Casso v. Ascension Realty Co.

190 So. 198, 1939 La. App. LEXIS 327
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 30, 1939
DocketNo. 1973.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 190 So. 198 (Casso v. Ascension Realty Co.) 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
Casso v. Ascension Realty Co., 190 So. 198, 1939 La. App. LEXIS 327 (La. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinions

DORE, Judge.

This is a petitory action involving two sixty-foot lots opposite Block 78 of the Town of Port Barrow on the east side of State Highway 29, extending to the depth of 150 feet or more eastward to the center line of Bayou Lafourche.

The petition alleges that plaintiff acquired title by authentic act on February 26, 1936, from Mrs. Clara-Binnings Jeffery and Mrs. Beauchamp Sharp, a certified copy of the act being made a part of petition; that Mrs. Jeffery and Mrs. Sharp acquired the property as the sole heirs of Mrs. Rhoda Sharp Buford by a duly recorded judgment sending them in possession of her succession; that Mrs. Rhoda Sharp Buford acquired the property as the widow and universal legatee of William W. Buford by a duly recorded judgment sending her into possession of his succession; that William W.. Buford acquired the property by a duly recorded patent from the State of Louisiana; and that plaintiff has been disturbed in the possession and ownership of the property by The Ascension Realty Company, a Louisiana Corporation, and by Linden E. Bentley and Mrs. Ella Bentley Arthur, made defendants herein, who pretend to be the possessors of the property and have brought a possessory action against petitioner to be maintained in possession thereof.

The plaintiff prays for judgment recognizing him as full owner of the property and, as such, entitled to undisturbed possession thereof and to abatement of defendants’ possessory action.

The answer sets forth that the aforesaid three defendants and one G. Donnaud Bentley, together with the heirs of William W. Buford have been in undisturbed possession of the property for over 30 years; that in 1890 one Charles A. Camp executed a notarial act, a certified copy of which is attached, which was duly recorded, transferring the undivided two-thirds of all his rights, title and interest to his property at Port Barrow, which included the property herein involved, to Dr. William McGalliard and Bernard Lemann, and that William W. Buford appeared and ratified the said act; that on November 26, 1906, by duly recorded act the said William McGalliard and the heirs of the said Bernard Lemann transferred to The Ascension Realty Company, the defendant herein, a part of the property acquired by them from Camp including the- property involved herein; that thereafter the said Ascension Realty Company, the said Buford successors and the said Bentley exercised all rights of possession and ownership, including the payment of taxes and leasing of the property from 1909 to 1929, to the said property in indivisión in the proportion of two-thirds to The Ascension Realty Company, one-sixth to the Buford heirs and one-sixth to the Bentleys.

The lower court found that William W. Buford obtained title to the property in question from the State of Louisiana by patent to section 32, T 11 S, R 14 E, of which it is a part, and that plaintiff, having acquired the property by direct chain of title from the said William W. Buford, is the owner thereof. He rendered judgment accordingly in favor of the plaintiff. The defendant, The Ascension Realty Company, has appealed.

Since the Bentleys have not appealed from the judgment, the question as to whether or not they owned a one-sixth undivided interest in the property, as set forth in the answer, is not before us and their rights to such one-sixth interest is considered waived in favor of the plaintiff herein ; so that the question before us is, whether or not the defendant, The Ascension Realty Company, is correct in its contention that it is. the owner in indivisión of a two-thirds interest in the property.

It is shown by the record that William W. Buford acquired all of Section 32, T 11 S, R 14 E, from the State of Louisiana by patent dated February 26, 1883 and that the property involved herein is a part of said section. It is also clearly shown that the plaintiff herein traces his chain of title direct to that of William W. Buford. The case therefore involves the questions:

(1) Was the patent by which Buford acquired the property valid?

(2) If so, did Buford or any of his successors transfer the property prior to the sale to plaintiff?

As to the first question, we agree with the trial judge that since the patent is legal on its face and was duly recorded and since the prescriptive period of six years has long since expired, it must be considered valid and cannot be attacked at this time.

As to the second question, it is the contention of defendant, The Ascension *200 Realty Company, that the author in title of plaintiff disposed of all his rights, title and interest in an undivided two-thirds of the property to its author in title as a result of two compromise acts marked D-l and D-2, passed on March 4, 1890 before Edward N. Pugh, Notary Public.

It appears that one Charles A. Camp had acquired by devise from John B. Pittman all or part of the property at Port Barrow covered by the patent to William W. Buford. The property devised to Camp by Pittman was acquired by the latter from Robert Ruffin Barrow by act recorded June 2, 1868 (D-81), the description of the property therein containing the following:

“First: The town property of said R. R. Barrow contained in the site known as Port Barrow consisting of Squares and lots whether improved or unimproved, which may be standing in the name of said Barrow, upon the records of the Parish of Ascension, said property being therein and lying immediately north of the Bayou La-fourche, opposite the Town of Donaldson-ville, on the west bank of the Mississippi River and .embraced between the lines of survey made by V. Sulakowski, civil engineer, and which was incorporated by the legislature of this State.”

It is apparent from the foregoing that Pittman acquired from Barrow among other properties, that part of Port Barrow immediately north (west at the point involved) of Bayou Lafourche, which would include the batture property involved in this suit. And since the patent to William W. Buford covered all of Section 32, which included Port Barrow, there naturally arose a conflict with reference to the ownership of. the Port Barrow property devised to Camp by Pittman, described hereinabove.

It is obviously this conflict in ownership that gave rise to the compromise acts referred to hereinabove.

In the first of these two acts of compromise Charles A. Camp sold to William M. McGalliard and Bernard Lemann the following described property:

“The undivided two-thirds of all the title and interest of the said Charles A. Camp in and unto that certain tract of land situated in the Parish of Ascension and known as Port Barrow and being the undivided two-thirds of the land divided (devised) by the late John B. Pittman by his last will and testament to said Charles At Camp and called by him. * * * 'All my property in Port Barrow’ said land consisting principally of lots of ground as per plan of said Town of Port Barrow made by V. Sulakowski and of record in the recorder’s office of this parish the plan being made a part and portion of this action (act).”

William W. Buford appeared in said court and ratified it, disclaiming any interest in the property transferred.

The second act is a conveyance from Charles A. Camp to William W. Buford of the following property :

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Related

Isacks v. Deutsch
114 So. 2d 746 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1959)
Casso v. Ascension Realty Co.
196 So. 1 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1940)
Casso v. Ascension Realty Co.
192 So. 542 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1939)
Schoeny v. Ascension Realty Co.
190 So. 204 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1939)

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Bluebook (online)
190 So. 198, 1939 La. App. LEXIS 327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/casso-v-ascension-realty-co-lactapp-1939.