Lawrence v. Young

80 So. 18, 144 La. 1, 1918 La. LEXIS 1581
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 1, 1918
DocketNo. 21206
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 80 So. 18 (Lawrence v. Young) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lawrence v. Young, 80 So. 18, 144 La. 1, 1918 La. LEXIS 1581 (La. 1918).

Opinions

• Statement of the Case.

MONROE, O. J..

Plaintiffs (Robert B. Lawrence and his sister, Mrs. Lydia Lawrence Eecles) bring this petitory action for the recovery of the triangular lot designated by the letters A, B, C on the subjoined sketch, which, by reason of the batture accretion, has increased in area, beyond that indicated by the sketch, from 1.7 to more than 6 acres.

They allege that the lot was originally acquired by their uncle, Robert B. Brashear, from Olympus Young, since deceased, husband of defendant, and that the batture was thereafter acquired at a sale, by order of court in the succession of Robert B. and Thomas T. Brashear, by petitioners’ brother, Walter B. Lawrence, after whose death, and by reason of a partition and settlement between Ms heirs and the widow and heir of Robert B. Brashear, it devolved upon his heirs, and, at a later date, upon petitioners, as their sole survivors and heirs. They further allege that defendant has entered and trespassed upon the property, and they pray that she be cited, and that they have judgment therefor and for the revenues collected therefrom.

Defendant sets up title to certain land, which she alleges (and plaintiffs deny) includes the property in dispute, as having been acquired from her three stepdaughters, children and heirs of her deceased husband; alleges that she has been in, undisturbed possession thereof, as owner in good faith, for more than 30 years, and pleads estoppel, and the prescriptions of 10, 20, and 30 years, as against the claim for the lot, and, even though the claim to the property be sustained, of 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, and 30 years as against the claim for the revenues; further alleges that she has caused work to be done which

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has enhanced the value of the property in an amount exceeding $3,000; and prays, in reconvention, that she have judgment therefor in the event of an adverse judgment on the questions of title and revenues. She further sets up pleas of prescription, as based upon certain transactions between herself and other parties, the relevancy of which we are unable to discover.

It appears from the evidence that on March 23, 1853, by act before Thomas A. Smith, notary, Robert B. Brashear purchased from America S. Brien, wife of Alfred Sterns, the triangular lot containing 12 acres, lying adjacent to the lot in dispute, designated by the letters B, C, D, and described as follows:

“Lying and being situated in this [St. Mary] parish, on Bayou Boeuf, as the lower part of the land heretofore owned by Christopher O. Brien, measuring four acres on the old road leading from R. B. Brashear up Bayou Boeuf; [7]*7commencing at a corner on R. B. Brasliear line at the, road, and running north 56° E.. 23 chains and 43 links, along his lino to a corner; then, from the beginning comer, south, 70° E., 12 chains and 66 links along a road to a comer; running thence north 23° 21" E., 18 chains and 98 links, to the corner on said R. B. Brashear line, as presented by a plat made by Wm. Aug, Dep. Surveyor, containing 12 superficial acres.”

On September 28, 1855, Olympus Young sold to R. B. Brashear the lot here in dispute by an act reading in part:

“He did, and does, by these presents, bargain, sell, assign, convey, set over and deliver unto Robert B. Brashear all that certain strip of land lying between the lot of land acquired by the present vendor [should be vendee] from America Brien, wife of Alfred Stems, as per act executed before Thomas A. Smith, a notary public, under date the 3d [should be 2_3d] March, 1853, and Bayou Bceuf, in this parish; to be bounded, consequently, above, by land of the vendor, in front, by the said bayou, and in the rear and below by land of the vendee, it being a strip of land making part of the plantation acquired by the present vendor from description [Christopher?] Brien, as per act of sale executed before me, said recorder, on the 15th day of January, 1851.”

The act was recorded in- the conveyance office of the parish of St. Mary on the day of its execution. It will be readily understood that the words “front,” “rear,” “above,” and “below,” as used in the description, all refer to the bayou and its course (the course being northwestward), from which, and from other evidence, it appears that the land lying to the southeastward of the lot sold was considered as so far connected with it as to authorize its being called a boundary, the boundary “above” (or up stream), in fact, it is the basis of defendant’s position that Young owned the whole of fractional section 11, as designated on the sketch, and that the lot in dispute formed part of it.

On July 18, 1881, the sheriff of the parish of St. Mary, acting under an order of the parish court, made in the successions of Thomas T. and Robert B. Brashear, made a sale of a large proportion of the property of those successions, including a number of town lots, and also the following, to wit:

“All the right, title, and interest of the deceased in and to the ground acquired and used by Morgan’s La. & Texas R. R.; the same beginning at the line of the plantation formerly owned by the late Olympus Young, dcc’d, and running (through) Railroad street to Berwicks Bay, together with all the right, title, and interest of the deceased in and to all the battures in front of the town of Brashear; said battures commencing at Brashear avenue, on Berwicks Bay, and running down said bay to Bayou Bceuf, to the line of the late Olympus Young.”

The deed thus quoted appears to have been. recorded in the mortgage office of the parish of St. Mary, but not in the conveyance office. As the subsequent occurrences and conveyances whereby the present plaintiffs acquired the title thus disclosed are not seriously (if at all) disputed, it is unnecessary that they should be particularly recited.

Turning to the title set up by defendant, we find that Olympus Young died at some time prior to 1871, or early in- that year, leaving defendant as his widow, with children, issue of the marriage, and three daughters by a previous marriage, to wit, Mary, wife of Abram Eves, and the Misses Eliza and Pauline Young, minors, and leaving also a will to which was added a letter of instruction and request, directed to his executors, and reading in part:

“I wish the children to give to their stepmother * * * 100 acres of land off the end of the plantation next to town, which they promise me they will do.”

In fulfillment of that promise, Mary Young (Mrs. Eves), on February 6, 1871', executed an act of conveyance, in the form of a sale, but in reality donation, to defendant of the following described property, to wit:

“One-third of that certain piece or parcel of land lying and being situate in the parish of St. Mai’y, known, designated, and described as fractional section number eleven, * * * being a portion of the sugar plantation purchased by the present vendor and Olympus Young, natural tutor to his minor children Eliza Y. and [9]*9Pauline A. Young, at sheriff’s sale on the 2d day of July, A. D. 1870; said portion lying next to Brashear City, containing 100 acres, more or less, together with all the buildings and improvements situate thereon.”

In a similar act executed by Miss Eliza Y. Young (an emancipated minor) on April 25, 1872, the description reads:

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Bluebook (online)
80 So. 18, 144 La. 1, 1918 La. LEXIS 1581, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lawrence-v-young-la-1918.