Lafont v. Arabie

132 So. 2d 106, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1294
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 30, 1961
DocketNo. 5234
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 132 So. 2d 106 (Lafont v. Arabie) 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
Lafont v. Arabie, 132 So. 2d 106, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1294 (La. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

LANDRY, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the trial court dismissing the petitory action filed by plaintiffs-appellants against defendants-appellees pursuant to a plea of res adjudicata predicated upon a prior boundary action between these same parties.

The petition herein alleges plaintiffs and defendants are owners of adjoining properties and that defendants are in possession of a portion of plaintiff’s land measuring 8.28 feet on its front line, 38.46 feet on its rear line, 7,531.86 feet along its upper line and 7,542.05 feet along its lower line. Plaintiffs further aver defendants are in possession of the disputed parcel of ground by virtue of a judgment rendered April 9, 1953, in Suit Number 9,928 on the docket of the Honorable Seventeenth Judicial District Court in and for Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, entitled “Alex J. Arabie et al v. Adam J. Terrebonne” which plaintiffs acknowledge to be an action to establish the boundary between the estates involved in this present litigation. Recognizing that in the boundary action referred to the line between the properties was judicially established by the Honorable Seventeenth Judicial District Court whose decision in favor of present defendant was affirmed on appeal to this court as appears from the judgment of this court reported in 69 So.2d 516, appellants seek to avoid the effect of the prior adverse boundary decision by contending the boundary as therein established was erroneously fixed and, therefore, subject to attack for error pursuant to the provisions of LSA-C.C. art. 853. Plaintiffs pray for judgment recognizing plaintiffs to be the true and lawful owners of the disputed property, ordering defendants to deliver possession thereof to plaintiffs and further ordering the Clerk and Recorder in and for La-fourche Parish to cancel, annul and erase from the mortgage records of said parish the inscription of judgment rendered April 9, 1953, in the aforesaid boundary action, recorded in M.B. 28, Folio 372 of the records of said parish.

In support of their contention that the learned trial court erred in sustaining appellees’ plea of res adjudicata and dismissing appellants’ petitory action, appellants, in substance, make two submissions: First, it is argued a plea of res adjudicata is stricti juris and any doubt regarding similarity of the actions must be resolved in appellants’ favor. In this connection appellants maintain the jurisprudence of this state is settled to the effect that in a boundary suit title is not in issue whereas in a petitory action title or ownership is the sole and only issue involved. Secondly, appellants submit that a judgment rendered in a boundary action may be set aside for error unless the party possessing thereunder has remained in possession for 10 years or more, as provided for in LSA-C.C. art. 853.

The position of appellees is that the plea of res adjudicata was properly sustained for the reason the 10 year prescriptive period governing an action to rectify an error in a boundary established between adjoining landowners as provided for in Article 853, LSA-C.C., applies only to boundaries extra-judicially established. Appellees further contend that when a boundary is judicially fixed and established the fixing thereof becomes a part of and is then merged with the judgment fixing same and becomes res adjudicata between the parties. Appellees also submit that appellants having interposed pleas of 10 and 30 years prescription in defense of the boundary action instituted by appellees, (as the record in said boundary suit indi[108]*108cates), thereby placed in issue the questions of title and ownership which were therein resolved adversely to appellants.

As contended by appellants and acknowledged by appellees it is settled law in this state that a plea of res adjudicata is stricti juris and each element thereof must be established beyond all question. LSA-C.C. art. 2286, Hart v. Untereiner, 14 Orl.App. 146. Similarly, it is agreed between the litigants at bar that for the rule of res adjudicata to apply the thing demanded must be the same, the cause must be the same and the parties must be the same. LSA-C.C. art. 2286. Richards v. Crescent Towing & Salvage Company, Inc., La.App., 115 So.2d 894; Bank of Terrebonne & Trust Co. v. Marcel, La.App., 102 So.2d 539.

It is not seriously disputed herein that the validity of appellees’ plea of res ad-judicata is dependent upon resolution of the question of whether the issues in a boundary suit are the same as those in a petitory action.

The question thus presented for determination is one that has admittedly perplexed the courts of this state and has resulted in some confusion and conflicts in the jurisprudence dealing with the subject matter.

Appellees concede that in a boundary action pure and simple title or ownership is not at issue but cites Collett v. Otis, La.App., 80 So.2d 117, Davis v. Moore, 156 La. 488, 100 So. 691 and Keller v. Shelmire, 42 La.Ann. 323, 7 So. 587, in support of the proposition that if a defendant in a boundary action interposes a plea of prescription of 10 or 30 years, the question of ownership and title is thereby placed in issue and must be passed upon by the court. Additionally, appellees maintain that prescriptive title may be pleaded in a boundary action as held in Sattler v. Pellichino, La.App., 71 So.2d 689.

On the contrary, however, appellants contend the issues in a boundary action are entirely separate and distinct from those involved in a petitory action inasmuch as in the former only the location of the proper line of demarcation between estates is in controversy whereas, in the latter the question is one of title or ownership. In so arguing appellants rely upon pronouncements found in Forrest v. Hunter, 231 La. 693, 35 So.2d 460. In addition, appellants cite Sprigg v. Hooper, 9 Rob. 248, and Keller v. Shelmire, 42 La.Ann. 323, 7 So. 587, as authorities for the rule that in an action to establish a boundary any reference to titles is merely for the purpose of establishing boundaries in accordance with them and not for the purpose of determining ownership. Appellants point to White v. Purnell, 14 La.Ann. 232 as holding that a judgment in a boundary action may not serve as the foundation for a plea of res adjudicata in a subsequent petitory action between the same parties. In extension of their position and argument appellants maintain the judgment rendered in the previous boundary action (a copy of which appears in the record) makes no mention of title or ownership in either party, nor did it discuss possession of present defendants-appellees but that it dealt only with the question of appellants’ alleged possession of the property for 30 years. Finally, appellants urge the learned trial court erred in predicating its decision herein on Sessum v. Hemperley, 233 La. 444, 96 So.2d 832, which was a boundary suit decided in favor of defendant therein upon a plea of 30 years prescription interposed upon authority of LSA-C.C. art. 852.

We believe the views of this court on the question of whether a judgment in a boundary action may serve as the basis of a plea of res adjudicata in a subsequent petitory action between the same parties are fully set forth in Sattler v. Pellichino, La.App., 71 So.2d 689, and Collett v. Otis, La.App., 80 So.2d 117. In the former decision, a petitory action wherein defendant resisted [109]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
132 So. 2d 106, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lafont-v-arabie-lactapp-1961.