Delacroix Corp. v. Dean

901 So. 2d 1188, 2005 WL 896486
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 13, 2005
Docket2004-CA-0899
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 901 So. 2d 1188 (Delacroix Corp. v. Dean) 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
Delacroix Corp. v. Dean, 901 So. 2d 1188, 2005 WL 896486 (La. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

901 So.2d 1188 (2005)

DELACROIX CORPORATION
v.
Lynn B. DEAN and Elevating Boats, Inc.

No. 2004-CA-0899.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

April 13, 2005.

*1190 James E. Blazek, Donna M. Borrello, Adams and Reese LLP, New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellee.

Laurence E. Best, Susan R. LaPorte, Best Koeppel, APLC, New Orleans, LA, for Defendants/Appellants.

(Court composed of Judge PATRICIA RIVET MURRAY, Judge JAMES F. McKAY, III, Judge DENNIS R. BAGNERIS, SR.).

PATRICIA RIVET MURRAY, Judge.

Defendants, Lynn Dean and Elevating Boats, Inc. [hereinafter collectively referred to as "Dean"], appeal the trial court's judgment granting to the plaintiff, Delacroix Corporation ["Delacroix"], following trial on the merits, a permanent injunction ordering Dean to cease trespassing on Delacroix's property. The trial court also denied Delacroix's motion for sanctions, denied various exceptions asserted by Dean, and denied Dean's reconventional demand. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

The instant case involves a dispute over the ownership of and the right to use certain property known as the Caernarvon Canal, which is a manmade canal located in Section 6, Township 14 South, Range 13 East, in Plaquemines Parish. On September 30, 1999, Delacroix filed a Petition to Enjoin Trespass alleging that it holds title to the Caernarvon Canal and that Dean had trespassed by mooring and maintaining *1191 elevating boats on one side of the canal and by filling in the head of the canal and building a boat launch, which activities Dean had continued despite Delacroix's formal demand on November 11, 1998 that he cease. Delacroix later filed a motion for preliminary injunction in addition to its petition.

Dean initially asserted exceptions of no right of action (based on the assertion that Delacroix was not the owner of the canal), prematurity (based on the assertion that the issue of ownership must be determined prior to the trespass issue) and failure to join an indispensable party (based upon the nonjoinder of Plaquemines Parish, which Dean claimed was the owner of the canal).[1] Dean also asserted a reconventional demand instituting a possessory action against Delacroix. The trial court granted Delacroix's exception of prescription dismissing the reconventional demand, and this court granted Dean's writ application but denied relief, holding that Dean had no basis for asserting a possessory action.[2] On December 4, 2003, Dean filed an amended answer in which he asserted a new reconventional demand claiming that he had title superior to Delacroix's and alternatively, that he became owner of the canal by means of the acquisitive prescription of ten years or alternatively, of thirty years. Within its answer to this reconventional demand, Delacroix moved for sanctions against Dean for Dean's allegedly deliberate attempt to delay trial; the motion for sanctions was referred to the merits.

The merits of the preliminary injunction, the motion for sanctions, the remaining exceptions and the reconventional demand were tried on January 5-8, 2004. On February 20, 2004, the trial court rendered judgment granting a preliminary injunction prohibiting Dean from trespassing on Delacroix's property, and denying Delacroix's motion for sanctions, Dean's reconventional demand, and Dean's exceptions of no right of action, prematurity, and the failure to join an indispensable party.

In written Reasons for Judgment, the trial court noted it had to decide the issue of title to the property before reaching the other issues. After noting that the two title experts who testified reached different conclusions despite relying upon essentially the same documents, the trial court found the analysis and conclusion of Delacroix's expert, Mr. Jackson, to be more credible than those of Dean's expert, Mr. Title. Accepting Mr. Jackson's conclusion, the trial court held that Delacroix is the owner by title of the canal. With regard to the issue of acquisitive prescription, the trial court noted that the party alleging either the ten-year or the thirty-year prescription must prove not only that he has possessed as owner for the requisite amount of time, but also that his possession has been continuous, uninterrupted, peaceable, public, and unequivocal.[3] The trial court found Dean failed to meet this burden because he did not make his intent to possess as owner public, so as to put Delacroix on notice of same, until 1998, when Dean applied for a permit to do driveway work. The court also found that *1192 Dean's claim of acquisitive prescription of ten years was defeated by his lack of a just title.[4] Turning to the issue of trespass, the court noted that the plea of acquisitive prescription by the defendant in a trespass action is a two-edged sword, because if acquisitive prescription is not proved, the defendant has admitted to trespass. Nevertheless, the trial court held that Delacroix had proved, by means of testimony and photographs, that Dean had trespassed on their property on numerous occasions, particularly by stacking derelict vessels in the canal and by filling in the head of the canal and building a boat launch. Finally, the trial court noted that Dean had unduly delayed the trial, but declined to impose sanctions.[5]

Following the rendition of the judgment granting the preliminary injunction, Delacroix moved for entry of a final judgment and permanent injunction. The motion was granted, and final judgment issuing a permanent injunction was rendered March 1, 2004.

Dean now appeals that judgment. On appeal, Dean asserts four assignments of error: (1) the trial court erred by concluding that Delacroix has title; (2) the trial court erred by finding that Dean failed to prove acquisitive prescription of ten or thirty years; (3) the trial court committed reversible error by refusing to admit evidence allegedly showing the original location of the canal, which evidence was proffered by Dean; and (4) the trial court failed to specifically identify the property governed by the judgment. We address each issue in turn.

TITLE

It is undisputed that the Caernarvon Canal was built by the Phillips Land Company ["Phillips"] on its own property sometime prior to 1912. A canal built on private property with private funds for private purposes is subject to private ownership. National Audubon Society v. White, 302 So.2d 660, 665 (La.App. 3d Cir.1974). Both parties in the instant lawsuit trace their titles back to the Phillips Land Company. Delacroix contends that it acquired title to the canal in a sale from Acme Land Company ["Acme"] in 1929. The 1929 act of sale and all the preceding acts of sale in Delacroix's chain of title were introduced at trial without objection. Delacroix's title specifically lists property acquired in Section 6, Township 14 South, Range 13 East, as:

A portion of land on East Bank of Mississippi River at Caernarvon, Plaquemines Parish, bounded on the upper or East side by boundary line dividing St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes, and bounded on the lower or West side by property of Norman Towne, approximately 1600 feet front on the river by a depth of 40 arpents, more or less, and bounded in the rear by Section 27, Township 14 South, Range 13 East, including the Caernarvon or Phillips Navigation Canal.
(Emphasis added).

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Related

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106 So. 3d 283 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
901 So. 2d 1188, 2005 WL 896486, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/delacroix-corp-v-dean-lactapp-2005.