Bourgeois v. Linden Interest

84 So. 3d 715, 11 La.App. 3 Cir. 1130, 2012 WL 280689, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 125
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 1, 2012
DocketNo. 11-1130
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 84 So. 3d 715 (Bourgeois v. Linden Interest) 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
Bourgeois v. Linden Interest, 84 So. 3d 715, 11 La.App. 3 Cir. 1130, 2012 WL 280689, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 125 (La. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

SAUNDERS, Judge.

11 This is a dispute over the boundary between two adjacent tracts of land and of ownership of an existing road that each tract owner uses for access to their land. The two tracts were created by a common ancestor’s partition in 1950. The property descriptions of the two tracts note that the center of the existing road and a canal are to be the boundary between them. Attached to that partition is a plat drawn by a civil engineer that depicted the boundary between the two tracts as a straight line between two points. Both groups of tract owners agree that the straight line does not accurately depict the road.

The trial court found that the straight line depicted on the plat was the boundary between the two tracts and that, while the parts of the existing road were owned by each group of owners dependent on the boundary it fixed, use and maintenance of the road were predial servitudes of each tract. We reverse and render judgment that the boundary between the two tracts is fixed according to the property descriptions because the plat was erroneous and that the road is jointly owned and is to be jointly maintained by the owners of the two tracts.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY:

On March 6, 1951, the eleven shareholders of St. Paul Bourgeois, Inc. liquidated the company assets consisting primarily of immovable properties situated in Iberia Parish. The eleven shareholders comprised five family branches of the Bourgeois family.

The shareholders then partitioned, by Act of Partition dated March 7, 1951, recorded in COB 196, under Entry Number 81325 of the public records of Iberia Parish, all of the said immovable properties into five groups. The shareholders hired T.F. Kramer, a civil engineer, to survey all [718]*718of their properties for purposes of |2the Act of Partition. Kramer’s plats of the various tracts were attached to the Partition and made a part thereof.

A dispute arose between the owners of West Linden Plantation (West Linden) and East Linden Plantation (East Linden) regarding their common boundary. West Linden contends that the boundary between the two tracts of land is supposed to be a canal and the centerline of a road that separated the two tracts as according to the property descriptions for each tract. East Linden contends that the boundary is supposed to be a straight line between two points, A2 and Y, as depicted on the plats drawn by Kramer. On October 28, 2009, West Linden filed a petition for boundary action.

After a trial on the merits, the trial court reached a judgment in favor of East Linden that the boundary between the two tracts was a straight line between points A2 and Y. West Linden timely filed this appeal and asserts three assignments of error.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR:

1. The trial court erred in failing to render a decision based on the intent of the parties to the original partition agreement, as reflected by a clear reading of the agreement and the other evidence produced by West Linden at the trial of this matter.
2. The trial court failed to take into consideration and recognize that the owners of West Linden physically possessed all of the land west of and up to the road since 1951, as owners, unequivocally, and within visible boundaries, and should also be recognized as owners of that property by virtue of acquisitive prescription.
|s3. The trial court erred in ruling that the private road which separates West Linden from East Linden is not owned jointly by the owners of West Linden and East Linden.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER ONE:

West Linden contends in its first assignment of error that the trial court erred in failing to render a decision based on the intent of the parties to the original partition agreement, as reflected by a clear reading of that agreement and the other evidence produced by it at the trial of this matter. We find that this assignment of error has merit.

An appellate court may not set aside a trial court’s or a jury’s finding of fact in the absence of “manifest error” or unless it is “clearly wrong.” Rosell v. ESCO, 549 So.2d 840 (La.1989). The Louisiana Supreme Court has set forth a two-part test for the reversal of a fact finder’s determinations: (1) The appellate court must find from the record that a reasonable factual basis does not exist for the finding of the trial court or jury, and (2) the appellate court must further determine that the record establishes the finding is clearly wrong or manifestly erroneous. Mart v. Hill, 505 So.2d 1120 (La.1987); Stobart v. State Through DOTH, 617 So.2d 880 (La.1993).
This dictates that a reviewing court must do more than simply review the record for some evidence which supports the finding of the trial court or jury. The reviewing court must review the record in its entirety to determine whether the trial court’s or jury’s finding was “manifestly erroneous” or “clearly wrong.” Stobart, 617 So.2d 880. Furthermore, the reviewing court must always keep in mind that if the trial court or jury’s findings are reasonable in light of the record reviewed in its entirety, the appellate court may not reverse, [719]*719even if convinced that had it been sitting as the trier of fact it would have weighed the evidence differently. Housley v. Cerise, 579 So.2d 973 (La.1991); Sistler v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, 558 So.2d 1106 (La.1990).

Kimbrough v. Hirsch, 98-967, pp. 5-6 (La.App. 3 Cir. 2/3/99), 736 So.2d 871, 875-76, writ denied, 99-613 (La.4/23/99), 742 So.2d 886.

Louisiana Civil Code Article 784 states that “[a] boundary is the line of separation between contiguous lands. A boundary marker is a natural or artificial object that marks on the ground the line of separation of contiguous lands.”

|4[T]he legal guides for determining a question of boundary, or the location of a land line, in the order of their importance and value, are: (1) [njatural monuments; (2) artificial monuments; (3) distances; (4) courses; and (5) quantity. But the controlling consideration is the intention of the party or parties.

Meyer v. Comegys, 147 La. 851, 858, 86 So. 307, 309 (1920).

Our supreme court, in Hurst v. Ricard, 514 So.2d 14, 17 (La.1987), reinforced that the primary objective in fixing a boundary “is to determine and implement the intention of the parties and that the rules of interpretation set forth in statutes and jurisprudence must be considered as auxiliary rather than as absolutely controlling.” In the case before us, East and West Linden’s tracts were given to each by the 1951 partition of a St. Paul Bourgeois’ land. Present in the record is the property description of the West Linden tract that indicates the line between East and West Linden travels from “Point Y on the east property line of the West Linden Plantation, thence S[outh] 41° 13' W[est] along a canal and the center line of a road dividing West Linden and East Linden Plantations ...” to point A2. Also present in the record is the property description of the East Linden tract that indicates the line between East and West Linden begins at “the center line of a road dividing West and East Linden Plantations, Point A2, thence N[orth] 42° E[ast] along the center line of said road ...” to point Y. The language of the property descriptions is clear.

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Bluebook (online)
84 So. 3d 715, 11 La.App. 3 Cir. 1130, 2012 WL 280689, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bourgeois-v-linden-interest-lactapp-2012.