State ex rel. Hake v. Judge of the Fourth Judicial District Court

52 La. Ann. 103
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 15, 1899
DocketNo. 13,199
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 52 La. Ann. 103 (State ex rel. Hake v. Judge of the Fourth Judicial District Court) 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
State ex rel. Hake v. Judge of the Fourth Judicial District Court, 52 La. Ann. 103 (La. 1899).

Opinions

On the application for rehearing- by Monroe, J.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Blanchard, J.

We gather from the record the following facts:— Relator and one Henry O’Neal owned in indivisión 760 acres of pine timber land in the parish of Grant. The land was assessed for taxes to relator and the said O’Neal. Taxes for the year 1895 were not paid, or else those on relator’s undivided interest were not paid, and a tax sale of the land, or of relator’s interest in same, was made in 1896. At this tax sale O’Neal purchased the interest of his co-owner.

Subsequently O’Neal died and at the probate sale of his property, S. R. Lee and W. 0. Beal purchased the land in question. That is to say, they acquired the undivided half interest of same which O’Neal had originally owned, and also the half interest which relator had originally owned, but which O’Neal had bought at tax sale prior to his death.

In 1898 relator instituted an action against Lee and Beal to recover the undivided half of the land he had owned in indivisión with O’Neal, and which the latter had acquired at tax sale. The suit was brought to set aside the tax sale and the subsequent title to that interest in the land claimed to have been acquired by Lee and Beal.

We have then an action by relator claiming ownership in indivi-sión of a half interest in the tract of land, and praying judgment accordingly.

[105]*105While this action is pending, Lee and Beal go upon the land with a force of hands and commence cutting the timber. Whereupon, in October, 1898, the plaintiff in that case (relator herein) sued out á writ of injunction restraining the cutting and disposing of the timber.

Following this, in March, 1899, Lee and Beal took a rule to show cause why the injunction should not be dissolved on bond.

It seems that in his suit against them relator alleged the value of his interest in the land to be $1800. Subsequently, before trial of the rule to dissolve, he, by amended petition, averred its value to be $3500.

The rule was'tried and an order made or judgment entered dissolving the injunction on defendants (Lee and Beal) giving bond in the sum of $1800.

This ruling of the trial judge was erroneous.' An owner in indi-visión of timber lands has no right to cut the timber on such land without the consent of his co-owner, and if he attempt to do so, may be stopped by injunction, for the act is in the nature of a trespass, and such injunction is not one which may be dissolved on bond.

So, too, where one, claiming ownership in whole or in part of timber land, brings a tona fide suit to be decreed such owner, the defendant in such suit may not, during its pendency, cut the timber therefrom. lie should respect the existing status pending the suit. And if he seek to cut the timber, his hand may be stayed by injunction and the same should not be dissolved on bond.

Nor is this affected by the fact that in his injunction suit 'the claimant owner may assert the land, or the timber thereon, to be of such value — naming the amount. Such .allegation is .necessary to determine the proper jurisdiction on appeal.

In Dusan de la Croix vs. Villere, 11 La. Ann. 39, it was held that defendant could not bond an injunction which had issued to prevent him from cutting timber on land the ownership of which was claimed by plaintiff in a pending suit; that the destruction of forest and other trees came under the head of “irreparable injury”, and an injunction to restrain the same should not be set aside on bond under Art. 307 of the Code of Practice.

See also State ex rel. R. R. Co. vs. Judge, 23 La. Ann. 52; State vs. Judge, 12 La. Ann. 455; White and Trufant vs. Casenave, 14 La. Ann. 57; 22 La. Ann. 512; 24 La. Ann. 154.

From the erroneous ruling permitting the injunction to be dis[106]*106solved' on bond, plaintiff in the suit (relator herein) applied by petition for a suspensive and devolutive appeal. Court had adjourned, but we find the application for suspensive appeal was timely. Appended to the petition for appeal was an order therefor. It reads as follows:

“The foregoing petition being considered, it is ordered that petitioner, II. P. I-Iake, be granted a devolutive'and suspensive appeal as prayed for, returnable to the Supreme Court of Louisiana at the term of said court to be holden in the city of New Orleans, on the second Monday of November, 1899, on his executing his bond in favor of W. L. Shackelford, Clerk of said District Court, for a devolutive appeal in the sum of One Hundred Dollars, for suspensive appeal according to law.”

There was no doubt of plaintiff’s right to appeal suspensively from the interlocutory judgment dissolving his injunction on bond.

And such judgment came within that class where, when appealed from, it was the duty of the judge to fix the amount of the suspensive appeal bond as well as that of devolutive appeal bond. 29 Ann. 289; 16 Ann. 371; 20 Ann. 108; 21 Ann. 43; 29 Ann. 776; 15 Ann. 333. It was not a judgment condemning plaintiff to pay a sum of money, nor to deliver up movables or other property of which he had the possession.

There was, therefore, no sum upon which could be predicated the amount of a suspensive appeal bond “according to law.”

When the injunction was sued out plaintiff was required to give a bond for such sum as the judge fixed, conditioned upon satisfying such judgment for damages as defendant might recover in case of the wrongful suing out of the injunction and injury resulting therefrom. This bond protected defendants.

When, afterwards, defendants obtained the decree to dissolve the injunction on bond, plaintiff could be condemned in such judgment for nothing beyond the costs of the proceedings leading up to such dissolution on bond, and, accordingly, would, ordinarily, it would seem, be entitled to a suspensive appeal on giving a bond sufficient for costs. The most that may be claimed to the contrary of this is, that a reasonable discretion was vested in the trial judge to fix the amount of the suspensive appeal bond in such case — his ruling being liable to review and correction here, through the proper remedial writ, if he [107]*107fixed, it at an excessive sum, ox if, when, called upon in a proper case, he refused to fix it.

If, as in this case, the judge, having granted both a devolutive and suspensive appeal, fix the devolutive appeal bond at $100, and add that the suspensive appeal bond should be “according to law,” the meaning and legal effect to be given to such words, considering the character of the judgment appealed from, is that a bond one-half over and above the amount named as for costs will suffice for a suspensive appeal. The judge might in his discretion have named a reasonable sum as the amount of the suspensive appeal bond, subject to correction here, if excessive. But he chose to confine himself, in the matter of fixing the amount of tire appeal bonds, to a sum which he deemed sufficient to cover the costs (including those of appeal) of the proceeding to dissolve the injunction on bond, and then to say that the suspensive appeal bond shall be “according to law”.

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Bluebook (online)
52 La. Ann. 103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-hake-v-judge-of-the-fourth-judicial-district-court-la-1899.