Brooke v. Brooke
Brooke v. Brooke
Opinion of the Court
Petitioners (being the heirs of the late James W. Brooke and Mary S. Brooke, except defendant Seth N. Brooke) brought this suit against the latter to set aside two sales, one from James W. Brooke to Seth N. Brooke and the other from Mary S. Brooke to Seth N. Brooke on the ground that they were simulations as no consideration had been paid. The defendant filed pleas of 5, 10, 20 and 30 years prescription which were referred to the merits by the trial judge. Following trial the exceptions were overruled and judgment was rendered against the defendant setting aside the two sales and, further, against the defendant and one of the plaintiffs for the proceeds from a timber sale. The latter have appealed.
The sale from James W. Brooke is dated October 24, 1925, and the sale from Mary S. Brooke is dated October 21, 1935. The latter died on August 1, 1938, and the former on July 17, 1934. One sale was placed of record the day it was executed and the other within several days after its execution. The decedents’ children were aware of their having been passed at the time and apparently were of age. Suit was filed on June 19, 1956.
The evidence discloses that the sale of October 1925 covered Lot 109 of Roseland containing 20 acres for a recited consideration of $400. The defendant, vendee, admits that no consideration was paid at the time of the transfer but according to his testimony, which is not denied, before leaving the family home he was employed on a farm for approximately two months, later returned home for a short
Now in respect to the sale by Mary S. Brooke, his mother, of Lots 113 and 122 on October 21, 1935, it appears that said property was clearly the separate and paraphernal property of his mother, having been acquired by her by dation en paiement by her husband under date of September 12, 1925. It is noted that said property had previously been sold to the State for nonpayment of taxes for the year 1932 in the sum of $58.82 and that said-sale took place March 3, 1934. • The sale to defendant on October 21, 1935 recites the consideration of $2,000, of which $161.07 was paid in cash and the balance thereof represented by 10 promissory notes varying in amounts maturing over a period of 10 years. The testimony of defendant is that he paid the cash consideration therein stipulated to the Clerk of Court for taxes and court costs. The defendant concedes that no portion of the cash sum was received by the vendor, defendant’s mother. It is highly probable that the odd sum of $161.07 was paid and used to redeem the property and pay back taxes but even assuming for the sake of argument that the vendor received none of the cash consideration, it is our opinion that the execution of the 10 notes was for a valuable consideration and therefore not a simulation. Although all plaintiffs deny any knowledge of the existence of the notes the transaction was duly recorded and a matter of public record. We rule that the two sales are not simulated under the rules established and reviewed by the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana in the case of Succession of Nelson, 224 La. 731, 70 So.2d 665, 669, which rules are .as follows:
“ ‘A simulated sale of a thing results when parties pass a formal act of sale of the thing, for which no price is given, nor intended to be given.’ * * *
“ ‘ * * * Being an actual and bona fide payment, although perhaps inadequate in amount, it provides protection to the titles involved, from an action to declare them simulated.’ * * *
“ ‘It is the well-settled jurisprudence of this state that when the actual consideration, no matter how inadequate, has been paid by the purchaser in an alleged sale, the transaction is not a simulated sale.’ ”
As stated hereinabove the defendant filed pleas of 5, 10, 20 and 30 years pre
“In all cases, in which the action of nullity or of rescission of an agreement, is not limited to a shorter period by [a] particular law, that action may be brought within ten years.”
The foregoing appears to us as decisive of the matter and, consequently, that the plea of ten-year liberative prescription should have been maintained.
The defendant, Seth N. Brooke, by way of reconventional demand had asked that the deed from James W. Brooke to James L. Brooke dated August 9, 1921 be declared a simulation. The Lower Court found and held that the said sale had an adequate consideration and therefore rendered judgment against the said plaintiff in reconvention. On this sale we fail to find where plaintiff in reconvention proved said sale to be without consideration and for that reason must affirm that portion of the judgment of the Lower Court.
Accordingly, it is ordered that that portion of the judgment of the Lower Court declaring that the deed made from James W. Brooke to Seth N. Brooke dated October 24, 1925 and the deed made from Mary S. Brooke to Seth N. Brooke dated October 21, 1935 were simulated is hereby annulled and reversed and that the judgment of the Lower Court awarding judgment in favor of Doris Brooke Merritt and Ruby Brooke McKnight and against James Leroy Brooke and Seth N. Brooke, jointly, in the sum of $1,598.85 with legal interest thereon is likewise hereby annulled and reversed and that plaintiffs’ suit be dismissed at their cost.
Judgment reversed in part and affirmed in part.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.