Background
Jeamie McCullen bought tax-sale title to a 70% interest in roughly 50 acres in Washington Parish in July 2020. In 2024, Darrell and Theresa Grabert, who had received an interest in the property from Mark Stanley Bahm, sued to annul the sale. They alleged that Bahm did not receive constitutionally adequate notice before or after the tax sale.
The Graberts moved for summary judgment. McCullen, then self-represented, sought a continuance the day before the hearing to obtain counsel, but the district court denied that request and granted summary judgment declaring the tax-sale certificate null and void. The court later denied McCullen’s motion for new trial, and she appealed both rulings.
The Court’s Holding
The First Circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction. Under Louisiana’s tax-sale-nullity procedure, a court first issues a preliminary order declaring that the sale will be annulled; after the parties submit and litigate allowable costs, the court must render a judgment of nullity that fixes those costs. That latter judgment is the final, appealable judgment.
Although the district court declared the tax sale null and void, its judgment did not fix allowable costs, and the record contained no proof of costs. It therefore was not a final appealable judgment. The denial of the continuance and the denial of a new trial were interlocutory rulings and were not independently appealable. The court remanded for further proceedings and declined to assess costs pending a final judgment.
Key Takeaways
- A tax-sale nullity judgment must fix allowable costs before it is final and appealable.
- A judgment declaring a tax sale void without resolving statutory costs is only preliminary for appellate-jurisdiction purposes.
- Interlocutory rulings on a continuance and a new-trial motion cannot support an appeal absent a final appealable judgment.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores that tax-sale nullity litigation follows a statutory two-step process. Parties must ensure the judgment resolves costs before pursuing an appeal, even where the trial court has already ruled on the validity of the tax sale.