Hinton v. Weaver

430 So. 2d 134
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 28, 1983
Docket15226-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 430 So. 2d 134 (Hinton v. Weaver) 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
Hinton v. Weaver, 430 So. 2d 134 (La. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

430 So.2d 134 (1983)

Walter M. HINTON, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Geneva Sue Terral WEAVER, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 15226-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

March 28, 1983.
Rehearing Denied May 5, 1983.

*135 Johnny E. Dollar, Monroe, for defendants-appellants.

Rabun & Post by David F. Post, Farmerville, for plaintiff-appellee.

Before PRICE, SEXTON and NORRIS, JJ.

SEXTON, Judge.

Plaintiff petitioned the district court to appoint a surveyor to fix the boundary between his property and the contiguous tract owned by defendants, according to the parties' respective titles. Defendants answered, opposing the authorization of a judicial survey, and alleging that a fence line which had separated the properties for several decades had become the legal boundary between the tracts by virtue of 30 years acquisitive prescription. The trial court appointed a surveyor to fix the title boundary and, after trial, rejected defendants' claims of acquisitive prescription and decreed the judicial survey to be legally binding. Defendants appeal the trial court's decree. We affirm.

Plaintiff-appellee in this cause is Walter M. Hinton and defendants-appellants are Geneva Terral and her daughter Geneva Terral Weaver. Plaintiff and defendants derive their ownership from a common ancestor. The property in question is located in Union Parish.

Prior to 1917, Mr. and Mrs. William Terral owned the tracts at issue herein, along with other contiguous properties. After the death of William Terral, his property was partitioned by his heirs in 1917. Among the properties received by each party in this partition were contiguous 40 acre tracts deeded to R.L. Terral and his sister Lizzie Terral Allen. The 40 acre tract received by R.L. Terral was the NW ¼ of the SE ¼ Section 4, Township 19 North, Range 1 East. The 40 acre tract received by Lizzie Terral Allen was immediately to the south of R.L. Terral's tract and constituted the SW ¼ of the SE ¼ of the same section. "[T]he south boundary line of the described forty received by R.L. Terral" was thus, in the words of the trial court, "the north boundary line of the property received by Lizzie Terral Allen."

R.L. Terral conveyed his 40 acre tract to his brother W.F. Terral in 1918; however, in 1945, W.F. Terral reconveyed this same tract of land to R.L. Terral. R.L. Terral subsequently died, and in 1971 the usufruct over his 40 acre tract vested in his widow, Geneva Terral. The naked ownership of his property initially vested, in indivision, in R.L. Terral's nine children. However, through a conventional agreement with her mother and co-heirs, his daughter Geneva Weaver became the naked owner of approximately 9 acres located in the extreme southeast corner of his 40 acre tract.

While the 40 acre tract owned by R.L. Terral was changing hands, a portion of the "forty" owned by Lizzie Terral Allen directly to the south also changed hands. In 1949, Lizzie Allen conveyed to her son-inlaw, Walter Hinton, a parcel of land in the northeast corner of her 40 acre tract.

As a consequence of this series of conveyances, defendants Geneva Weaver and Geneva Terral are the naked owner and usufructuary, respectively, of the 9 acre parcel *136 directly to the north of the tract currently owned by plaintiff Walter Hinton. The parcels belonging to the defendants and plaintiff are immediately adjacent and contiguous, with plaintiff's property forming the southern border of defendants' tract. The "ideal" or title boundary between the tracts owned by the defendants and plaintiff, is the quarter section line which once divided the 40 acre tracts formerly owned by their respective ancestors in title, R.L. Terral and Lizzie Terral Allen. The following diagram approximates the respective positions of these litigants' tracts:

In May and June of 1979, defendants constructed a fence parallel to the common boundary separating the two tracts owned by plaintiff and defendants; however, the fence was constructed some 40 feet south of the ideal boundary on land, which according to title, was owned by the plaintiff, Walter Hinton. On June 19, 1979, Mr. Hinton filed suit against the defendants, praying that the court authorize a judicial fixing of the common boundary. Plaintiff also prayed that the defendants be ordered to remove the aforesaid fence from his property. The defendants answered, alleging that they owned up to the fence that they had constructed by virtue of 30 years acquisitive prescription and that a judicial survey according to title would therefore be superfluous.

On March 6, 1980, the trial court directed licensed surveyor William T. Lowe to locate the ideal or title boundary between the properties of plaintiff and defendants. Mr. Lowe subsequently fixed the title boundary between the parties' tracts, and compiled a proces verbal of the actions taken in locating the boundary, and the evidence discovered of use and possession. The accuracy of the title boundary fixed by Mr. Lowe, and the substance of defendants' claims of acquisitive prescription, were tried in June of 1982. The trial court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff, dismissing defendants' claims of acquisitive prescription and decreeing that the boundary fixed by William Lowe along the quarter section line was legally binding.

Landowners and usufructuaries have an imprescriptible right to demand the judicial fixing of the boundaries of contiguous lands. LSA-C.C. Arts. 786, 788 and 789. "When both parties rely on titles only, *137 the boundary shall be fixed according to titles." LSA-C.C. Art. 793.

It is a basic principle of civil property law, however, that ownership by prescription eclipses ownership by title. Thus, "When a party proves acquisitive prescription, the boundary shall be fixed according to limits established by prescription rather than titles." LSA-C.C. Art. 794.

Immovable property may be acquired through 30 years acquisitive prescription without good faith or just title. LSA-C.C. Arts. 3475, 3499. This mode of ownership acquisition is based upon the possession of the property at issue for 30 years, which possession, to be legally binding, must consist of both physical possession, and the intent to possess as owner. LSA-C.C. Arts. 3499, 3436. The party alleging acquisitive prescription must establish that his possession has been continuous and uninterrupted public and unequivocal, within visible bounds, and under the title of—or with the intent to possess as—owner. LSA-C.C. Arts. 794, 3500.

A possessor may achieve the requisite 30 years of possession by adding to his own possession that of any predecessor in title whose possession he attains through universal, particular, lucrative or onerous title, though "to enjoy this advantage, the different possessions must have succeeded each other without interval or interruption." LSA-C.C. Arts. 3495, 3493. Once begun, the possession necessary to commence acquisitive prescription may be preserved by "vestiges of works" and other "external and public" signs. LSA-C.C. Arts. 3501, 3502. However, the operation of acquisitive prescription is limited to that property "actually possessed by the person pleading it." LSA-C.C. Art. 3503.

The trial judge, in exhaustive reasons for judgment, reviewed the facts pertinent to the resolution of the case as follows:

"Prior to the time that the acts of sale were executed in 1917 to partition the `Terral Property' Lizzie Terral Allen took possession of the eighty (80) acres she would acquire by virtue of the act of sale or partition.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bennett v. Louisiana Pacific Corp.
693 So. 2d 1319 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1997)
Herbert O'Donnell, Inc. v. Parish of Jefferson
641 So. 2d 580 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1994)
Owens v. Smith
541 So. 2d 950 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1989)
Lowe v. Jones
519 So. 2d 379 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1988)
Rogers v. Haughton Timber Co., Inc.
503 So. 2d 1079 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)
Williams v. McEacharn
464 So. 2d 20 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
430 So. 2d 134, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hinton-v-weaver-lactapp-1983.