Deshotel v. Lachney

465 So. 2d 974
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 6, 1985
Docket84-198
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 465 So. 2d 974 (Deshotel v. Lachney) 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
Deshotel v. Lachney, 465 So. 2d 974 (La. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

465 So.2d 974 (1985)

Elton J. DESHOTEL, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Colton LACHNEY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 84-198.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

March 6, 1985.

*975 Michael Kelly, Marksville, for plaintiff-appellant.

John Bennett, Marksville, for defendant-appellee.

Before GUIDRY, FORET and STOKER, JJ.

GUIDRY, Judge.

This is a boundary action. Plaintiff, Elton J. Deshotel, filed suit seeking to have *976 the boundary between his property and that of defendant, Colton Lachney, judicially established.

In April of 1983, Deshotel engaged Ralph Gagnard, a registered surveyor, to determine the line of division between his property and that of Lachney. Lachney refused to accept the results of such survey and removed the survey stakes placed by Gagnard. Lachney thereafter offered to purchase from Deshotel the disputed piece of property lying between the division line as set by Gagnard and fences constructed by Lachney in the years 1967 and 1971. Deshotel turned down Lachney's offer and instituted this suit seeking to have the boundary judicially established. Lachney answered the suit alleging that the fence constructed by him in the year 1967, extended in the year 1971, was the true boundary between the contiguous estates. Lachney filed a reconventional demand, requesting the court to appoint its own surveyor to determine the proper line of division between the properties. He also sought damages for Deshotel's frivolous lawsuit. Lachney later amended his reconventional demand to assert his ownership of the disputed strip by acquisitive prescription.

The court appointed a surveyor, Jessie Lachney (no relation to defendant), to determine the proper boundary line between the two estates. The court-appointed surveyor rendered his report on July 6, 1983. His survey differed from Gagnard's survey by only fourteen inches. (Lachney's survey is attached hereto as Appendix "I"). Defendant Lachney also refused to accept the results of this survey, claiming the fence line to be the proper boundary. By judgment dated January 10, 1984, the trial court held for defendant, Lachney, establishing the fence line as the legal boundary. Plaintiff appeals.

Deshotel's appeal is based on the following specifications of error:

1. The trial court erred in finding that Deshotel had always agreed that the fence line was the boundary between the properties;
2. The trial court erred in finding that the fence line was the legal boundary despite the specific acreage called for by the act of sale to Lachney;
3. The trial court erred in concluding that the parties intended the sale to be one of property within certain bounds (i.e., sale per aversionem); and,
4. The trial court erred in assessing Deshotel with all costs.

FACTS

The parties are the owners of adjoining tracts of land in Avoyelles Parish delineating their titles back to a common ancestor, Kirby Moras. Moras inherited a thirteen acre tract of land in the year 1946. In 1967, Moras sold to Colton Lachney a one-acre square tract "out of the Southeastern corner of Kirby Moras property...." Sometime following this sale, Lachney constructed a single-strand barbed wire fence across the northern boundary of his property. This was done without benefit of a survey.

Kirby Moras subsequently sold the balance of his thirteen acre tract to Edwin L. Bordelon on February 2, 1970. Bordelon conveyed this property to Elton J. Deshotel, plaintiff, on December 7, 1970.

On September 27, 1971, Deshotel conveyed to Lachney the following described property:

"A certain tract or lot of land situated lying; (sic) and being in the 5th ward of the Parish of Avoyelles, La and containing 1.6 acres of land and described as being taken out of the S. W. corner of a larger tract of land fronting the L. and L. and A. and K C Rail road right of way, by a depth of 1 acre, more or less, and bounded north by; the (sic) balance of vendors 12 acre tract, on the south by the L/ (sic) and A. and K C S Rail road right of way, East by home place of the purchaser Colton L Lachney, and west by; (sic) Gaston Juneau, and forming part of section 48, T. 1 N R 3 E.
This is one point 6 tenths of an; (sic) acre of land taken out of the S.W. corner of a *977 12 acre tract of vendor, acquired from E L Bordelon in Book A-241, at page 655, records of Avoyelles parish La."

At the time of the sale from Deshotel to Lachney, there existed no fence or other visible boundary markers separating the property sold from the remainder of Deshotel's property. Shortly after the sale, Lachney informed Deshotel of his intentions to construct a fence across the northern part of his property, an extension of the fence he had constructed after his acquisition of the Southeast one acre corner of the Moras tract in 1967. Deshotel agreed to the construction of this fence by Lachney but advised him that the location of this fence would be merely provisional pending a true location of the boundary by a surveyor.

The trial court found that the legal boundary between the estates was the fence constructed by Lachney in the year 1967 as extended in the year 1971 following his purchase from Deshotel. The trial judge concluded that it was the intent of both parties to have this fence serve as the boundary. In his written reasons for judgment, the trial judge stated:

"It is not necessary that the exact acreage as set forth in the deed be conveyed to the purchaser when the parties have agreed upon property within certain bounds. The proven intention of each of the parties prevails in this case. The parties intended that this sale to defendant by boundary was to be bounded on the north by an extension of the fence already in place. Therefore, the fence line contructed (sic) by the defendant is clearly the proper and legal boundary in this dispute."

While not specifically designating it as such, the trial judge obviously concluded that the sale from Deshotel to Lachney was a sale per aversionem, i.e., a sale of property within certain bounds or limits.

SALE PER AVERSIONEM

Plaintiff urges that the trial judge erred in finding that the parties agreed to a sale of property within certain bounds.

The doctrine of "per aversionem" sale of immovables is derived from the provisions of La.C.C. Art. 2495, which provides:

"... There can be neither increase nor diminution of price on account of disagreement in measure, when the object is designated by the adjoining tenements, and sold from boundary to boundary."

In a sale per aversionem, the purchaser acquires the property located within the boundaries designated in the sales agreement, irrespective of the stated acreage in the agreement. A description of property by boundaries thus prevails over a description referring to a specific quantity or measurement. Adams v. Spillman, 290 So.2d 726 (La.App. 1st Cir.1974), writ denied, 293 So.2d 191 (La.1974). It is presumed by the nature of such a sale that both the vendor and the vendee intended to contract with reference to the boundaries, rather than with reference to quantity or length or depth. Cornish v. Kinder Canal Company, 267 So.2d 625 (La.App. 3rd Cir. 1972), writ denied, 263 La. 624, 268 So.2d 679 (La.1972), application not considered, 263 La. 800, 269 So.2d 248 (La.1972).

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Bluebook (online)
465 So. 2d 974, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/deshotel-v-lachney-lactapp-1985.