Phipps v. Schupp

19 So. 3d 38, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1487, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1566, 2009 WL 2562488
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 19, 2009
DocketNo. 2008-CA-1487
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 19 So. 3d 38 (Phipps v. Schupp) 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
Phipps v. Schupp, 19 So. 3d 38, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1487, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1566, 2009 WL 2562488 (La. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

JONES, Judge.

liThe Appellant, Roger Phipps, seeks review of the district court’s judgment granting a motion for summary judgment in favor of the Appellees, Cynthia Schupp and Roland Nelson Cutrer, Jr. (hereinafter the “Neighbors”). We affirm.

The material facts in this case are not in dispute. At one time 541 and 543 Exposition Boulevard in Orleans Parish comprised a “Lot F” and were owned by one person, Richard Katz (hereinafter the “common owner”). Lot F was bounded by Exposition Boulevard/Audubon Park to the West, Patton Street to the North, and other residential properties to the South and East. In 1978, the common owner had Lot F subdivided into two lots: 541 and 543 Exposition Blvd. The address of 543 Exposition Boulevard is located in the northernmost section of the former Lot F and is located directly adjacent to Patton Street. The common owner then sold 541 Exposition Boulevard, which became landlocked as a result of said sale, having no direct access to a usable public street other than through 543 Exposition Boulevard.1 It is uncontested that a driveway— created by the common owner — |extendeda [40]*40from a garage located on 541 Exposition Boulevard, through 543 Exposition Boulevard, to Patton Street.

In 1978, the common owner appears to have sold 541 Exposition Boulevard to First Homestead and Savings Association, which in turn sold the same property to Michael Botnick. In June of 1982, Mr. Botnick sold 541 Exposition Boulevard to Mr. Phipps and his wife, Evanthea Parker Phipps. Mr. Phipps, the Appellant/Plaintiff, has resided there with his family for over 24 years. He alleges that throughout that time he has possessed, exercised and used a right of passage (a driveway) from his home through the backyard of an adjacent property, 543 Exposition Boulevard, to the nearest Street, Patton Street. Mr. Phipps avers that he uses the contested right of way to access the rear of his home and his garage by both driving a car and walking from Patton Street.

This alleged right of passage would constitute an apparent (visible) predial servitude that cuts across the adjacent and would-be servient estate: 543 Exposition Boulevard. Currently, 543 Exposition Boulevard is owned by the Neighbors, who contend that Mr. Phipps used their driveway for walking purposes only (i.e. to walk to the rear of his home).

On June 13, 2006, the Neighbors began erecting a fence across the alleged right of passage; thus, preventing Mr. Phipps from accessing Patton Street. Consequently, Mr. Phipps filed a possessory action seeking to:

1.) have his alleged right of passage over the Appellees property recognized and restored;
2.) have an order demanding Appellees to remove a carport enclosure located on the Appellees property that blocks the alleged right of passage; and
|a3.) an order demanding that the Appel-lees remove the fence located on their property that blocks the alleged right of passage.

The Appellees filed an exception of no cause of action, which was denied by the district court. The Appellees then filed a motion for summary judgment, which was ultimately granted by the district court. This timely appeal followed.

Mr. Phipps raises two (2) assignments of error on appeal:

1.) The district court erred in granting summary judgment which dismissed the possessory action:
a.) by ignoring disputed material facts and failing to construe the facts in the light most favorable to the non-mov-ant (Mr. Phipps). Mr. Phipps alleges that the district court accepted the Appellees argument that the driveway extending from Patton Street to the landlocked estate, 541 Exposition Boulevard, was not an exterior sign evidencing the common owner’s intent to create a servitude;
b.) by ignoring material disputed facts by accepting the Appellees arguments that in 1978 when both 541 and 543 Exposition Boulevard comprised Lot F, and said lot was later divided into Lot F-l (541 Exposition Boulevard) and Lot F-2 (543 Exposition Blvd.), that 541 Exposition Boulevard was sold without an express written disavowal of an apparent servitude being made, and this omission was not evidence of the common owner’s intent to create an apparent servitude;
c.) and, by accepting the defendants’ arguments that, with respect to a visible concrete driveway, intent to create a servitude by destination of the owner required some “note” at the time of the 1978 sale that expressed such in[41]*41tent despite the law contained within La. CCP art. 741.
2.) The district court committed a legal error by striking certain paragraphs of an affidavit submitted in support of his opposition to summary judgment.

| ¿Appellate court review of a summary judgment is de novo. Dominio v. Folger Coffee Co., 2005-0357 (La.App. 4 Cir. 2/15/06), 926 So.2d 16. Furthermore, a motion for summary judgment will be granted if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to material fact, and that the mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. La. C.C.P. art. 966(B). However, if the mov-ant will not bear the burden of proof at trial, the movant’s burden on the motion does not require him to negate all essential elements of the adverse party’s claim, action, or defense, but rather to point out to the court that there is an absence of factual support for one or more elements essential to the adverse party’s claim, action, or defense. La. C.C.P. art. 966(C)(2). Thereafter, if the adverse party fails to produce factual support sufficient to establish that he will be able to satisfy his evidentiary burden of proof at trial, there is no genuine issue of material fact. Id.

A predial servitude is either apparent or nonapparent. La.Civ.Code art. 707. An apparent servitude is one which is “perceivable by exterior signs, works, or constructions, such as a roadway, a window in a common wall, or an aqueduct.” Id. Nonapparent servitudes have “no exterior signs of their existence; such as the prohibition of building on an estate or of building above a particular height.” Id. Apparent servitudes are acquired by “title, destination of the owner, or by acquisitive prescription.” La.Civ.Code art. 740. Nonapparent servitudes can only be acquired by title, “including a declaration of destination under Article 741.” La. C.C. art. 739. Destination of the owner is described in La. C.C. art. 741:

Destination of the owner is a relationship established between two estates owned by the same owner that |swould be a predial servitude if the estates belonged to different owners.
When the two estates cease to belong to the same owner, unless there is express provision to the contrary, an apparent servitude comes into existence of right and a nonapparent servitude comes into existence if the owner has previously filed for registry in the conveyance records of the parish in which the immovable is located a formal declaration establishing the destination.

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Related

Phipps v. Schupp
163 So. 3d 212 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)

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Bluebook (online)
19 So. 3d 38, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1487, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1566, 2009 WL 2562488, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/phipps-v-schupp-lactapp-2009.