Board of Levee Commissioners of Orleans Levee District v. Newport Ltd.

517 So. 2d 406, 1987 La. App. LEXIS 10896, 1987 WL 2813
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 15, 1987
DocketNo. CA-7522
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 517 So. 2d 406 (Board of Levee Commissioners of Orleans Levee District v. Newport Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of Levee Commissioners of Orleans Levee District v. Newport Ltd., 517 So. 2d 406, 1987 La. App. LEXIS 10896, 1987 WL 2813 (La. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

LOBRANO, Judge.

This expropriation suit was filed by the Orleans Levee Board against Newport Enterprises and Newport Limited (Newport) seeking a certain 25.77 acre tract for flood wall, floodgates and other flood control structures. The Levee Board deposited the sum of $146,564.00 in the registry of the Court pursuant to La.R.S. 38:351, et seq. and immediately acquired the rights to the 25 acre tract. Newport reconvened seeking additional compensation. Nine months later, the Levee Board filed a motion to [408]*408dismiss its own proceeding asserting that Newport did not acquire its ancestor in title’s right to claim compensation; and that, even if it did, those rights have prescribed. When presented with this unusual procedural status, the trial court characterized the motion as exceptions of no right of action and prescription. After a lengthy hearing before a court appointed commissioner, the trial court relying on St. Julien v. Morgan, Louisiana and Texas Railroad Co., 35 La.Ann. 924 (1883) and La.R.S. 19:2.1 upheld both “exceptions” and dismissed this action. Newport appeals.

FACTS:

On May 21, 1971, Seaway Land Co. Inc., Newport’s ancestor in title, granted the Levee Board a “Right of Entry” to enter upon approximately 25 acres of its land for the purpose of constructing a closure dam and flood gates in the area of Bayou Bien-venue and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet.

Acting on the “Right of Entry” the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed the project in September of 1974. In addition to the authority granted to enter Safeway’s property, the agreement also provided:

“It is agreed that negotiations will be entered into promptly for the acquisition by the Board of Levee Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District of fee simple for the control structure site, permanent easements for the channel and a temporary area for placement of spoils, in the lands upon which this right of entry is granted under mutually satisfactory terms, or, if mutually satisfactory terms cannot be agreed upon, that the Board of Levee Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District will take steps to acquire the interest by condemnation procedure.”

On June 12,1982, Seaway sold its property, including the 25 acre project area, to Newport. Up until that time, no compensation for the taking had been paid to Seaway, nor had any expropriation proceedings been instituted. The cash sale was silent as to the transfer of Seaway's rights to claim compensation. On May 15, 1985 an Act of Correction and Clarification was executed between Seaway and Newport which states that it was the intention of Seaway to transfer all rights in and to the subject property, both real and personal, to Newport. On December 13, 1985 the Levee Board instituted these proceedings against Newport, which were ultimately dismissed on the Levee Board’s own motion.

Newport complains that:

1) Procedurally, the trial court erred in allowing the Levee Board to proceed with a motion to dismiss its own expropriation suit filed under R.S. 38:351 et seq.
2) The prescriptive plea under the St. Julien doctrine or R.S. 19:14 is not applicable to this case; and alternatively, the Levee Board is estopped from urging prescription.
3) The Court was in error in failing to consider proffered evidence which clearly establishes a transfer of Seaway’s rights.
4) The valuation of its property should be determined as of the date of the expropriation proceedings.

PROCEDURAL POSTURE OF THE CASE

We admit, at first glance, the procedural posture of this case is somewhat confusing. The Levee Board instituted an expropriation suit pursuant to the authority granted in R.S. 38:351, et seq. It then filed a motion to dismiss its own action claiming (1) the party defendant was improper and (2) any claims for the compensation it judicially admitted was due, was, in fact, not due because of prescription.

The trial court, recognizing this perplexing dilemma, treated the motion to dismiss as exceptions of prescription and no right of action to the reconventional claim of Newport for additional compensation. Presumably, if Newport had not contested the adequacy of the compensation, those “exceptions” would be moot. However, as suggested by Newport, a more proper procedural classification of the motion to dismiss is a request for declaratory judgment. When the Levee Board sought to dismiss its own action on the grounds asserted, if, in effect, sought to have the court declare whether Newport was entitled to compen[409]*409sation for the 25 acres. Although presented in an unorthodox manner, these issues were determined by final judgment. In the interest of judicial economy, we therefore address those issues which were determined by the trial court after a full eviden-tiary hearing.

PRESCRIPTION

Newport argues that the May 1971 agreement granted the Levee Board only a right of entry to the subject property in order to construct a flood control structure. That in so doing, the Levee Board acquired no rights in the property but that they (Levee Board) would, at some future time, acquire those rights and compensate the landowner therefor. Thus, they argue, a servitude was not acquired in good faith, nor was there consent of the landowner, and therefore, the St. Julien doctrine (R.S. 19:14) is inapplicable.

The case of St. Julien v. Morgan Louisiana and Texas R.R. Co., supra, established the doctrine that a public or quasi-public corporation with powers of expropriation could acquire a servitude over the land of another without legal expropriation if that landowner consented or acquiesced. That doctrine, subsequently referred to as the St. Julien doctrine, remained in our law until its short demise in 1976. In Lake Inc. v. Louisiana Power & Light Co., 330 So.2d 914 (La.1976), the Supreme Court recognizing the conflict St. Julien presented with the provisions of our Civil Code governing the creation of servitudes, overruled that doctrine as it applied to discontinuous servi-tudes. Implicit in that holding is the conclusion that St. Julien would apply with respect to continuous servitudes as long as the time limitations of the Civil Code were adhered to. Thus with respect to continuous servitudes, St. Julien could be consistent with the Civil Code.

In response to that decision, however, the Louisiana legislature passed Act 504 of 1976. That act, codified at La.R.S. 19:14, provides in pertinent part:

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Related

Estate of Patout v. City of New Iberia
738 So. 2d 544 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1999)
BOARD OF LEVEE COM'RS v. Newport Ltd.
578 So. 2d 191 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1991)
Board of Levee Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District v. Newport Ltd.
521 So. 2d 1151 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1988)

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517 So. 2d 406, 1987 La. App. LEXIS 10896, 1987 WL 2813, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-levee-commissioners-of-orleans-levee-district-v-newport-ltd-lactapp-1987.