In Partition of real estate suit, successfully obtained dismissal of claim for damages for alleged fraud in terminating Trust. Hendricks v. Bryant, 2017 CA 1063 (La. App. 1 Cir., 4/6/18)

In Citizens Savings Bank v. G & C Development, LLC et al, we skillfully assisted a real estate development company and its two owners in litigation against their bank following a foreclosure on their development. We were able to avoid a substantial deficiency judgment against our clients. The owners had guaranteed the company’s loan; because the real estate development company was defunct, the individual owners/guarantors would have otherwise been responsible for the company’s debt of $2,000,000.00+, without the favorable judgment we secured in this case. 113 So.3d 1085 (La. App. 1 Cir. 2013).

At issue in Solar General Contractor, Ltc. v. Urban Redevelopments, Inc. was the purchase of a property which was saddled with accessibility issues due to separate litigation threatened against the property. Where an agreement to purchase was entered in contemplation of immediate occupancy and use, the court held that our client the purchaser was not compelled to accept title to the property when the title was threatened with serious future litigation and access issues. The court held in our client’s favor that the title at issue was not ‘merchantable’ which was a requisite for the act of sale. 345 So.2d 558 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1977).

In Junior Money Bags, Ltd. v. Segal, we represented the holder of a chattel mortgage whose interest, in the New Orleans Gondola System over the Mississippi River after the Louisiana World’s Fair, was recorded and perfected prior to the items being placed on the lessor’s land. The court held that our client’s prior-perfected rights primed the lessor’s rights, which arose only when the gondola tower was erected on the leased land. The court found that while our client had a right to remove the gondola towers, he was not required to remove “all or nothing” and thus could not be required to remove the towers’ foundations which were anchored by underground pilings. Because the lease at the time it was purchased by our client (as the seizing creditor) could have been dissolved at any time by lessor, we established that our client was not bound to personally discharge any of the lessee’s obligations under the lease. 970 F.2d 1 (5th Cir. 1992).

We represented a landowner in the case Holmes v. Parish of St. Charles, in which we protected a landowner’s right to revoke a conditional donation of land to the parish, when the land after eight years had not been put to the use proposed by the parish government. The parcel of land conveyed to the parish government for a proposed roadway was held to be a conditional onerous donation inter vivos and not a dedication to public use. The court found that the donation’s reference to a Parish Ordinance incorporated the Ordinance by reference, which recognized the conditional purpose of the donation. As a result, the donation of the land to the parish could be revoked for failure of the parish to fulfill the condition contained in the donation. The Parish was also ordered to lift restrictions on our client’s adjoining property to allow for resubdivision. 653 So.2d 653 (La. App. 5 Cir. 1995).

In Corinne Park Civic Ass’n et al v. Police Jury of St. Bernard et al, we represented a civic association and property owners in their claim against the Parish Police Jury concerning drainage. We determinatively established that the Parish Police Jury had assumed maintenance responsibility for a drainage system, including a drainage canal which was flooding our clients’ property. The court held that the drainage canal was an essential part of the drainage system. 416 So.2d 106 (La. 1982).