Mark Wayne Small v. Zhu Lin

STATE OF LOUISIANA
COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT

MARK WAYNE SMALL, II, HILLARY NO. 2025 CW 0410
HOOD MAYARD, MARK W. SMALL, AND
MARIA A. SMALL

VERSUS

ZHU LIN, INDIVIDUALLY, AS FORMER
INDEPENDENT ADMINISTRATOR OF THE
SUCCESSION OF YUN TAO LIU, AND AS
NATURAL TUTRIX OF MICHELLE YUTONG

LIU AND JORDAN YUFET LIU SEPTEMBER 5, 2025

In Re: Zhu Lin, individually, as former independent
administrator of the succession of Yun Tao Liu, and as
natural tutrix of Michelle Yutong Liu and Jordan Yufei
Liu, applying for supervisory writs, 19th Judicial
District Court, Parish of Bast Baton Rouge, No. 687288,

BEFORE : THERIOT, LANIER, AND MILLER, JJ.

WRIT GRANTED. The district court’s February 21, 2025 judgment
denying the motion for summary judgment filed by defendant, Zhu
Lin, individually, as former independent administrator of the
succession of Yun Tao Liu, and as natural tutrix of Michelle Yutong
Liu and Jordan Yufei Liu, is reversed. The seller warrants the
buyer against redhibitory defects, or vices in the thing sold. See
La. Civ. Code art. 2520. A seller owes no warranty for defects in
the thing that were known to the buyer at the time of the sale, or
for defects that should have been discovered by a reasonably
prudent buyer of such things. See La. Civ. Code art. 2521.
Defendant, the seller, provided plaintiffs, the buyers, with two
property disclosure statements, both of which disclosed prior
floods in 2015 and 2016. A buyer has no complaint when a
redhibitory defect was discoverable by simple inspection, known to
the buyer, and acknowledged by the seller before the property was
purchased. See Nicholson v. Ellerbe, 434 So.2d 1146 (La. App. lst
Cir. 1983). A buyer put on notice of a property’s propensity for
flooding should know the property’s propensity for flooding
warrants further inquiry into defects discoverable by a reasonably
prudent buyer. See Smith v. Grantham, 2023-0881 (La. App. Ist Cir.
9/4/24), 394 So.3d 316, 340. Plaintiffs failed to produce factual
support sufficient to establish a genuine issue of material fact
as to whether the alleged defects were unknown and not discoverable
by a reasonably prudent buyer. Accordingly, the defendant’s motion
for summary judgment is granted and the claims of plaintiffs, Mark
Wayne Small II, Hillary Hood Mayard, Mark W. Small, and Maria A.
Small, against defendant, Zhu Lin, individually, as former
independent administrator of the succession of Yun Tao Liu, and as
natural tutrix of Michelle Yutong Liu and Jordan Yufei Liu, are
dismissed.

MRT

WIL

SMM
CQURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT

hath Avie

DHPUTY CLERK OF COURT
FOR THE COURT