Kilpatrick v. Saline Lakeshore, LLC

185 So. 3d 350, 15 La.App. 3 Cir. 917, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 356, 2016 WL 730695
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 24, 2016
DocketNo. 15-917
StatusPublished

This text of 185 So. 3d 350 (Kilpatrick v. Saline Lakeshore, LLC) 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
Kilpatrick v. Saline Lakeshore, LLC, 185 So. 3d 350, 15 La.App. 3 Cir. 917, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 356, 2016 WL 730695 (La. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

COOKS, Judge.

|! Thomas and Cynthia Kilpatrick have been married for .nearly twenty years. Together they have possessed two tracts of land on Horse Island located on Saline Lake in Avoyelles Parish, with movable camps sitting on said tracts, for the entirety of their marriage.

On March 4, 2013 and April 18, 2013, Thomas Kilpatrick received two certified letters pertaining to the tracts of land from Saline Lakeshore, LLC (hereafter Saline). The first letter informed Mr. Kil-patrick that the land in question was owned by Saline, and if the Kilpatricks had any interest in keeping the movable camps or “houseboats” on that property, a lease (which accompanied the letter) would need to be executed. Approximately one week after receipt of the March 4, 2013 letter, Mr. Kilpatrick went to the office of Saline’s attorney to discuss the matter. The April 18 letter took a more forceful tone and set a deadline of May 15, 2013, for the petitioners to comply with the request to execute a lease or face' eviction and be charged with criminal trespass under La. R.S. 14:63. The Kilpatricks did not comply with the .letters’ requests to execute the lease, but no action was taken by Saline.

On April 24, 2014, the Kilpatricks filed' a possessory action against Saline alleging they had been disturbed in their possession by Saline. In the petition, the Kilpa-tricks stated they were “disturbed ... of their peaceful possession and are now unable to have the free and unfettered use and enjoyment of the property.”

Subsequent to the filing of the possesso-ry action, Saline filed a peremptory exception of prescription, noting that under La. Code Civ.P. art. 3658 a possessory action must be filed -within one year of a disturbance in law or in -fact. Saline maintained the-Kilpatricks “judicially admitted in their petition that -they were ‘disturbed’ in then-possession when Saline ‘sent letters and words to remove their camps.’ ” These letters, - dated March 4, 2013 and April 18, 2013; were sent and received more than one year before the possessory action was filed; thus Saline- contended the action was prescribed.

A hearing on the exception of prescription was held. At that hearing, Saline admitted into evidence both letters sent to the Kilpatricks. The evidence adduced at the hearing established after receiving the March 4, 2013 letter, Mr. Kilpatrick went to the office of counsel for Saline, Rick Farrar. Mr. Kilpatrick testified at the hearing as follows:

Q: Okay. Then when you went to Rick Farrar’s office did.he tell you anything that put you in, .in fear,, or it gave you great concern aboiit the property where .your house boat is .located on Horse Island?
A: Yea, I was something was in there about being arrested if I went back.
Q: Okay. And so you had concern about your property that the property that you were possessing?
A: Yes.

Mr. Kilpatrick also testified, subsequent to the receipt of the letters from Saline, he sold his houseboat located on the property on Horse Island to his brother. Mr. Kil-patrick maintained he did not sell his pos-sessory interest in the lots, and he and his wife continued to enjoy the possession of the two lots. After approximately one year passed, Mr. Kilpatrick bought back the houseboat, from his brother for the same price.

[352]*352The trial, court granted' Saline’s exception of prescription, finding the Kilpatricks received “actual notice which has not been disputed” which “implied] a right of ownership on behalf of, of. Saline[.]” The trial court found the letters “caused a disturbance in the - lives of the possessors such that they felt that legal , action was, was imminent that they were being challenged[.]” Judgment was ^rendered maintaining Saline’s, exception of prescription on July 23, 2015. This appeal followed.

ANALYSIS

In Dugas v. Bayou Teche Water Works, 10-1211, pp. 4-5 (La.App. 3 Cir. 4/6/11), 61 So.3d 826, 829-30, we reviewed the law pertaining to the exception of prescription:
The peremptory exception of prescription is provided for in La.Code Civ.P. art. 927(A)(1). When the exception of prescription is tried before the trial on the merits, “evidence may be introduced to support or controvert [the exception] when the grounds thereof do not appear from the petition.” La.Code Civ.P. art. 931.
When an exception of prescription is filed, ordinarily, the burden of proof is on the party pleading prescription. Lima v. Schmidt, 595 So.2d 624, 628 (La.1992). However, if prescription is evident on the face of the pleadings, as it is in the instant case, the burden shifts to the.plaintiff to show the action has not prescribed. Id.; Younger v. Marshall Ind., Inc., 618 So.2d 866, 869 (La.1993); Williams v. Sewerage & Water Bd. of New Orleans, 611 So.2d 1383 (La.1993).
Eastin v. Entergy Corp., 03-1030, p. 5 (La.2/6/04), 865 So.2d 49, 54.
If evidence is introduced, the trial court’s findings of fact are then subject to a manifest error analysis. London Towne Condo. Homeowner’s Ass’n v. London Towne Co., 06-401 (La.10/17/06), 939 So.2d 1227. If no evidence is introduced, then the reviewing court simply determines whether the trial court’s finding was legally correct. Dauzart v. Fin. Indent. Ins. Co., 10-28 (La.App. 3 Cir. 6/2/10), 39 So.3d 802.

On the trial of a peremptory exception of prescription, evidence may be introduced to support or controvert any of the objections pleaded. La.Code Civ.P. art. 931. When evidence is introduced into the record and evaluated by the trial court at the trial of á peremptory exception, then the appellate court should not disturb the factual findings of the trial court absent manifest error. Dugas, 61 So.3d 826. The Kilpatricks contend the trial court erred in maintaining Saline’s exception of prescription, arguing the letters from the attorney, “in and of [themselves], without any further action, [are not] sufficient to satisfy the burden of proof necessary to cause a disturbance in fact of possession under Louisiana law.”

The, Kilpatricks argue the letters sent from Saline’s attorney are not disturbances in fact, but rather disturbances in law. The trial court when, pressed by counsel for the Kilpatricks stated he found the letters were a disturbance in fact. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 3659 defines disturbances in fact and law, and provides:

Disturbances of possession which give rise to the possessory action-are of two kinds: disturbance in fact and disturbance in law,
A disturbance in fact is an eviction, or any other physical act which prevents the possessor of immovable property or of a real right therein from enjoying his possession quietly, or which throws any obstacle in the way of that enjoyment.
[353]*353A disturbance in law is the execution, recordations registry, or continuing existence of record of any instrument which asserts or implies a right of ownership or to the possession of immovable property or of a real, right therein, or any claim or pretension of ownership or right to the possession’ thereof except in an action or proceeding, adversely to the possessor of such property or right.

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185 So. 3d 350, 15 La.App. 3 Cir. 917, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 356, 2016 WL 730695, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kilpatrick-v-saline-lakeshore-llc-lactapp-2016.