McPherson v. Roy

390 So. 2d 543
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 8, 1980
Docket7824
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 390 So. 2d 543 (McPherson 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
McPherson v. Roy, 390 So. 2d 543 (La. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

390 So.2d 543 (1980)

Bertha J. McPHERSON et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
Eldred L. ROY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 7824.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

October 8, 1980.
Rehearing Denied December 1, 1980.

*545 Smith, Taliaferro, Seibert, Boothe & Purvis, V. Russell Purvis, Jonesville, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Reeves & Owens, R. R. Reeves, Jr., Harrisonburg, for defendant-appellee.

Before GUIDRY, SWIFT and DOUCET, JJ.

GUIDRY, Judge.

This matter, which bears our docket number 7824, was consolidated for purposes of trial with a suit entitled Roy v. McPherson et al., 390 So.2d 555, our docket number 7825. These cases remain consolidated on appeal and we render a separate decision in the latter suit this date.

Plaintiffs in this matter who are the defendants in the companion suit, our docket number 7825, are Bertha J. McPherson, Marjorie White Book and W.E. White. We refer to these parties hereafter as McPherson-White. The defendant in this matter is the plaintiff in the companion matter. McPherson-White and Eldred Roy are adjoining property owners of lands situated in Sections 27 and 28, T. 4 N., R. 6 E., Catahoula Parish, Louisiana. Both suits were instituted as the result of a dispute over the common boundary between their respective properties in the vicinity of SW ¼ of SE ¼ Section 28, T. 4 N., R. 6 E.

In suit number 7824 McPherson-White initially asserted a possessory action as to a portion of the SW/4 of SE/4 of Section 28. In their original petition McPherson-White sought to be maintained in possession of the disputed tract, requested the issuance of a preliminary injunction and in addition prayed for damages for the alleged unlawful destruction of their fences and crops.

This suit was filed on June 16, 1978 and is hereafter referred to as the McPherson-White suit. On June 26, 1978, Roy filed answer to the McPherson-White suit generally denying the allegations of plaintiffs' petition and on the same day filed the suit which bears our docket number 7825. In this latter suit, hereafter referred to as the Roy suit, plaintiff sought the same relief, as to the same property, as did the plaintiffs in the McPherson-White suit except Roy did not seek issuance of a preliminary injunction.

On July 3, 1978 a hearing was held in the McPherson-White suit on the rule for issuance of a preliminary injunction following which a judgment was entered granting the preliminary injunction but allowing the defendant, Roy, to farm the disputed acreage for the crop year 1978 subject to his obligation to deposit all proceeds derived therefrom in the registry of court. In this judgment the trial court, on its own motion, ordered that the McPherson-White suit be converted to a boundary action and appointed one, James Tooke, a registered land surveyor, to survey the boundaries in question. Subsequent to the rendition of this judgment Roy filed a petition for rule seeking a rescission of said judgment insofar as it ordered the suit converted to a boundary action, however, before a hearing on this rule McPherson-White by supplemental and amending petition specifically sought, as additional relief, a judicial fixing of the boundary between their property and that of the defendant Roy in SW/4 of SE/4, Section 28, T. 4 N., R. 6 E.

In a supplemental petition filed in the Roy suit on July 26, 1978 the plaintiff amended his original petition so as to assert a possessory action against McPherson-White as to three additional tracts, i. e., a small strip located in W/2 of SW/4, Section 27, T. 4 N., R. 6 E., designated on the Tooke survey as Tract "B"; a 2.77 acre tract in NW/4 of SE/4 and NE/4 of SW/4, Section 28, T. 4 N., R. 6 E., designated on the Tooke survey as Tract "C"; and, a .19 acre tract in S/2, Section 27, T. 4 N., R. 6 E., designated on the Tooke survey as Tract "A-1".

Finally, on April 16, 1979, the defendant Roy filed a peremptory exception of acquisitive prescription in the McPherson-White suit asserting his acquisition of the property described in the McPherson-White suit under the acquisitive prescription of 10 years *546 as provided for by C.C. Article 3474. This one tract which is common to both suits contains 12.6 acres and is shown on the Tooke survey as Tract "A".

In this posture the suits were tried. During the trial of these consolidated matters, although title was not at issue in either and the only boundaries sought to be fixed were those separating the properties of the parties in the vicinity of SW/4 of SE/4 Section 28, plaintiffs and defendants in both suits stipulated as to the possession and ownership by Roy of the three additional tracts described in his supplemental and amended petition and likewise stipulated to the correctness of the Tooke survey insofar as it located the division lines between several tracts of land owned by the parties in Sections 27 and 28 T. 4 N., R. 6 E., EXCEPT that the parties were unable to reach agreement as to the land in SW/4 of SE/4 Section 28, described and referred to in the original petitions filed in both suits. Following trial, considering the previously mentioned stipulation, the sole issue remaining concerned location of the boundary lines between the respective lands of the parties in the vicinity of SW/4 of SE/4 Section 28 and which of the adverse claimants was entitled to a judgment of possession as to the disputed acreage.

The trial court rendered judgment dismissing all demands of plaintiffs in the McPherson-White suit, except that the boundaries of the several properties owned by the adjoining owners in Sections 27 and 28 T. 4 N., R. 6 E., were fixed pursuant to the Tooke survey.[1] Judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff in the Roy suit recognizing his right to the ownership and possession of all properties therein described, including the land in SW/4 of SE/4 Section 28, and awarding him the sum of $349.91 held in the registry of court and representing the proceeds from crop sales allocable to the disputed acreage in SW/4 of SE/4 Section 28.

McPherson-White took devolutive appeals in both suits and in brief question only that part of the trial court judgment which fails to recognize the common boundary between their property and that of Roy in SW/4 of SE/4 Section 28 as being the fence line shown on the Tooke survey between the points "E" and "F" and a southerly projection thereof to the south line of SW/4 of SE/4 Section 28. We annex hereto as appendix 1 an extract from the Tooke survey showing the respective locations of the McPherson-White and Roy properties and the area in dispute.

Before proceeding to a discussion of the facts and the contentions of the parties we observe that in the McPherson-White suit the plaintiffs have cumulated the possessory action with an action to establish boundary. In the early case of Ebarbo v. Stacey, 16 La.App. 248, 133 So. 793 (La. 1931) our brethren of the second circuit held that a plaintiff who brought a possessory action could not convert such action into one of boundary. Likewise, in the recent case of Harvey v. Harvey, 345 So.2d 113 (La.App. 1977) our brethren of the 1st Circuit confirmed the trial court's judgment sustaining an exception of improper cumulation of actions when the defendants attempted to cumulate the petitory and boundary actions. Our Supreme Court refused writs in Harvey, 347 So.2d 246 (La. 1977) with the following comments:

"Writ denied. The result is correct. Denial herein is without prejudice to applicant to bring boundary action.

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Bluebook (online)
390 So. 2d 543, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcpherson-v-roy-lactapp-1980.