Lafayette Airport Commission v. Roy

328 So. 2d 182, 1976 La. App. LEXIS 4737
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 5, 1976
DocketNo. 5326
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 328 So. 2d 182 (Lafayette Airport Commission v. Roy) 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
Lafayette Airport Commission v. Roy, 328 So. 2d 182, 1976 La. App. LEXIS 4737 (La. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinions

CUTRER, Judge.

This is an expropriation case involving a 97 acre tract of land expropriated by the Lafayette Airport Commission and the Lafayette Parish Police Jury for extension of runways at the Lafayette Municipal Airport. A prior appeal in this case raised issues as to valuation and leasehold interest. After carefully reviewing the record in this complex case we amended the trial court judgment to substantially increase the award to the landowners. In addition, we reversed the judgment in part to recognize the leaseholder’s interest and award the leaseholder the fair market value of its ownership.1 On application for rehearing, defendants requested that we make specific awards in relation to expert fees and other costs which plaintiffs were condemned to pay. Noting a lack of evidence in the record on the appropriateness of the claimed fees, we refused to fix those fees.

On October 11, 1972, defendants, Acadi-an Development Corporation and the Roy heirs, lessee and landowners respectively, filed a motion requesting the trial court to fix the expert fees. Depositions of the experts were taken and filed into evidence in order to give the trial court some basis for determining a proper award for these fees. On March 12, 1975, a judgment was signed fixing the expert fees and taxing them as court costs against the Lafayette Airport Commission. An appeal has been taken by the Commission from that judgment.

On February 12, 1975, defendant, Leola Martin Roy, filed a motion in the trial court requesting permission for the Clerk of Court to release to her from the court’s registry $12,180.43, representing principal and accrued interest on the award made in the expropriation proceedings to W. W. Rucks, III, Paula Roy Simon and Margaret Roy Rucks. She claimed as the basis for her right to this money her status as testamentary usufructuary under the will of her husband, C. Willis Roy. On September 11, 1975, a judgment was signed directing the Clerk of Court to pay to Mrs. Roy the aforementioned sum. An appeal has been taken by W. W. Rucks, III, Paula Roy Simon and Margaret Roy Rucks from that judgment. We will deal first with this latter appeal.

USUFRUCT

The circumstances out of which this controversy arose are undisputed. A stipula[185]*185tion of facts was entered into by the parties and presented to the lower court. A brief summary of those facts is as follows: C. Willis Roy (hereinafter referred to as “Decedent”), the husband of Leola M. Roy, died on June 15, 1946, owning an undivided one-tenth interest in acreage in Lafayette Parish, a portion of which is the property expropriated by the plaintiffs. The one-tenth interest owned by decedent constituted his separate property. The decedent was married once. His wife, who survived him, was the plaintiff-in-rule, Leola M. Roy, and of their marriage Charles W. Roy, Jr., Stewart Martin Roy, Ethelyn Roy Gabriel, Paula Roy Simon and Margaret Roy Rucks were the only issue. The decedent left a last will and testament dated August 15, 1940. His succession was opened and judgments of possession were rendered on October 11, 1946 and April 15, 1948. A commercial sand deposit was discovered on the property in 1956, and sand mining operations were commenced in 1957 by Acadian Development Corporation, which held sand mining leases from all owners of the property. Ethelyn Roy Gabriel died in 1959, and at her death she was survived by her daughter, Donna Gabriel Civello, her only heir, who succeeded to ownership of her interest in the property. By deed dated October 5, 1959, as amended on May 27, 1960, Charles W. Roy, Jr., conveyed to W. W. Rucks, III, and Margaret Roy Rucks all of his right, title and interest in and to the property, including all sand, gravel and shell deposits therein, subject to the reservation of certain oil, gas and hydrocarbon mineral rights. Sand mining operations were continuously conducted on the property between 1957 and January 30, 1970, the effective date of the expropriation. At all times prior to January 30, 1970, the property was low and poorly drained and unfit for cultivation, habitation or any surface use other than hunting, fishing and sand mining operations, and except for oil and gas lease bonus and rental payments and sand royalties, the owners of the property never received any revenue or income from the land.

On May 26, 1972, this court rendered a decision in which a total award of $252,087.50, exclusive of interest, was made as compensation for the acreage expropriated and severance damages in connection with a portion of the remaining property. Of the total award, $163,087.50 was allocated to the landowners, and of this amount ten percent, or $16,308.75, represented the one-tenth interest formerly owned by the decedent. Of this amount, $3,261.75 was allocable to Donna Gabriel Civello, $3,261.75 was allocable to Stewart Martin Roy, $3,261.75 to Paula Roy Simon, $3,261.75 to Margaret Roy Rucks and $3,261.75 to W. W. Rucks, III, and Margaret Roy Rucks, jointly.

The dispute exists between Leola M. Roy, on the one hand, and W. W. Rucks, III, Margaret Roy Rucks and Paula Roy Simon, on the other, as to their respective rights to the expropriation award and accrued interest. Under the will of decedent, Leola M. Roy was given a usufruct over the property inherited by decedent’s children. It is the contention of Mr. and Mrs. Rucks and Mrs. Simon, defendants-in-rule, that the testamentary usufruct in favor of Mrs. Roy terminated vldien the property was expropriated, and that as naked owners of the property they are entitled to that portion of the proceeds representing their three-fifths of one-tenth interest in the property. Alternatively, they contend that since the sand mining operations were not in existence at the time the usufruct was created, the usufructuary is not entitled to that portion of the proceeds representing compensation for the expropriated and severed rights of defendants-in-rule to explore for and withdraw sand from the property, and to receive royalty payments and other economic benefits in connection with their lease of such rights to others.

The argument of appellants, Mr. and Mrs. Rucks and Mrs. Simon, with respect to their rights to the compensation [186]*186for the loss of the right to explore for or withdraw sand from the property is based on LSA-C.C. article 552,2 which provides as follows:

“The usufructuary has a right to the enjoyment and proceeds of mines and quarries in the land subject to the usu-fruct, if they were actually worked before the commencement of the usufruct; but he has no right to mines and quarries not opened.”

The testamentary usufruct in favor of ap-pellee, Mrs. Roy, was established in 1946. The sand deposit was not discovered on the property until 1956, and the sand mine was not opened until 1957. Under the above provision of the Civil Code, appellee is without any right to explore for or withdraw sand from the property, or to receive or share in the royalty income and other economic benefits from the sand mine. She was without any right to prevent the naked owners or their lessee from entering on the property-and conducting mining operations. King v. Buffington, 240 La. 955, 126 So.2d 326 (1961); Gueno v. Medlenka, 238 La. 1081, 117 So.2d 817 (1960). Therefore, we hold that appellee, Mrs. Roy, was not entitled to withdraw from the court’s registry that portion of the proceeds representing compensation for the expropriated and severed rights to explore for and withdraw sand from the property.

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Bluebook (online)
328 So. 2d 182, 1976 La. App. LEXIS 4737, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lafayette-airport-commission-v-roy-lactapp-1976.