Griffin v. Daigle

769 So. 2d 720, 99 La.App. 1 Cir. 1942, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 2586, 2000 WL 1389807
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 22, 2000
DocketNo. 99 CA 1942
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 769 So. 2d 720 (Griffin v. Daigle) 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
Griffin v. Daigle, 769 So. 2d 720, 99 La.App. 1 Cir. 1942, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 2586, 2000 WL 1389807 (La. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

PARRO, J.

In this petitory action, Charles E. Griffin, II, appeals a trial court judgment declaring that the title to his property extends only to the center of the “public road,” being Morris Road. We reverse, render, and remand.

[722]*722FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This case involves a dispute over the meaning of the words “public road” in a 1941 partition document, in which property formerly owned by Green D. Spillman was divided by his heirs into five lots. Both parties in this lawsuit trace their titles to the disputed properties to this partition document, which described the boundaries of the partitioned properties with reference to the “public road” lying between and alongside them. The parties stipulated that the “public road” that is the source of the controversy was reworked and renamed between 1932 and 1935. The new name is Morris Road, and it generally tracks the roadbed of the former road, which was known as the New Hope-Whitaker Springs Road. In the area involved in this dispute, Morris Road lies somewhat west of the former roadbed. The current location of Morris Road was in place and used as a public road when the partition agreement was executed and filed of record in 1941. The property involved in the partition lies in Sections 55 and 56 of Township 1 South, Range 2 West, in West Feliciana Parish. Where the property at issue in this case is located, Morris Road runs generally north/south through Sections 55 and 56, almost perpendicular to the common east/west line separating these sections. A sketch attached to the partition document depicts the disputed boundary as one straight road, which is labeled, “public road.”

The title to the portion of Griffin’s property at issue can be traced to a tract on the west side of the road in Section 55. This tract became Lot One in the 1941 partition and became the property of Leslie R. Spillman. The partition document describes this property, in pertinent part, as “[tjhirteen acres, more or less, and bounded on the North by Highway No. | h258, and by lands of Leslie R. Spillman, on the East by the Public Road, on the South by lands of Charles Griffin,2 and on the West by State Highway No. 258.” The sketch attached to the partition document shows that the northern portion of Lot One lies opposite a large tract owned by Llewelyn Spillman.3 Because title to this fifty-acre tract had passed to Llewelyn Spillman in 1927 and its western boundary was the “public road” in existence at that time, the parties agree that its boundary is the old road. This existing boundary could not be altered by the partition. Therefore, the parties agree that where the property comprising Lot One lies opposite the fifty-acre tract, the “public road” referenced in the partition document as Lot One’s eastern boundary is the old road.

The southernmost portion of Lot One lies opposite a considerably larger tract that was also part of the partition. This larger tract — about 316 acres — on the east side of the road was partitioned into four large lots, Lots Two, Three, Four, and Five. The partition document describes the westernmost boundary of these lots as the “public road.” The sketch attached to the partition shows that Lot Two straddles the section line between Sections 55 and 56, with its southern portion located in Section 56. Lots Three, Four, and Five lie south of Lot Two and are entirely within Section 56. According to the sketch attached to the partition, the portion of Lot Two in Section 56 and all of Lots Three, Four, and Five are located across the road from property owned at that time by Charles Griffin, the plaintiffs grandfather, who bought it in 1921. This existing boundary also could not be altered by the partition. Therefore, the parties agree that the old public road forms the western boundary of Lots Three, Four, and Five, and of the portion of Lot Two located south of the section line.

[723]*723The controversy involves the small stretch of “public road” forming the boundary between the southern portion of Lot One on the west side of the road and the northern portion of Lot Two across from it on the east side of the road. In 1998 the defendants, Donald Hugh and Geraldine Bourgeois Daigle, purchased property on the east side of the road in Sections 55 and 56. The title to the portion of their property at issue is traced back to Lot Two of the partition, which in that document became the property of I ¿Llewelyn Spillman.4 A survey performed in connection with this purchase depicts the centerline of the old public road as the Daigles’ western property line where their property in Section 56 lies across the road from the property Griffin acquired from his grandfather. However, according to this survey, the Daigles’ western property line does not continue to track the old public road north of the section line. Rather, the line shifts about thirty feet due west on the section line between Sections 55 and 56 and proceeds northward along the centerline of the present public road. The present public road, Morris Road, lies to the west of the old road at this point. Therefore, the portion of the Daigles’ property located between the centerline of the old road and the centerline of the new road encroaches on property claimed by Griffin under his title traced back to Lot One. The recordation of this survey and transfer document to the Daigles is the first documented indication that ownership of property between the two roads is claimed by the Daigles or their ancestors in title.

Griffin bought the Lot One property and a small one-acre parcel just north of it in 1985. The property description for this purchase shows his property is bordered on the east by the “public road (New Hope-Whitaker).” The clarifying parenthetical first appeared in Griffin’s chain of title in 1955, when Leslie R. Spillman sold the property he had received in the partition to his brother. In that document, the property is described, in pertinent part, as:

largely triangular in shape more particularly described as bounded: North by State Highway 258; South by C.E. Griffin; East by Public Road (New Hope-Whittaker); West by State Highway 258, containing Fourteen (14) acres, more or less, being a portion of the Green Davis Spillman property acquired by Vendor from the Estate of the Former.

The reference to the New Hope-Whitaker Springs Road is included in all subsequent conveyances in Griffin’s chain of title. Based on this description, Griffin claims his property extends to the centerline of the old roadbed, the New Hope-Whitaker Springs Road, rather than to the center-line of the present public road, which is Morris Road. On a survey recorded by Griffin in March 1998, the eastern boundary of his property is |Bshown as the cen-terline of the old public road. When Griffin became aware of the Daigle purchase in November 1998 and the survey upon which their property description was based, he took the steps that ultimately culminated in this lawsuit.

Griffin’s suit asked for a declaratory judgment in his favor declaring him the true and lawful owner of the property described in the petition, amending the Daigles’ purchase document to clarify that the western boundary of their property is the centerline of the old road, and enjoining any further acts that might constitute a cloud on his title or a trespass on his property. The court signed a preliminary injunction and scheduled a hearing on a permanent injunction. The Daigles responded with a dilatory exception to the unauthorized use of summary proceeding and a motion to dissolve the preliminary injunction.

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Bluebook (online)
769 So. 2d 720, 99 La.App. 1 Cir. 1942, 2000 La. App. LEXIS 2586, 2000 WL 1389807, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/griffin-v-daigle-lactapp-2000.