Hughes v. Heirs of Birney

Supreme Court of Louisiana

Hughes v. Heirs of Birney

107 La. 664

CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana

DecidedNovember 15, 1901

DocketNo. 13,973

StatusPublished

Cited by6 cases

This text of 107 La. 664 (Hughes v. Heirs of Birney) 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

Hughes v. Heirs of Birney, 107 La. 664 (La. 1901).

Pincite

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Blanchard, J.

What is known as DeSoto Point on the Mississippi river in Louisiana was a long, narrow tongue of land, opposite and across the river from the town of Vicksburg in Mississippi.

[665]*665The river flowed around this tongue in a serpentine course, making a great bend somewhat like an ox-bow, and coming down past Vicksburg, as shown by the appended sketch, taken from a government-survey made in the early days.

[666]*666This tongue of land was included in township 16 north, range 15 east, and was subdivided (presumably at the time of the government survey alluded to) into fractional sections as shown on <the first sketch.

The authors of plaintiff’s title appear to have acquired Sections 10 and 12 containing, respectively, at the time of the survey, 502.25 and 459.50 acres; and the authors of defendant’s title Sections 11, 14, 15 and 18, containing, respectively, 524.14, 94.86, 453.69 and 38.25 acres.

The river, by erosion, in the course of time, encroached upon the upper side of the point, gradually wearing it away until, practically, all of Section 10 had caved into the river and disappeared, and of Sections 11 and 12 all had gone into the river except a narrow strip on the lower side of the point.

There had been little or no change in the river line of Sections 11 and 12 on the east or lower side of the point.

This was the situation at the beginning of the year 1876. In the spring of that year the river broke through the narrow strip of land and made for itself what is called a “cut-off.”

It broke through about the center of Section 12, as shown on the second sketch, which roughly delineates DeSoto Point as) it appeared in 1876.

The river thus made for itself a new channel and its old bed became “Lake Centennial.”

Having made this new channel, it proceeded to widen the same by caving away the land on the south or lower side of the “cut-off.” In this way all that remained of Section 12 south of the “cut-off,” all of Section 11, not previously lost by the erosion which Bad taken place on the upper side, probably all of fractional Sections 14 and 18, and the northern portion of Section 15, were washed away. That is to say, the surface of said tracts was washed away; the river went over them; they became submerged.

. The tendency of the river was southward. It did not remain in the channel at the “cut-off,” where it first went through -the strip of land forming DeSoto Point. It seemed to be making an effort to straighten itself at that locality.

Pursuing this object, it wore away all the land south of the “cutoff” to or near the foot of the Point, and then established its permanent channel across the lower portion of the Point, as shown on the second sketch.

Thus was a large part of the center and lower portion of what had

[667]

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