Langevin v. Howard

363 So. 2d 1209
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 12, 1979
Docket13622
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 363 So. 2d 1209 (Langevin v. Howard) 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
Langevin v. Howard, 363 So. 2d 1209 (La. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinion

363 So.2d 1209 (1978)

Robert Lemoine LANGEVIN et ux., Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
James Kenneth HOWARD, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 13622.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

September 25, 1978.
Rehearing Denied, November 14, 1978.
Writ Refused January 12, 1979.

*1210 Cryer & Harp, Shreveport, for defendant-appellant.

Richie & Richie, Shreveport, for plaintiffs-appellees.

Before BOLIN, HALL and JONES, JJ.

Rehearing En Banc. Denied, November 14, 1978.

JONES, Judge.

The defendant appeals from a judgment recognizing a legal predial servitude 50 feet in width and 1,537 feet in length across his land in favor of a 1.1 acre tract owned by plaintiff. The judgment enjoins the defendant from interfering with the use of the servitude by the plaintiff and rejects defendant's damage claims based upon the alleged improper issuance of the temporary restraining order.

The plaintiff answers the appeal. We reverse the judgment recognizing the servitude and granting the injunction and as amended affirm.

The property involved in this litigation was included in a 1955 partition of the Kent tract as shown on the following plat which was attached to the partition:

*1211

The lot now owned by the plaintiff is sketched in the northwest corner of Tract F as shown on the plat of the partition and the lots owned by the defendant and Turk are identified by inscribing their names on the plat.

In the Kent partition of Tracts A, B, C, D, E and F as shown on the plat, the parties reserved ownership in indivision of a 50 foot wide strip running north and south through the approximate center of the partitioned tracts as a right of way to the Primitive Baptist Church public road located along the south line of the partitioned property. The partition contained with reference to this strip the following stipulation:

"Appearers herein have not partitioned a strip of land, hereinafter described, and continue to hold in indivision for the use and benefit of all appearers as an access road for the purpose of ingress and egress to the tracts herein described. It is understood that this reservation is not to be construed as establishing an easement or *1212 right of way in favor of the public generally, but is private in nature and ownership. Said strip of land is described as follows ........"

The parties to the partition failed to pay the taxes on the 50 foot strip and were divested of ownership of this strip at a tax sale in 1960. In 1969 Turk acquired the ownership of Tract F. In 1972 the defendant acquired ownership of Tracts B, E and the 50 foot strip. In 1973, following defendant's completion of his home on Tract E, he employed Turk to construct a 10 foot driveway down the approximate center of his 50 foot tract from its south line bordering the Primitive Baptist Church Road to his home located on Tract E. Defendant paid Turk the sum of $1,000 for this work.

In 1975 Turk decided to sell two lots in the northwest corner of Tract F adjacent to the east line of the 50 foot strip and pursuant to this plan, he had a survey made of each lot. Turk contemplated the use of the driveway which he had constructed on the 50 foot strip as the access route to the public road for the future owners of these two lots. One of these lots was .74 of an acre located in the northwest corner of Tract F, which Turk sold to plaintiff on August 6, 1975. The other lot was adjacent to and immediately to the south of it. Turk had arranged to sell the second lot on the same day that he sold the plaintiff his lot, however, the proposed vendee died prior to the sale.

On August 14, 1975 Turk discussed for the first time with defendant his plan to sell two lots in the northwest corner of Tract F and use the driveway constructed on the 50 foot strip as access for the purchasers of these lots to the Primitive Baptist Church Road. Turk advised defendant of his ownership claim to a portion of the right of passage over the 50 foot strip as a result of the Kent partition. Turk at this time gave defendant back $200 of the $1,000 that he had received from defendant for construction of the driveway. The $200 was given to defendant in the form of Turk's check which contained a notation on the face of it "use of driveway". Defendant accepted the check and cashed it. While Turk and defendant recognized that the check was a reimbursement to defendant of a portion of his $1,000 paid for the construction of the driveway, their understanding of the rights that were acquired for these two lots by this payment is in dispute. At the time of these negotiations defendant was unaware that one of the lots had already been sold to plaintiff.

Plaintiff moved a house trailer on his lot in October of 1975 and commenced the use of defendant's driveway. In May of 1977 defendant advised plaintiff to make arrangements for other access to his lot because defendant owned the 50 foot strip unencumbered by any right of passage. In the first week of July defendant proceeded to obstruct plaintiff's passage from his lot to the driveway located on the 50 foot strip. Defendant installed posts along the east line of the 50 foot strip, two of which were at a point on plaintiff's west line where his individual driveway entered the 50 foot strip. This interfered with easy access from the plaintiff's lot to the driveway located on the 50 foot strip.

Plaintiff instituted this action on July 8 wherein he sought judicial declaration of the existence of a right of passage on the 50 foot strip from the Primitive Baptist Church Road to his lot in the northwest corner of Tract F. In this suit plaintiff obtained a temporary restraining order prohibiting defendant from obstructing his use of this right of passage and sought an injunction permanently prohibiting such interference. Plaintiff's suit first contended his lot had a servitude of passage to the public road created by the 1955 Kent partition. Plaintiff alternatively argued that if there was no servitude in favor of his lot as a result of the Kent partition, then one was created on the defendant's driveway by the 1975 $200 check transaction between Turk and defendant. In the second alternative, he contended that if he had no right of passage for either of these reasons, that he *1213 was entitled to a right of passage over defendant's driveway under C.C. Art. 699[1].

The trial judge held that the Kent partition created a legal servitude under C.C. Art. 701[2] rather than conventional servitude and for this reason the failure of the right of passage to be used for a period of more than ten years following its creation did not cause it to be extinguished by the prescription provided for in C.C.Art. 789.[3]

The issues presented are: (1) was the Kent servitude in favor of Tract F a legal servitude within the contemplation of Article 701 and therefore exempt from liberative prescription by the provision of C.C. Art. 795[4] or was it a conventional servitude which prescribed following 10 years of nonusage? (2) did Turk's August 14, 1975 $200 CHECK payable to defendant and cashed by him create a servitude in favor of plaintiff's tract over defendant's 10 foot driveway? (3) if the check is an insufficient writing to create a servitude of passage did defendant's admissions under oath at trial with regard to his acceptance of the check create a servitude under the provisions of C.C. Art. 2275[5]

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Bluebook (online)
363 So. 2d 1209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/langevin-v-howard-lactapp-1979.