Nunez v. Audubon Park Commission for New Orleans

89 So. 2d 676, 1955 La. App. LEXIS 1103
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 15, 1955
DocketNo. 20424
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 89 So. 2d 676 (Nunez v. Audubon Park Commission for New Orleans) 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
Nunez v. Audubon Park Commission for New Orleans, 89 So. 2d 676, 1955 La. App. LEXIS 1103 (La. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinions

REGAN, Judge.

Plaintiffs, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson C. Bourg, the owners of a building housing eight apartments, designated by the municipal [677]*677No. 615 Exposition Boulevard, instituted this suit against the defendants, Audubon Park Commission, City of New Orleans, Mrs. Richard A. Monaghan and her son, Richard A. Monaghan, Jr., the latter, owners of property designated as 611 Exposition Boulevard, endeavoring to obtain initially a “right of passage” over Exposition Boulevard (park property) and into Patton Street, in conformity with the provisions of Ordinance No. 10,353, C.C.S., adopted February 27, 1928, together with an injunction restraining the City and' the Commission from interfering with the use thereof by plaintiffs; alternatively, plaintiffs contend that they are entitled to a “right of passage” over the rear of the Monaghan property, which is situated between plaintiffs’ property and Patton Street; in the last alternative, plaintiffs request that the court interpose its wisdom and fix an equitable passage to a public roadway.

Defendant, Mrs. Monaghan (it is conceded that her son is not a proper party defendant) pleaded various exceptions which were dismissed and then answered asserting that the plaintiffs should be granted a right of passage along Exposition Boulevard to Laurel Street. In the alternative, she insists that they should be denied a right of passage accommodating vehicular traffic over Exposition Boulevard or through' the rear of the Monaghan property since the plaintiffs already enjoy a pedestrian right of passage by virtue of the existence of a sidewalk parallel to Exposition Boulevard.

Defendant, Audubon Park Commission, answered and denied that plaintiffs are entitled to use Exposition Boulevard for a passageway and asserted that Ordinance No. 10,353, C.C.S., was limited in its application to a particular condition which arose in a restricted area at a specific time; that the City was, in fact, incapable of adopting such an ordinance in view of the militant provisions of Section 3 of Act No. 191 of 1914, which created and gave full control of Audubon Park to the Commission; that if the plaintiffs are entitled to any right of passage it exists over the rear of the Monaghan property. In the final alternative the Commission insists that. if the court should decide upon a passageway through Audubon Park (Exposition Boulevard) it should exist over the shell road which enters the Park from Laurel Street.

Defendant, City of New Orleans, appeared and answered substantially to the same effect, pointing out that its council had clearly manifested both its intention and policy not to extend the application of the aforementioned ordinance one iota; however, the City did assert, in opposition to the Commission’s contention, its inherent right to adopt such an ordinance, but this dispute between the City and the Commission is not at issue herein.

From a judgment in favor of defendants dismissing the suit of plaintiffs, they have prosecuted this appeal.

The record discloses a stipulation which, to all intents and purposes, encompasses the factual aspects of this suit.

It should be noted at the outset that the appellation “Exposition Boulevard”, the significance of which is colloquially understood, is, in fact, a misnomer. Exposition Boulevard is not a street or thoroughfare in any sense. It is simply a part of the perimeter of Audubon Park, whereon a sidewalk exists for the accommodation of pedestrians. Patton is a dead end street, the termination of which is at Exposition Boulevard, as are several other similar streets. Thus, between St. Charles Avenue and the Mississippi River there is vehicular access to the Park only through the medium of Prytania, Magazine, Laurel and Tchou-pitoulas Streets and all others are closed to this form of traffic.

In 1923 the Monaghans purchased a large plot of ground forming the comer of Exposition Boulevard and Patton Street. Shortly thereafter, they erected No. 611 Exposition Boulevard on the corner portion thereof, wherein they resided. In 1927 they erected No. 615 Exposition Boulevard which houses eight apartments and which is located next to their residence. [678]*678In 1951 the Monaghans sold this building to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel A. Antin, Jr., who, in 1952, sold it to the plaintiffs and in neither of these acts of sale was a right of way or conventional servitude reserved or granted across the rear of the Monaghan property. Therefore, the property designated as 615 Exposition Boulevard was effectively “fenced in” insofar as being accessible to vehicular traffic was concerned. However, from 1927 to 1952 the Monaghans permitted the occupants of 615 Exposition Boulevard, which is now owned by the plaintiffs, to use their rear yard as a vehicular passageway to and from Patton Street; sometime in 1952 an enmity developed between the owners of these properties and as a result thereof Mrs. Mon-aghan informed the plaintiffs that she would no longer permit a vehicular right of passage to exist and to substantiate this ultimatum she erected a fence which effectively obstructed the previous passageway.

Thereafter the plaintiffs sought relief from the Commission Council of the City of New Orleans and the Audubon Park Commission by requesting permission to use that portion of Audubon Park adjacent to the sidewalk of Exposition Boulevard as a passageway into Patton Street; both the Commission and the City of New Orleans denied plaintiffs’ request and, as a result thereof, this litigation ensued.

Plaintiffs have emphasized both in brief and in oral argument before this court that they do not now rely on Ordinance No. 10,-353, C.C.S., for relief, they simply contend that the right of passage to which they are entitled exists by virtue of LSA-Civil Code Articles 699, 700, 701 and 702 and that it is an alternative right, i. e., they have the right to select a passageway either from the Park or from Mrs. Monaghan, and their preference is a passage over Exposition Boulevard into Patton Street.

Defendants, City of New Orleans and the Audubon Park Commission, in opposition thereto, maintain (a) that the ruling of the trial court denying plaintiffs a vehicular right of passage over any portion of Audubon Park or the Monaghan property was correct and should,' accordingly, be affirmed; (b) that if a passage for vehicular traffic, is granted to the plaintiffs it-should be over the Monaghan property; and (c) if, in the final analysis, the Park property must be used to afford a passageway, Patton Street- should not be opened.

Defendant, Mrs. Monaghan, insists (a) that Ordinance No. 10,353, C.C.S., grants a right of passage to all property facing Exposition Boulevard from Magazine Street to the Mississippi River and since plaintiffs’ property is within this area they now possess a right of passage over Exposition Boulevard to either Patton or Laurel Street and, therefore, the articles of the LSA-Civil Code relied upon by plaintiffs may not be invoked; and (b) that the aforementioned articles of the LSA-Civil Code upon which plaintiffs predicate their legal right to relief have no application to “City lots but * * * apply to country estates and must be so limited.”

Since the pleadings and the evidence discloses that the plaintiffs’ property is entirely inclosed to vehicular traffic by the properties of others, the only question which is posed for our'consideration is one of law and that is whether plaintiffs must be granted a right of passage and, if so, from whom ?

We are of the opinion that the beneficent provisions of Ordinance No.

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Bluebook (online)
89 So. 2d 676, 1955 La. App. LEXIS 1103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nunez-v-audubon-park-commission-for-new-orleans-lactapp-1955.