Case Name: ALL-STATE CREDIT PLAN NATCHITOCHES, INC. v. Estelle RATLIFF et al.
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1972-12-11
Citations: 279 So. 2d 660
Docket Number: No. 52048
Parties: ALL-STATE CREDIT PLAN NATCHITOCHES, INC. v. Estelle RATLIFF et al.
Judges: SUMMERS, J., dissents and assigns reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 279
Pages: 660–671

Head Matter:
ALL-STATE CREDIT PLAN NATCHITOCHES, INC. v. Estelle RATLIFF et al.
No. 52048.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Dec. 11, 1972.
On Rehearing June 11, 1973.
Whitehead & McCoy, Kenneth D. McCoy, Jr., Natchitoches, for plaintiff-applicant.
Watson, Murchison, Crews & Arthur, R. Raymond Arthur, Natchitoches, for defendants-respondents.

Opinion:
McCALEB, Chief Justice.
This petitory action presents for consideration the single question whether a third party, having purchased real property at sheriff's sale, may use the possession of the person placed in possession of the property as heir in ex parte succession proceedings by a court of competent jurisdiction to acquire such property by the prescription of ten years provided by Act 584 of 1960 (now R.S. 9:5682).
Plaintiff, All-State Credit Plan Natchi-toches, Inc., instituted the suit seeking to be recognized as owner of a 40-acre tract of land, with improvements, situated in Natchitoches Parish. When the favorable judgment the corporation secured in the district court was reversed by the Court of Appeal (254 So.2d 701), we granted this writ of review. 260 La. 410, 256 So.2d 292.
The facts of the case, which have been stipulated by the parties, are as follows: The property involved was acquired during the marriage of Robert and Shallot Wallace. Robert Wallace died October 11, 1952. His succession was duly opened in a court of competent jurisdiction, although therein Lizzie Wallace Odums, a daughter, incorrectly stated she was the sole and only heir of her father. However, she was recognized as such, and decreed to be the owner of his undivided half interest in the property by judgment of January 12, 1954, and it is admitted in the stipulation that her possession of the property from that time on was sufficient "for the requisite period, and in the manner and character required" to form the basis of the prescriptive period provided in R.S. 9:5682, if otherwise applicable.
Actually, there were then living five children of James Wallace, a predeceased brother of Mrs. Odums, four of whom are the defendants in the case.
Shallot Wallace died August 8, 1962, and her succession was similarly opened. Upon representation that she was the sole heir, Lizzie Wallace Odums was recognized as the owner of her mother's undivided half of this property by judgment of May 14, 1968. In addition to the five children of her predeceased son, James Wallace, Shallot Wallace left two children by a former marriage to Willis Hall, as well as a grandchild of a predeceased child of this union. Mrs. Odums acquired the rights of the Hall heirs, and also the rights of one of the children of James Wallace- — -Bessie Wallace English — and it is admitted none of these persons now has any interest in the property. They were not joined as defendants.
On September 3, 1968, Lizzie Wallace Odums and her husband, Man Lee Odums, mortgaged the property. This mortgage, including the note, in the amount of $8,160, was held in due course by the plaintiff, All-State Credit Plan Natchitoches, Inc., when, in 1969, Mr. and Mrs. Odums filed a voluntary bankruptcy petition in the federal court. The property was there listed as an asset of the couple and was advertised for adjudication to the corporation after it paid the foreclosure fees to the court. On June 29, 1970, shortly prior to the adjudication date, three of the defendants enjoined the trustee in bankruptcy from proceeding with the adjudication. Thereafter, the bankruptcy court, disclaiming any interest in the property, permitted plaintiff to proceed with its claim in the state court.
In August of 1970, plaintiff foreclosed on the mortgage and purchased the property at sheriff's sale on October 7, 1970, no effort having been made by defendants to enjoin this sale. It instituted this action January 11, 1971, seeking to be declared owner of the property, alleging the defendants-were claiming adverse ownership.
R.S. 9:5682 provides:
"An action by a person who is an heir or legatee of a deceased person, and who has not been recognized as such in the. judgment of possession rendered in the succession of the deceased by a court of competent jurisdiction, to assert any right, title, or interest in any of the property formerly owned by the deceased against a third person who has acquired this property from or through a person recognized as an heir or legatee of the deceased in this judgment of possession, is prescribed in ten years if the third person, or his ancestors in title, singly or collectively, have been in continuous, uninterrupted, peaceable, public, and unequivocal possession of the property for such period after the registry of the judgment of possession in the conveyance records of the parish where the property is situated.
"As used herein, 'third person' means a person other than one recognized as an heir or legatee of the deceased in the judgment of possession."
It is plaintiff's position that the prescriptive period began to run from the recordation of the judgment in the succession proceedings, and that in availing itself of the ten-year period under R.S. 9:5682, it is entitled to the peaceful and unequivocal possession of the heir decreed to be the owner of the property in the succession judgment rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction.
