Roge v. Kuhlman

136 So. 2d 819
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 15, 1962
Docket420
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 136 So. 2d 819 (Roge v. Kuhlman) 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
Roge v. Kuhlman, 136 So. 2d 819 (La. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

136 So.2d 819 (1962)

Numa H. ROGE, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Rex KUHLMAN et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 420.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

January 15, 1962.
Rehearing Denied February 7, 1962.
Certiorari Denied March 16, 1962.

*820 Watson, Williams & Brittain, by Jack O. Brittain, Natchitoches, for plaintiff-appellant.

Gahagan & Gahagan, by Russell E. Gahagan, Natchitoches, for defendants-appellees.

Before TATE, SAVOY and HOOD, JJ.

TATE, Judge.

This is a possessory action. The plaintiff appeals from the dismissal of his suit. The issue essentially is whether the plaintiff correctly or with sufficient particularity described the land upon which the disturbance took place.

In the allegations of his petition, the plaintiff describes himself as the owner of land in "Section 26, Township 7 North, Range 5 West, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana," and as having acquired same by a 1943 warranty deed. The plaintiff's petition, filed August 29,1960, further alleges that on approximately June 1, 1960 the defendant Rex Kuhlman had disturbed his possession of "a portion of the above described property" by tearing down the plaintiff's old fence and erecting a new one enclosing part of the land formerly possessed by the plaintiff. (By amended petition the plaintiff joined Dr. M. L. Kuhlman as co-defendant because, subsequent to suit, the latter had acquired a one-half interest in indivision in defendant Rex Kuhlman's tract.)

In dismissing the plaintiff's suit, the trial court held: "Inasmuch as the plaintiff chose to describe the disturbance as having taken place in Section 26 Township 7 North, Range 5 West, he has the burden of proving that the disturbance did occur in Section 26. The Court believes that he has not discharged this burden of proof."

The defendant's disturbance of the possession of about five acres of a tract formerly enclosed by the plaintiff's fences is essentially admitted and proved. The sole defense raised is that the land upon which this disturbance took place was not truly located within Section 26 but, rather, just across the section line. The defendants' able counsel in brief succinctly summarizes his *821 clients' position as follows: "The essence of the defense of the defendant is that he at no time disturbed the plaintiff in his possession of any portion or part of property located in Section 26, Township 7 North, Range 5 West. In other words, he does not deny that he did disturb the plaintiff in his possession, if you could say he had it in his possession, of a piece of ground, but he denies that it was the ground described in plaintiff's petition. * * * The question in the case is not whether the defendant committed a trespass on any land in the possession of the plaintiff, but whether he committed the trespass on the land specifically described in plaintiff's petition."

The evidence shows that in 1955 the plaintiff had erected a fence along the northern and western lines of his property in accordance with a survey made by one Hyams and that this fence was in existence in 1957 when the defendant Kuhlman acquired the adjacent tract northerly of the plaintiff's land. Plaintiff's north boundary was by his title located on the north section line of Section 26.

In late 1959, Kuhlman hired a surveyor to establish his own lines. This surveyor made a written report to the defendant that it was certain that there were some errors in his property lines and that it would take at least a thousand dollars to establish his corners to fit the government calls. See P-2. By his title, the defendant Kuhlman's southern boundary was the north section line of Section 26.

Without consulting the surveyor further, the defendant Kuhlman in the summer of 1960, several months before the present suit, built a new fence along a line which he established as his own southern boundary with the aid of a compass and by following blazed and painted tree-lines between certain trees which the defendant Kuhlman believed to be the northwest and northeast corners of the plaintiff's land. He admitted that he ran this line without the assistance of a surveyor. (The plaintiff had previously objected to introduction of any evidence in this possessory action to show that his old fence was not correctly located on the north section line of Section 26 per his title. Tr. 67-68.)

The defendant Kuhlman essentially admits, as the proof without contradiction shows, that the new fence erected by him was approximately three hundred feet south of the plaintiff's northern fence and that the plaintiff's old 4-strand barb-wire fence line was clearly visible, although (as photographs show) trees had fallen across it in several places. (The plaintiff's witnesses testified that the fence had not had these gaps in it prior to the defendant's trespass.) The new Kuhlman fence enclosed about five acres off the northwestern corner of the tract previously fenced by the plaintiff.

In our opinion, our learned trial brother was in error in dismissing the plaintiff's suit. It is true that the plaintiff alleges that he possessed as owner certain land located in Section 26, but he further specifically indicated the location and identity of the land on which his possession had been disturbed by further describing it as bounded, north and west by the remains of his old fence, and south and east by the defendant Kuhlman's new fence.[4] There is no substantial doubt from the pleadings as to the identity or location of the land upon which the trespass took place, and this is all that is necessary for a possessory action.

As stated in Riseman "The Possessory Action in Louisiana" 20 Tulane Law Review 524 (1946), the function of the possessory action "is to give the possessor of immovable property * * * a legal remedy *822 to aid in maintaining his possession. If the possessor fulfills certain requisites, his right of possession is protected regardless of whether he is the legal owner in possession, or a possessor who is not the true and lawful owner". 20 Tul.Law Rev. 524. "The plaintiff in a possessory action need not describe the land in any particular way, but he must describe it sufficiently to give the defendant reasonable notice as to what land is in dispute. Furthermore, where the locus in quo is so uncertain that it is impossible to determine whether or not the defendant's dominion extends over, and interferes with, any part of the tract claimed by the plaintiff, recovery will not be granted. "20 T.Law Review 528-529. See also Comment, "Real Actions to Determine Ownership or Possession * * *." 20 La.Law Rev. 92 (1959), 98-100.

"It is well settled that, even against the lawful owner, one who has been in possession of property for over one year has a cause of action to prevent an illegal disturbance of that possession and to recover damages resulting from such disturbance, and that, consequently, in such actions title is not at issue when (as here) timely objection is made by plaintiffs to evidence concerning title, [citations omitted]," Loeblich v. Garnier, La.App. 1 Cir., 113 So.2d 95, 98.

The Loeblich decision concerned a suit by possessors arising out of the disturbance of their peaceable possession of a tract enclosed by fences. The defendant sought to excuse his trespass by introducing evidence that the violated fence line was not correctly located, so that allegedly the trespasses did not take place on property within the limits of the plaintiffs' title.

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Bluebook (online)
136 So. 2d 819, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roge-v-kuhlman-lactapp-1962.