Katie King Alston v. Betty Jean Moore

CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 15, 2023
Docket55,296-CA
StatusPublished

This text of Katie King Alston v. Betty Jean Moore (Katie King Alston v. Betty Jean Moore) 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
Katie King Alston v. Betty Jean Moore, (La. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

Judgment rendered November 15, 2023. Application for rehearing may be filed within the delay allowed by Art. 2166, La. C.C.P.

No. 55,296-CA

COURT OF APPEAL SECOND CIRCUIT STATE OF LOUISIANA

*****

KATIE KING ALSTON Plaintiff-Appellee

versus

BETTY JEAN MOORE Defendant-Appellant

Appealed from the Thirty-Seventh Judicial District Court for the Parish of Caldwell, Louisiana Trial Court No. 30205

Honorable Ashley P. Thomas, Judge

ROBERT ANDREW MOORE Counsel for Appellants Betty Jean Moore and Howard Moore Family Trust

MIXON, CARROLL & FRAZIER, LLC Counsel for Appellee By: James Eugene Mixon

Before PITMAN, HUNTER, and MARCOTTE, JJ. MARCOTTE, J.

This appeal arises from the 37th Judicial District Court, Parish of

Caldwell, the Honorable Ashley Paul Thomas presiding. Defendants, Betty

Jean Moore and the Howard Moore Family Trust, appeal the trial court’s

judgment rendered in favor of plaintiff, Katie King Alston, declaring her the

owner of a tract of immovable property through acquisitive prescription.

For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On August 18, 2021, Katie King Alston (“Alston”) filed a petition to

establish title through acquisitive prescription. She named as defendant

Betty Jean Moore (“Betty”), individually, and as the independent

administratrix of the succession of Robert Howard Moore (“Robert”),

Betty’s husband (collectively, “the Moores”). The petition alleged that the

Moores were the record owners of an approximately one-acre tract of

immovable property located in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana; Alston provided

a description of the property in the petition.1 The property at issue, 128

Holman Road, Columbia, Louisiana, was a part of a larger piece of

immovable property owned by the Moores.

Alston alleged that her family had begun possessing the property over

70 years before and that she had sole possession of the property as the owner

for a period of time exceeding 30 years. Alston asked that the trial court

declare her the owner of the property described. Defendants answered,

1 It was later revealed at trial that the property description included in the petition described a different piece of property and not the tract at issue. The petition was amended at trial to include the correct property description. denied Alston’s claims, and asked the trial court to evict Alston from the

property.

On October 10, 2022, a bench trial was held. At the beginning of the

trial, defense counsel stated that Robert and Betty acquired the disputed

property in 2014. Robert died in 2019 and his succession was closed by the

time of trial. Robert created the Howard Moore Family Trust in his will,

naming his and Betty’s children, Donald Glen Moore (“Don”) and Martha

Moore Reynolds (“Martha”), as trustees; the trust was recognized in the

succession proceedings. Don and Martha held power of attorney for Betty,

their mother.2 Martha executed a concurrence, granting Don authority to act

as her sole mandatary in the suit against Alston. By joint stipulation, the

parties added as defendants the Howard Moore Family Trust and Don

Moore, as trustee.

Alston testified that she had lived near the disputed property since

1951. Photographs from before 1975 were admitted, which depicted her

family, a single-wide trailer, and Holman Road. Alston originally lived

across Holman Road in a trailer on a different piece of property from the

tract at issue here.

Alston testified that she got permission from her godfather, J.S.

Holman (“Holman”), who had a house on the property and who she

presumed owned the property, to put her trailer “in that old pea field” on the

property, at 128 Holman Road. Alston placed a mobile home on the

property in 1982 and moved onto the land as owner at that time; the mobile

home has remained on the property since. She lived there from that time and

2 Betty was 91 or 92 years old at the time of trial. 2 mowed the grass on the property. No one told Alston that she had to leave

the property, move her home, or that she could not be there. A photograph

was admitted depicting Alston and her infant son on the property in 1982,

the year he was born, with her mobile home in the background. Other

photographs were admitted which were taken in 1995 and 1998, showing

Alston’s mobile home on the property. Alston received a homestead

exemption on the property.

Alston stated that Holman did not give her a deed to the property, but

she assumed she was the owner when he told her she could move in and stay

there. Holman was retired in 1982 when he gave her the property, and he

passed away in 1989 or 1990. Alston said that apart from mowing part of

the property, she did not put up any signs, paint any trees, or put up a fence

to mark the boundaries of the property, and she did not have a survey done

of the property. She affirmed that she could not identify the exact acreage

over which she was claiming ownership. Alston possessed the property for

herself and no one else, and she mowed around the property up to the tree

line.

Alston’s brother, James Earl King (“Mr. King”), testified that Alston

moved a double-wide mobile home onto the Holman Road property and no

one other than his sister possessed the property. Mr. King said that Alston

mowed the yard and that the part of the property she possessed was visible.

Betty King (“Mrs. King”), Mr. King’s spouse, testified that Alston

put a mobile home on the property more than 30 years before the trial. She

maintained the yard around the property and no one interfered with her

possession of the property. Mrs. King saw Alston about once a month.

3 Scott Meredith (“Meredith”), the Assessor for Caldwell Parish,

testified. A copy of an Assessment Sheet for Alston’s mobile home was

admitted, and it stated that the home was on 128 Holman Road and was

“located on Manville Property.” Meredith stated that he prepared a

description of the property that Alston was possessing, which was used in

the petition. He based his description upon a visual examination of the

property and aerial photographs. The description was admitted. Meredith

stated that prior to becoming the parish assessor, he assessed the property for

an oil and gas company, Hogan Exploration (“Hogan”), which had a lease

on the property from the owner, “the Manville Companies.” Meredith

testified that Hogan leased the property from the 1980s to 2000. When

Meredith viewed the property in the 1980s, Alston was living on it in a

mobile home and was occupying it as her home. Meredith said that the

property was owned at the time by “Plum Creek or Manville.”

On cross-examination, Meredith clarified that he only assessed the

mobile home to Alston, but the land the mobile home sat upon was assessed

to the Moores. The Assessment Sheet for the mobile home excluded “land

value.” Meredith affirmed that the property description provided in the

petition was inaccurate, as it listed the property as being on Elmo May Road.

Defendants then had admitted the correct legal description of the property

prepared by Meredith. He measured the property from aerial photographs,

but did not take ground measurements of the property. Meredith stated that

his measurements were approximate and not exact and he did not prepare a

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Katie King Alston v. Betty Jean Moore, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/katie-king-alston-v-betty-jean-moore-lactapp-2023.