Finley v. Louisiana Central Lumber Co.

16 So. 2d 839, 204 La. 1058, 1944 La. LEXIS 645
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 3, 1944
DocketNo. 36644.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 16 So. 2d 839 (Finley v. Louisiana Central Lumber Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Finley v. Louisiana Central Lumber Co., 16 So. 2d 839, 204 La. 1058, 1944 La. LEXIS 645 (La. 1944).

Opinion

ODOM, Justice.

This is a suit to try title to 100 acres of land in the Parish of LaSalle, the land in dispute being described as follows: “NE14 of NEJ4, N% of SE% of NE%, SEJ4 of SEi/4 of NE14, Ei/2 of NE% of SE14 and NWJ4 of NW% of SE%, all in *1061 Section 28, T. 11 N., R. 3 E., LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, 100 acres, more or less.”

Plaintiffs claim title to this land by inheritance from their ancestors. It is not disputed that plaintiffs’ ancestors acquired title to the land in 1858 and 1860. Plaintiff alleged that they are now the owners of the land, and that the Louisiana Central Lumber Company, Inc., is claiming to be the owner of it, despite the fact that said company has no just title to the land. They alleged that certain named oil and gas companies had acquired, and now claim to own, mineral leases covering the land, and these companies are made defendants. Plaintiff prayed that they be decreed to be the owners of the land in dispute, free from the claims of the mineral lessees.

Defendants filed answer in which they alleged that title to the land is now vested in the Louisiana Central Lumber Company, Inc. They alleged that on November 22, 1911, S. H. Brown executed a deed conveying the land in dispute, as well as other land, to the Louisiana Central Lumber Company, a corporation; that the deed was recorded in the conveyance records of LaSalle Parish, where the land is situated, on November 22, 1911, in Conveyance Book “B”, pp. 215-216; that the lumber company acquired the property in good faith, for a sound, valuable consideration, by deed translative of property; that it immediately took corporeal possession of the property under the deed in good faith, and that it has had corporeal possession of the property for more than 10 years, and that it has held the land in fact and in right as owner, and that its possession has been continuous, uninterrupted, peaceable, public, and unequivocal. Defendants coupled with their answer a plea of prescription of 10 years acquirendi causa, in bar of plaintiffs’ right to recover, the plea being filed under Article 3478 of the Revised Civil Code, which provides that “He who acquires an immovable in good faith and by just title prescribes for it in ten years.”

The trial judge, after hearing all the evidence adduced by the respective sides, maintained the defendants’ plea of prescription of 10 years acquirendi causa, and held that the defendant Louisiana Central Lumber Company, Inc., was the owner of the land in dispute; that the Louisiana Central Oil & Gas Company, one of the defendants in the suit, was the owner of the minerals and mineral rights in said lands, subj ect to a certain oil, gas, and mineral lease granted by the Louisiana Central Oil & Gas Company to H. L." Hunt. There was judgment accordingly, and plaintiffs’ suit was dismissed at their costs. From this judgment plaintiffs appealed.

One of the contentions made by counsel for plaintiffs is that the deed from S. H. Brown to the Louisiana Central Lumber Company, on which deed defendants rely, is not ■ translative of property and therefore cannot serve as a basis of the prescription of 10 years acquirendi causa. The basis of this contention is that the description contained in the deed does not identify any of the property in dispute.

At the beginning of the trial, the plaintiffs offered in evidence as “rem ipsam and *1063 as a basis fpr its attack, * * * Deed from S. H. Brown to the Louisiana Central Lumber Company of date November 22, 1911 and filed November 25, 1911 of record in Conveyance Book ‘B’ at pages 215 and 216 of the Conveyance Records of LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, with leave to substitute a certified copy, certified photostatic copy of same”.

This offering was not objected to by counsel for defendants. The deed offered in evidence by the plaintiffs is the one on which defendants rely in support of their claim of ownership. This offering by plaintiff was identified as Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 4. At page 48 of the record, we find the document marked “Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 4”.

Instead of this document’s being the “certified copy” or “certified photostatic copy” of the original deed which counsel asked leave to substitute for the original, it is a copy of a copy, a copy of the deed as recorded in Notarial Book “B”, pp. 215-216, of the records of LaSalle Parish. The instrument as copied in the record of the case bears no certificate showing that it is a true copy of the original deed or that it is a true copy of the deed as copied in the conveyance records. But in the supplemental transcript filed by the clerk of court, he made affidavit that “Plaintiffs’ Exhibit-4 shown at pages 48 and 49 of the Transcript as being deed from S. H. Brown to Louisiana Central Lumber Company, recorded in Conveyance Book ‘B’, pages 215 and 216 of LaSalle Parish records, contains no certificate and the Transcript should be supplemented so as to show the following certificate to said exhibit:

“I hereby certify that the annexed deed from S. H. Brown to Louisiana Central Lumber Company is a true and correct copy of Conveyance Book ‘B’, pages 215 and 216 of the records of LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, but is not a true photostatic copy of the original deed.”

The description of the land as it appears of record in Notarial Book “B”, a copy of which plaintiffs filed in evidence, in so far as it relates to land in Section 28 is as follows: “NE% NE%. Ny2. SEy¡, NE%. SE%. SE14. NE14. Wi/2. SW34. NEj4 wy2. Nwy4 swy4. E%. NEi/4. sey4. Nwy4, Nwy«. se%, sy2. se%. Sec. 28.”

Referring to this copy of the copy of the deed which plaintiffs filed in the record as their Exhibit 4, their counsel say in their brief that “There are no punctuations by which it can be determined what specific property in Section 28 is referred to”, and for that reason they say the deed is not translative of property and therefore defendants’ plea of prescription must fall.

It clearly appears from the record brought up that the original deed, in so far as the description of the property conveyed is concerned, was incorrectly copied in the notarial records. Evidently the purpose of plaintiffs’ counsel in offering the deed in evidence for the purpose of attacking it was to support their contention that the deed was not one translative of property, for the reason that there were no punctuation marks in connection with the description of the land conveyed by which it could be determined what specific property was referred to. They offered in evi *1065 ■dence the original deed and asked leave to substitute therefor a certified copy or a certified photostatic copy thereof. Instead of doing this, they produced and filed in evidence a copy of the instrument as recorded in the conveyance records. We •concur in the view expressed by counsel for plaintiffs that, under the description of the land as it appears in the copy of the copy which they filed and had transcribed in the record of this case, it would be impossible to tell just what specific land in Section 28 was intended to be conveyed.

But counsel for defendants offered and filed in evidence a certified photostatic copy of the original deed, a document such as plaintiffs’ counsel had asked at the inception of the trial -to be substituted for the original deed, which original they themselves had offered in evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
16 So. 2d 839, 204 La. 1058, 1944 La. LEXIS 645, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/finley-v-louisiana-central-lumber-co-la-1944.