Chicago Mill & Lumber Co. v. Lewis

76 So. 2d 625, 1954 La. App. LEXIS 972
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 1, 1954
DocketNo. 8244
StatusPublished

This text of 76 So. 2d 625 (Chicago Mill & Lumber Co. v. Lewis) 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
Chicago Mill & Lumber Co. v. Lewis, 76 So. 2d 625, 1954 La. App. LEXIS 972 (La. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

GLADNEY, Judge.

This appeal is from a judgment granting a permanent injunction to Chicago Mill & Lumber Company and Ayer Timber Company, Inc., enjoining George N. Lewis from interfering with the cutting and removal of timber from certain land in Madison Parish acquired by Lewis from Ayer Timber Company, Inc. through deed dated November 1, 1940, containing timber reservation provisions.

This court has had before it phases of this case on two previous occasions. See 66 So.2d 624 and 68 So.2d 913. On the latter occasion consideration was given to the record as submitted after a hearing upon the rule nisi for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction, and upon the review, this court examined the evidence adduced for the purpose of justifying the issuance of the writ. For reasons given in our opinion the cause was remanded to the trial court for further proceedings and with direction to ascertain the merchantable timber in existence on the Lewis land as of November 1, 1940. Following this ruling, further proceedings were had in the trial court which resulted in the issuance of a preliminary writ of injunction, and finally, in the. granting of a permanent injunction.

In what should have been the usual expeditious trial of an injunction suit, more than eighteen months have already elapsed without the rendition of a final judgment. Two applications for writs herein have been acted upon by the Supreme Court of Louisiana and refused, and as above pointed out, this is the third time the case has been before this court. Pleadings, testimony, exhibits and remarks of counsel have made up seven volumes of which the greater part of four volumes contains evidence presented on the trial had for the issuance, vel non, of a permanent injunction.

Notwithstanding the massiveness of the record, the issues from the beginning, in our opinion, have been relatively simple. The deed from Ayer Timber Company, [627]*627Inc. to George N. Lewis, reserved all the merchantable timber growing on the land sold to him. The sale was made subject to a written contract or agreement between Ayer Timber Company, Inc. and Chicago Mill & Lumber Company, and any further amendments to said contract. The agreements between the two corporations contained a grant of authority from the owner of a vast tract of timber to a mill owner to cut its timber and settle for the amount so cut upon the payment of specified prices. The agreement, as amended, and as may be further amended, is dated Ooctober 28, 1918, and referred to as the basic contract. The contract did not limit the size of timber which could be removed and timber under certain saw log sizes could be removed for seventy-five cents per thousand, and some, as therein specified, without payment therefor. The basic contract was in force and effect when Lewis purchased the land from Ayer Timber Company, Inc. and we presume it is still in existence.

In brief and argument error is assigned to the judgment appealed from in that: defendant was not accorded a trial upon the merits of his case; erroneous rulings were made as to the admission and exclusion of certain evidence, in refusing to grant an order for inspection of certain records in the possession of plaintiffs, and in denying a motion for continuance; and the court erred in its determination of “merchantable timber”.

We have carefully reviewed the record only to find upon the trial for permanent injunction defendant was not denied presentation of any valid evidence tendered by him upon triable issues. Doubtlessly, the complaint is directed at rulings under the second error assigned to the judgment, and hereinafter discussed. The record of the final trial fills four volumes and it discloses defendant’s counsel was successful in placing in the record all admissible evidence tendered. There is no merit in the contention of appellant he was not allowed to try his case on its merits.

The next assignment of error charges erroneous rulings as to the admissibility of certain evidence. The evidence referred to principally concerns releases of timber upon lands other than those of the defendant. This evidence was properly excluded by the trial court. We had occasion to pass upon the same question when this case was before us on the last occasion. See 68 So.2d 913, 917. As we appreciate counsel’s position, the refusal of the court to admit releases of other land was prejudicial to her cause. We do not understand that on the appeal she complains of substantial prejudice from rulings pertaining to other evidence. We find no error either in our ruling, heretofore given, or that of our brother on the district bench, the effect of which was to exclude evidence of releases unrelated to the Lewis land. LSA-C.C. art. 2276.

Error is assigned to the refusal of the judge a quo to sign an order permitting the defendant and his counsel to inspect, copy and photograph certain records in the office of the Chicago Mill & Lumber Company. The step was taken under the new Louisiana statute on Depositions and Discovery, Acts 1952, No. 202, as presently incorporated in Part 3, of Title 13 of the Revised Statutes of 1950, embracing Sections 3741 and 3794. It was represented in the motion that the evidence sought to be obtained would show: there was no merchantable timber on the Lewis tract in 1940; Ayer Timber Company, Inc. had no desire to cut timber on the land sold to Lewis; that neither Ayer Timber Company, Inc. nor the Chicago Mill & Lumber Company owned any timber on the Lewis tract; and releases on many tracts of land after the timber thereon was removed, were given to Ayer Timber Company, Inc. by the Chicago Mill & Lumber Company, thus indicating a pattern of conduct which should govern the Lewis land. Counsel for appellant has not pointed out specifically how she has been prejudiced by the ruling. The record discloses without room for doubt there was some merchantable timber on the Lewis tract when on. November 1, 1940, the reserve .clauses were [628]*628written into the Lewis deed. Correspondence between the Ayer Timber Company, Inc. and Lewis clearly indicates that the Chicago Mill & Lumber Company as late as 1953 was insisting upon its right to cut the timber on the Lewis tract. The Ayer Timber Company, Inc. wrote Lewis that it could not release the timber until agreeable with the Chicago Mill & Lumber Company. Appellant’s contention that neither of plaintiffs owned the timber on the Lewis tract is refuted by the deed from Ayer Timber Company, Inc. to Lewis and upon which rests any claim of title by Lewis to the timber. The final clause of entitlement to see any and all releases of timber lands from the basic contract by Chicago Mill & Lumber Company concerns evidence irrelevant and inadmissible, as was pointed out in our previous decision. We said, 68 So.2d 913-917:

“ * * * parol evidence was adduced to show that after the timber was cut the vendor in deeds containing similar reserve clauses recognized the timber as belonging to the landowner. The evidence, we think, was improperly admitted. LSA-C.C. art. 2276.”

Substantially all of the evidence sought to be obtained by the motion for discovery with the exception of that shown to be irrelevant, was either supplied through other testimony or records filed in evidence on the trial of the case. The evidence contemplated by the discovery move, if produced, would have been merely cumulative. Furthermore, the request as presented to the court was too general and is subject to objection under LSA-R.S. 13:3762.

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Related

Chicago Mill & Lumber Co. v. Lewis
68 So. 2d 913 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1953)
State ex rel. Lewis v. Chicago Mill & Lumber Co.
66 So. 2d 624 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1953)

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Bluebook (online)
76 So. 2d 625, 1954 La. App. LEXIS 972, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-mill-lumber-co-v-lewis-lactapp-1954.