Defendants profess Mrs. Odums, who was placed in possession by judgment as heir, is not an "ancestor in title" within the intendment of the statute, since she had no actual title whatever to the land but was, instead, a joint owner, and that, as such, under our civil law, she never acquired title against the other heirs by prescription. It is further asserted by defendants that under our decision in Trahan v. Broussard, 251 La. 714, 206 So.2d 82 (1968), the person pleading prescription must show that he, himself, has been in possession of the property "for ten years after the registry of the judgment of possession," and plaintiff did not secure a title from the heir until the sheriff's sale on October 7, 1970. It is argued that, under the Trahan decision, the purpose of the statute is to afford protection to third parties from stale claims of forced heirs who have been deprived of their rights only after a third party has possessed the property for a ten-year period, even though in bad faith.
In sustaining the contention of defendants the Court of Appeal resolved that the decision in Trahan v. Broussard, supra, "and also the express wording of the statute itself, is unambiguous and must lead to the conclusion that the ancestors in title of the third person cannot be heirs or legatees of the deceased as recognized in the judgment of possession."
The appellate court is in error. While it is true that, in discussing the conditions that must be met before a third person can avail himself of the prescription provided in R.S. 9:5682, the court stated in the Trahan case that "the person pleading prescription must show that he has been in continuous, uninterrupted and unequivocal, peaceable possession of the property for ten years after the registry of the judgment of possession in the conveyance records," the issue before us now was neither raised nor decided in that matter. There, the third person had been in possession of the property for ten years from the date he purchased it at sheriff's sale in a partition proceeding instituted following the close of the succession and, hence, it was unnecessary to decide whether the prior possession of the heir could be employed to make up or complete the ten year prescription. That case is only authority for the position, (1) that the nature of the prescription provided by R.S. 9:5682 is acquisitive, and (2) that the bad faith of a third person does not prevent him from acquiring by the prescription afforded under the statute.
As stated in its title, Act No. 584 of 1960 (now R.S. 9:5682) was adopted to provide that "an action by an heir or legatee not recognized as such in the judgment of possession to assert any right to property formerly owned by the deceased is prescribed in ten years" if the property has been acquired by a third person and he "or his ancestors in title, or both" have had possession of the property for this period.
The body of the statute characterizes the type of possession necessary to cut off the claims of defrauded heirs in and to the property, i. e., it must be "peaceable, public, and unequivocal possession" by the "third person, or his ancestors in title, singly, or collectively." It further stipulates
the time when the prescriptive period begins, i. e., "after the registry of the judgment of possession in the conveyance records of the parish where the property is situated." And, inasmuch as the statute specifically provides that the third person must have acquired the property "from or through a person recognized as an heir or legatee in this judgment of possession," that heir or legatee, of necessity, must be an ancestor in title of the third person. As in the instant case, the plaintiff acquired this property directly from Mrs. Odums (and her husband) when it foreclosed on the mortgage executed by them affecting the property. (The emphasis has been supplied.)
To hold otherwise would require that we delete from the statute the provision that the peaceable and unequivocal possession of a "third person, or his ancestors in title, singly, or collectively," may be availed of to make up the ten-year period, which begins with the "registry of the judgment of possession in the conveyance records," and that the third person must have acquired the property "from or through a person recognized as an heir or legatee of the deceased in this judgment of possession."
The statute thus gives third parties relying on the public records in a succession matter a special prescriptive benefit as against heirs who permit a long period of time to elapse before asserting their claims to an inheritance.
For the reasons assigned, the judgment of the Court of Appeal for the Third Circuit is annulled and set aside and the judgment of the district court is affirmed.
. The property is described as "A certain tract of iand, with ail buildings and improvements thereon, situated and located in the Parish of Natchitoches, State of Louisiana, and being more particularly described as follows, to-wit: The Northwest Quarter (NW/4) of the Southeast Quarter (SB/4) of Section 4, Township 9, North, Range 9 West, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, containing 40 acres, more or less."
. Estelle Wallace Ratliff, Jennie Lee Wallace Johnson, Blanckie Lee Wallace McCoy, and Leamon James Wallace. There were additional heirs, but they were not made parties because their interests were acquired by Lizzie Wallace Odums, the heir declared owner of the property in the succession proceedings.
. This is the effect of the statute whether it is considered as an enactment to stabilize title in the balancing of the conflicting interests of inheritance rights against third persons relying upon succession judgments, or whether it is considered as elevating succession judgments to the status of deeds translative of title to overcome previous jurisprudence to the contrary. See the dissenting opinion in Trahan v. Broussard, 251 La. 714, 206 So.2d 82; 14 Loyola Law Review 429, at page 434; and 28 Louisiana Law Review 352 and 353.