Opinion
No. 2021-C-00371
06-01-2021
CRESCENT CITY PROPERTY REDEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION, LLC v. Carmen G. MUNIZ; Des Capital, LLC; New Orleans Land Holdings, LLC; Richard Rachal Sdira, LLC ; City of New Orleans
Writ application granted. See per curiam.
PER CURIAM.
Writ granted. The trial court erred in granting summary judgments finding (1) the tax sale is absolutely null because of an insufficient delay for the legal advertisement and lack of notice to owners of recorded interests in the property, and (2) the absolutely null tax sale cannot serve as just title for purposes of ten-year acquisitive prescription.
When two publications are required for a judicial sale, the first advertisement must "be published at least thirty days before the date of the judicial sale." See La. R.S. 43:203(2). Only two days are excluded from this delay: "neither the date of such advertisement nor the date of the expiration of the delay, or the date of the judicial sale, as the case may be, is included." See La. R.S. 43:203(4). The advertisement for the subject tax sale was published on October 18, 2002. The thirty-day delay began the next day, October 19, 2002, and ended thirty days later on November 17, 2002, the day before the sale. This delay complies with the statute.
Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 5059 requires exclusion of a legal holiday from the computation of a time period when the holiday is "the last day of the period." Here, the legal holiday, October 19, 2002, was the first day, not the last, of the publication delay. Furthermore, Louisiana Revised Statutes 43:203 is the more specific provision applicable to advertising delays for judicial sales and thus prevails over Article 5059. See State ex rel. Caldwell v. Molina Healthcare, Inc. , 18-1768 (La. 5/8/19), 283 So. 3d 472, 479 ("A statute more specifically directed to the matter at issue must prevail as an exception to a statute more general in character.") Section 43:203 does not require a legal holiday, regardless of where it falls, be excluded from the thirty-day delay. The trial court erred in finding the first advertisement failed to comply with the statutory delay in Louisiana Revised Statutes 43:203.
The trial court found a lack of notice to all owners of recorded interests in the property. Derrick Muse, a city official responsible for tax sales, attested in an affidavit that "the City of New Orleans provided tax notices to all mortgagees and all other parties with interests in the subject property recorded in the public records of Orleans Parish prior to the ... tax sale." The trial court disregarded this affidavit, finding it lacked specificity. The lack of specificity in the affidavit goes to the weight, not the admissibility, of this evidence. In determining whether a factual issue is genuine for purposes of summary judgment, a court should not consider the merits, make credibility determinations, evaluate testimony, or weigh evidence. See Suire v. Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government , 04-1459 (La. 4/12/05), 907 So. 2d 37, 48. We find a genuine issue of material fact precludes summary judgment as to whether necessary notice was provided to owners of recorded interest in the property. The trial court erred in granting summary judgment declaring the November 18, 2002 tax sale absolutely null, as a factual issue precludes that determination.
Relative to the other summary judgment, we find the just-title determination premature until the validity of the tax sale is properly adjudicated. Consequently, the court of appeal judgment is reversed, the July 17, 2020 summary judgments are vacated, and this matter is remanded for further proceedings.