Deeds: Rescission; Lesion Beyond Moiety

摘要

On July 21, 2009, two plaintiffs executed a cash sale deed transferring ownership of their interests in property in two parishes, including timber and minerals, to defendants for the amount of $175,000. Six months later, the same two plaintiffs sold one of the two tracts (the Natchitoches Parish property) to a third plaintiff for $375,000. Vendors sought rescission of the sale of property for lesion beyond moiety, asserting that calculation of the value of the property for purposes of lesion should include the value of the unsevered mineral rights as long as the transaction is not a transfer of mineral rights alone, and to quiet title in the Natchitoches Parish property. Lesion beyond moiety is a civil law concept enabling the vendor of immovable property to rescind a sale where it can be shown that the purchase price did not equal at least one half of the true value of the property. La. Civ. Code arts. 1860-62 (1970).