Boykin v. Boykin

4 La. App. 210, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 389
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 7, 1926
DocketNo. 2655
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 4 La. App. 210 (Boykin v. Boykin) 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
Boykin v. Boykin, 4 La. App. 210, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 389 (La. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

ODOM, J.

Plaintiff alleged in his petition, that he is the owner of a Delco lighting plant with sixteen wet water batteries, one pump with one-half horse power generator, one fan with electric fixtures, situated in and near the main residence, known as the J. W. Boykin Place, in Rich-land parish, Louisiana, valued at $350.00; that the same was purchased by him with his separate funds and installed in the said J. W. Boykin residence while he was living in and occupying said residence, for [his own use and convenience, without any intention of attaching it to or making it a part of the realty; that when he removed pom said residence he attempted to remove the Delco lighting plant and fixtures and was prevented from doing so by Hefendants.

j He prayed to be decreed the owner of said property and to be allowed to remove |he same.

I In a supplemental and amended petition, le alleged that he feared that during the tendency of the suit the defendants would remove the property and asked for and was granted a writ of sequestration under which the property was seized.

He further alleged that he had been damaged in the sum of $50.00, $25.00 for loss of time in attempting to gain possession of this property, and $25.00 for loss of the use thereof, and prayed for judgment for that amount.

Defendants answered denying plaintiff’s ownership of the property and specially alleged that they had purchased the same from him.

There was judgment in the district court rejecting plaintiff’s demands at his costs, from which he prosecutes this appeal.

OPINION

The plaintiff and defendants are the children .and sole heirs of their father, J. W. Boykin, who died in 1924, and their mother, Mrs. Georgia L. Boykin, who died in 1922.

The father and mother of these litigants owned a tract of land consisting of some 265 acres situated in Richland parish on which there was a residence which they occupied up to the date of their death.

We infer from the record that all the children, except the plaintiff, left the farm prior to 1908. In that year the plaintiff took charge of the farm as manager for his father and mother and lived in the residence with them until after the death of the father in 1924. During that time or at .least a portion of it he operated a mercantile business in the store situated on the land and located near the [212]*212residence. The mercantile business was his own separate enterprise.

During the year 1918 the plaintiff, while residing -in said residence with his father and mother, at his own expense installed a Delco lighting plant in connection with the residence for his own convenience and for the convenience of his father and mother. This plant furnished current for the residence and the storehouse used by plaintiff as a separate enterprise. He contends that the Delco plant was never intended by him to become a part of the realty but was his separate property and that he now has the right to remove it.

It is admitted by defendants that plaintiff did install the Delco lighting plant at his own expense, hut it is also their contention that it was intended to be and remain an improvement on the real estate then owned by plaintiff’s father and mother and that they acquired the same along with plaintiff’s interest in the succession property after the death of the father and mother.

Therefore, the sole question to be determined in this suit is, whether the defendants acquired this Delco lighting system in the settlement and purchase hereinafter mentioned.

After the death of the father, in 1924, the mother having previously died, there seems to have been some friction between plaintiff and the other heirs over a settlement of the succession property, and from statements in the brief of counsel for plaintiff we infer that there was litigation either threatened or pending. B,ut a settlement between them was reached by which the defendants purchased for the price of $2750.00 plaintiff’s undivided one-fifth interest in all of the property, both real and personal, belonging to the successions of their deceased parents.

The act of sale sets out that Frank N. Boykin, the plaintiff in this suit, sells to the defendants his undivided one-fifth interest in certain real estate which is described, together with—

“* * * all the improvements situated upon all of the said hereinabove described property, consisting of dwelling, gin house and machinery, store building, barns, cabins and all other improvements. Also all of the personal and movable property of every kind, character, nature and description belonging to the said J. W. Boykin and the said Mrs. Georgia L. Boykin, deceased, either or both of them, at the time of their respective deaths.”

Subsequent to this settlement and transfer, the defendants, by written contract, leased to the plaintiff, Frank N. Boykin, for the year 1925—

“* * * that certain property in the parish of Richland known as the Boykin estate, that is, ■ the property owned by J. L. Boykin and Mrs. Georgia L. Boy-kin, his wife, at the time of their death;’

consisting of about 265 acres <5f land, with livestock and farming implements, dwelling house and other improvements and appurtenances situated on said real estate. |

This lease contract sets out that these | parties, being the heirs of said J. W. Boy-kin and Mrs. Georgia L. Boykin, have set-1 tied all their differences over the succes-1 sions of their deceased parents, and paragraph fourth thereof read as follows:

“At the end of this contract the said I party of the second part (the lessee and I plaintiff herein) shall surrender to thel parties of the first part (the lessors and I defendants herein) the said property, and I [213]*213he shall be permitted to remove from the said property the following property, to-wit:”

Then follows an itemized list of. the property which he was allowed to remove, there being specified four mules, five head of cattle, one wagon, one stalk cutter, plows, sweeps and harrows, one automobile, all the merchandise in the store, and all personal effects belonging to the party of the second part in the residence on the said property, and all the hogs, chickens and turkeys

“* * * left after leaving on the place the number hereinafter set out”.

Paragraph 5th of the lease contract and settlement provides that said property of the second part—

“* * * shall leave on the said property.”

Then follows an itemized list of the property to be left, consisting of six horses, all named, one colt, one mule, and all cattle branded “B” and marked with a crop off of the left ear and an overbit on the right ear, one wagon, one cotton-planter, two harrows, three turning-plows, two sweep-stocks, 6000 pounds of cotton seed for planting' purposes, 60 bushels of corn, 60 head of grown chickens, and all blacksmith tools.

It further stipulated that the lease did not include the cotton, gin, which was to be operated by the lessors, but they agreed to gin the cotton produced on the plantation at 50 cents per 100 pounds and to charge plaintiff 25 cents profit per bale on the cost of bagging and ties used to wrap the cotton, and further provided that Robert E. Boykin, one of the defendants, should have the privilege of occupying

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Bluebook (online)
4 La. App. 210, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boykin-v-boykin-lactapp-1926.