Boneno v. Lasseigne

514 So. 2d 276
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 14, 1987
Docket87-CA-215
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 514 So. 2d 276 (Boneno v. Lasseigne) 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
Boneno v. Lasseigne, 514 So. 2d 276 (La. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

514 So.2d 276 (1987)

Mary Dorothy BONENO, Luke Boneno, Richard N. Boneno, Cyprien D. Duhe, Elizabeth Hymel Duhe, Allen J. St. Pierre and Audrey St. Pierre
v.
George A. LASSEIGNE, Jr., Theresa Aycock Madere, Joseph Junius Ory, Doris Lasseigne Carville, Fernand J. Aycock, Jr., Bernice Ory Fulton, and St. John Fleeting, Inc.

No. 87-CA-215.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

October 14, 1987.
Rehearing Denied November 17, 1987.

*277 Gerald L. Walter, Jr. and Anne Jordan Crochet, Schwab & Walter, Baton Rouge, for plaintiffs/appellants, Mary Dorothy Boneno, et als.

George Ann Hayne Graugnard, La Place, for defendants/appellees, George A. Lasseigne, Jr., et als.

Jules H. Carville, III, La Place, for defendants-appellees.

Before BOWES, GAUDIN and GRISBAUM, JJ.

BOWES, Judge.

Plaintiffs-appellants appeal a judgment of the district court maintaining an exception of prescription filed by defendants. Plaintiffs brought a possessory action against the defendants on certain batture property in St. John Parish. Defendants excepted, averring that an "actual disturbance", requisite for maintaining such possessory action, took place more than a year prior to the filing of plaintiff's petition. The trial court found that plaintiffs knew or should have known of the disturbance and that plaintiffs' suit had prescribed. We are of the opinion that there was not sufficient competent evidence presented before the trial judge for him to reach this conclusion. Accordingly, for the reasons hereinafter assigned, we set aside the judgment and remand the case for further proceedings in which more complete and competent evidence may be presented.

On July 9, 1984, plaintiffs filed a "petition to be restored to possession" of certain batture property which they averred was in their possession. In the petition, it was averred that the defendant St. John Fleeting constructed a large maintenance wharf on the subject property on July 15, 1983. Further, it was alleged that on September 8, 1983, the remaining defendants George A. Lasseigne, Jr., Theresa Aycock Madere, Joseph Junius Ory, Doris Lasseigne Carville, Fernand J. Aycock, Jr., and Bernice Ory Fulton, disturbed plaintiffs' possession by causing a lease, purporting to evidence defendants' ownership of the property to be recorded in the conveyance records of St. John the Baptist Parish. The petition was amended on November 6, 1984, to characterize the actions of St. John Fleeting as a disturbance in fact, and the actions of the remaining defendants as a disturbance in law. The amended petition expanded more fully on plaintiff's possession prior to the alleged disturbances, including claims that leases were executed by plaintiffs in favor of Midstream Barge Service in 1981, and averments that contracts with various parties for sand hauling were made by plaintiffs beginning in 1941.

Defendants filed a reconventional demand, alleging their ownership and possession of the subject property and the original plaintiffs' lawsuit disturbed their possession.

After various discovery and other pre-trial procedures, the original defendants filed the exception of prescription presently before us, alleging that the barge fleeting facilities and fixtures were constructed and placed on the subject batture by St. John Fleeting before July 9, 1983. Therefore, according to the defendants, the plaintiffs' action had prescribed under La.C.C.P. art. 3658.[1]

*278 The exception was heard prior to trial on the merits. At the trial of the exception, defendants submitted an affidavit of Mr. Jack Parker. Mr. Parker, president of Jack Parker Enterprises, attested that Parker Enterprises leased a crane to Zito-Metcalf Marine[2], for the purpose of driving "dead men" pilings during June, 1983; and an attached invoice dated June 29, 1983, was prepared by him upon return of the crane. The only other evidence submitted by defendants on the exception was a deposition of Charles Dayberry, an employee of Zito-Metcalf, who was involved in the construction of the barge fleeting facilities and fixtures.

Appellants vigorously objected during the trial to the introduction or use of both the affidavit and the deposition for evidentiary purposes.

Plaintiffs Allen St. Pierre, Mary Boneno and Elizabeth Hymel Duhe all testified at the hearing on the exception. Additionally, plaintiffs produced Gerald Dyson, whom the Court accepted as an expert in civil engineering, to testify as to the water levels during the month of June.[3]

In maintaining the defendants' exception of prescription, it is apparent that the trial court relied mainly on the statements made by Mr. Dayberry in his deposition. In his reasons for judgment, the judge discussed a number of statements made by Mr. Dayberry regarding the fabrication and installation of the "dead men" pilings, including the approximate periods of time given by Dayberry for the pile driving operation.

The Court continued:

The Court finds that the deposition testimony of Charles Dayberry is the only independent testimony offered to the Court regarding the placement of dead men at Garyville. While the commencement of pile driving operations cannot be definitely ascertained, this Court believes that Mr. Dayberry's correlation of the completion of his activities with the return of the crane indicates that pile driving took place before June 29, 1983.

The Court concluded that Mr. St. Pierre, who regularly inspected the batture on his own behalf and on behalf of the other plaintiffs, knew or should have known of the disturbance which the court found had occurred on or before the end of June, 1983. Then the Court maintained the exception of prescription and plaintiffs' suit was dismissed.

On appeal, plaintiffs' urge that it was error to admit into evidence, over their objections, the affidavit of Parker and Dayberry's deposition. Plaintiffs also contend that the evidence does not support a finding that plaintiffs' action had prescribed.

At the outset, we note that while the exception was filed by all the defendants, the grounds alleged therein can only be considered vis-a-vis the defendant St. John Fleeting. The time of the disturbance in fact, that is the construction of the barge facility, is relevant only to that defendant. Plaintiffs alleged that the remaining defendants disturbed their possession by executing and recording a lease in favor of St. John Fleeting. Such lease is an allegation of a disturbance "in law" under La.C.C.P. Art. 3659:

A disturbance in law is the execution, recordation, registry, or continuing existence of record of any instrument which asserts or implies a right of ownership or to the possession of immovable property or of a real right therein, or any claim or pretension of ownership or right to the *279 possession thereof except in an action or proceeding, adversely to the possessor of such property or right.

When the disturbance is one in law, it amounts to a continuing disturbance. Thus it is regarded as occurring not only on the date of recordation of the instrument but each day thereafter as long as it exists. Roy O. Martin Lumber Co., Inc. v. Lemoine, 381 So.2d 915 (La.App. 3 Cir.1980). In the absence of any evidence introduced by the defendants at the trial on the exception that the lease in question no longer exists, the alleged disturbance in law apparently is a continuing one, in which case plaintiffs' action as to that disturbance would not have prescribed.

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Bluebook (online)
514 So. 2d 276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boneno-v-lasseigne-lactapp-1987.