Shreveport, Louisiana. Hughes acknowledged receipt of a "down payment" of $2,000 and agreed to surrender title to the mobile home to the lessees at the end of the five-year lease term, if their obligation had been fulfilled. The lease provided that the rental payments were due by the tenth day of each month, that lessees would be considered in default after missing one payment, and that their failure to comply with the lease conditions would allow the lessor to either declare all remaining payments immediately due and payable or declare the lease terminated.
On August 13, 2002, the plaintiff, Jason Hughes, filed a petition for eviction from the premises against the defendants, William Sanders and all occupants. Attached to the petition was a photocopy of a document entitled "Five Day Notice to Tenant/Oecupants to Vacate" addressed to the defendants and dated August 5, 2002, stating that the "right of occupancy was terminated" because of defendants' failure to pay the rent when due.
| ¡.According to the Shreveport City Court minute sheet, the court clerk issued an "eviction for non-payment" citation to defendants with notice to appear at a hearing on August 20, 2002. The minute entry of August 16, 2002, states that Sanders was "personally" served with the citation by a deputy city marshal. The marshal's return of service has been included in the record and shows that the citation was served by attachment to a door of the premises.
The court minutes indicate that on the date of the eviction hearing, the plaintiff was present, but the defendants did not appear. The proceedings were not recorded and so the record does not contain a transcript of the hearing. The city court rendered a judgment of eviction ordering defendants to vacate the premises at 6900 Buncombe Road. The defendants appeal the judgment. The plaintiffs motion to dismiss the appeal was denied by this court. Hughes v. Sanders, 36,968 (La.App.2d Cir.12/23/02).
DISCUSSION
The defendants contend the city court erred in rendering a judgment of eviction despite the lack of proper service of process. The plaintiff argues that defendants waived their right to allege insufficient service of process by failing to file an exception in the lower court raising the objection.
Generally, an objection to the sufficiency of service of process is raised by the filing of an exception. LSA-C.C.P. art. 925. All objections which may be raised by declinatory exception are waived unless pleaded therein. LSA-C.C.P. art. 925(C). Where a judgment has been entered | «¡against a defendant, the question of sufficiency of service of process may not be raised for the first time on appeal. Rather, the issue should be raised in a suit to annul the judgment. Sharff v. Tanner, 486 So.2d 1047 (La.App. 2d Cir.1986); Decca Leasing Corp. v. Torres, 465 So.2d 910 (La.App. 2d Cir.1985).
The nullity of a final judgment may be demanded for vices of either form or substance. LSA-C.C.P. art.2001. A final judgment shall be annulled if rendered against a defendant who has not been served with process as required by law. LSA-C.C.P. art. 2002(A)(2). Except as otherwise provided, an action to annul a judgment on the grounds listed in this Article may be brought at any time. LSA-C.C.P. art. 2002(B).
In the present case, the defendants did not file a declinatory exception of insufficient service of process or a suit to annul the judgment. Instead, they have appealed the eviction judgment challenging the sufficiency of the service of process. Although this court is aware of cases in which the nullity of a judgment has been considered on direct appeal without a prior action to annul, this appears to be an exception limited to situations where there was a complete lack of any proof of service in the record. See Rando v. Rando, 31,366 (La.App.2d Cir.12/9/98), 722 So.2d 1165; White v. White, 398 So.2d 1257 (La.App. 4th Cir.1981). However, the present case does not involve such an omission, since- the record includes a photocopy of a document entitled "EVICTION FOR NON-PAYMENT CITATION," which contains the marshal's return of service indicating that the citation was served upon the defendants by attachment of the notice "on [the] door."
RBased upon this record, and without considering any grounds for nullity of the judgment or the merits of the arguments presented, we conclude that defendants should have raised the allegation of insufficient service of process in a suit to annul the judgment. Consequently, we are constrained from addressing the issue of improper service in this appeal and we affirm the judgment.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the city court's judgment of eviction is affirmed. Costs of this appeal are assessed to the appellants, William Sanders and all occupants.
AFFIRMED.
CARAWAY, J., dissents with written reasons.