Hooper v. Wisteria Lakes Subdivision

135 So. 3d 9, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 0050, 2013 WL 5016455, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 1865
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 13, 2013
DocketNo. 2013 CA 0050
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 135 So. 3d 9 (Hooper v. Wisteria Lakes Subdivision) 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
Hooper v. Wisteria Lakes Subdivision, 135 So. 3d 9, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 0050, 2013 WL 5016455, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 1865 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

WELCH, J.

Un this boundary dispute, the defendant/record owner of certain immovable property, CJS Development, L.L.C. (“CJS”), and the third party defendants/former record owners of that same property, Leo Summers as successor to [12]*12Thelma Helen LeSage Summers1, Betty Rose LeSage Thompson and Tonya Faye LeSage as successor to Alice Faye Bennett LeSage2 (collectively “the LeSage defendants”), appeal a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs/owners of adjoining immovable property, Betsy Hooper and John Hooper (collectively “the Hoopers”), declaring that the Hoopers acquired ownership of a portion of CJS’s property by thirty-year acquisitive prescription and awarding damages to the Hoopers for CJS’s removal of trees from their property. The Hoopers have answered the appeal seeking treble damages. Finding no error in the judgment of the trial court, we affirm the judgment of the trial court and deny the answer to appeal.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

By act of sale dated April 8,1961, Henry W. Hooper, plaintiff John Hooper’s father, acquired a tract of immovable property in East Baton Rouge Parish from Laurence L. Summers.3 By act of sale dated July 12, 1965, Betsy Hooper (then “Betsy His-song”) acquired a tract of immovable property in East Baton Rouge Parish adjacent to the properly owned by Henry Hooper.4 Betsy Hooper has owned and lived on that property continuously since that date. Eventually, Betsy Hooper married John Hooper. Following the death of Henry Hooper, Henry Hooper’s tract of immovable property was conveyed by the other |sheirs of Henry Hooper to the Hoopers by act of cash sale dated June 1992.5 Together, these two properties comprise the Hooper property.

By act of cash sale dated September 1, 2006, CJS acquired from the LeSage defendants 52.37 acres of immovable property in East Baton Rouge Parish.6 This property is adjacent to and contiguous with the Hooper property as well as property owned by Alvin McCloud, Michael Mannino, and Darryl Cleveland.7 CJS, through its members, Calvin Blount and Steve Cantu purchased the property from the LeSage defendants with the intent to develop it as Wisteria Lakes Subdivision.

Shortly after purchasing the property, a dispute arose between CJS and the Hoo-pers regarding the ownership of approximately ⅜ of an acre that was located between the record boundary of the Hooper property and an old fence line, which the Hoopers believed was the boundary between their property and the LeSage property (now owned by CJS). Apparently, the old fence line had been constructed around 1931 by Philo and Pinkie LeSage in order to keep cattle on the LeSage property and had been constructed in a straight line along (or close to) the entire boundary [13]*13of the LeSage property, except at the boundary of what is now the Hooper property, where the fence was constructed well inside the boundary line. Thus, the Hoo-pers’ claimed that the old fence line was the boundary between the two properties.8

Notwithstanding the boundary dispute, CJS began clearing trees from the property. Therefore, on December 15, 2006, the Hoopers filed a petition for | ¿injunction and to stop the development of the subdivision against CJS, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Cantu, and Wisteria Lakes Subdivision.9 In the petition, the Hoopers alleged that although CJS asserted ownership of the disputed area by virtue of a title presented to them at the purchase of the property, they had acquired ownership of the property by virtue of acquisitive prescription, having corporeally possessed the property for more than thirty years in accordance with La. C.C. art. 3486, et seq. Accordingly, the Hoopers requested a temporary restraining order and thereafter, an injunction to enjoin the defendants from any further action on the disputed area.10

In response, CJS filed a third-party demand for warranty of title against the LeSage defendants, seeking, in the event of an eviction from the disputed area of the property by the Hoopers, to recover the purchase price (or a portion thereof), as well as to recover any other damages sustained by CJS. Thereafter, CJS recommenced clearing trees from the property. The Hoopers then filed an amended petition, seeking damages for the removal of trees from the property in the amount of three times the market value of the trees, ie., treble damages.

Following a bench trial, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of the Hoopers and against CJS, finding that the Hoopers had proven their claim of thirty-year acquisitive prescription to the disputed area. Additionally, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of the Hoopers and against CJS, in the amount of $12,500.00, plus judicial interest from the date of demand, representing damages caused to the Hoo-pers’ property (ie., the removal of trees) by CJS. Lastly, the trial court rendered judgment dismissing the third-party demand of CJS against the LeSage defendants.

IsA judgment in accordance with the trial court’s ruling was signed on May 3, 2012, and it is from this judgment that CJS and the LeSage defendants have appealed. On appeal, CJS contends that the trial court erred in: (1) finding that the Hoopers had carried their burden of proving continuous, uninterrupted, peaceable, public, and unequivocal adverse possession of land outside the survey boundaries described in their deeds (ie., the disputed area) for any period of thirty years; (2) finding that CJS and its predecessors in title had not possessed the disputed area with just title for ten years prior to the action being filed; (3) finding that the trees removed from the disputed property had a value separate and apart from the value of the immovable property on which [14]*14the trees were located or their value as timber; (4) permitting an urban forester to offer opinion evidence on the “evaluation of trees”; and (5) dismissing CJS’s third-party demand against the LeSage defendants where the sale document on which it was based was introduced into evidence.

On appeal, the LeSage defendants contend that the trial court erred in finding that the Hoopers acquired any portion of the property sold by the LeSage defendants to CJS by thirty-year acquisitive prescription. Additionally, the Hoopers have answered the appeal seeking an award of treble damages and to cast individual defendants, Mr. Blount and Mr. Cantu, solidarily liable with CJS for all damages.

LAW AND DISCUSSION

Boundary Action and Acquisitive Prescription

In a boundary action, the court shall render a judgment fixing the boundary between contiguous lands in accordance with the ownership or possession of the parties. La. C.C.P. art. 3693. The boundary shall be fixed according to ownership of the parties; however, if neither party proves ownership, the boundary shall be fixed according to the limits established by possession. La. C.C. art. 792. In a boundary action, “[a] party that proves ownership by an unbroken chain of | fitransfers from a previous owner or by virtue from a more ancient title from a common author prevails, unless the adverse party proves ownership by acquisitive prescription.” King’s Farm, Inc. v. Concordia Parish Police Jury, 97-1056 (La.App. 3rd Cir.3/6/98), 709 So.2d 953, 956, unit denied, 98-1450 (La.9/18/98), 724 So.2d 748, (quoting

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135 So. 3d 9, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 0050, 2013 WL 5016455, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 1865, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hooper-v-wisteria-lakes-subdivision-lactapp-2013.