Stephens v. Drake

134 So. 2d 674, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1459
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 26, 1961
DocketNo. 9543
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 134 So. 2d 674 (Stephens v. Drake) 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
Stephens v. Drake, 134 So. 2d 674, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1459 (La. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

GLADNEY, Judge.

Mrs. Marie S. Stephens and her children, Harry Scheen Stephens, Thomas Paxton Stephens, Jr., Frederick Leonard Stephens, and Leonard Waller Stephens II, instituted this, an action of jactitation or [675]*675slander of title, against the defendant, Luther A. Drake, asserting themselves to be the lawful owners in actual physical possession of certain described property and charging that the defendant was slandering their title thereto by claims of ownership. The defendant excepted to the action alleged upon by plaintiffs by denying the sufficiency of their possession, and by averring plaintiffs are without a cause or right of action. When these pleas were •considered, counsel for exceptor stated each was directed at the sufficiency of plaintiffs’ possession to support the character of action sued upon. The pleas were tried, overruled, and judgment was rendered, ordering the defendant to either disclaim title to said property or institute suit against plaintiffs herein in revindication for any rights which the defendant, Luther A. Drake, might have in said lands within sixty days after judgment became final.1 Defendant answered plaintiffs’ petition, setting forth his claim of ownership, the legal effect of which was to convert the jactitation suit into a petitory action. Upon the issues thus presented the case was tried and judgment rendered recognizing plaintiffs to be the lawful owners of the property in controversy. From this decree defendant has perfected this appeal.

This controversy is the result of a dispute as to the possession and ownership of land as a consequence of Red River changing its course. Prior to the spring of 1945, plaintiffs and their authors in title owned Squirrel Point Plantation which was located on the east side or left descending bank of the Red River in Red River Parish, Louisiana. Part of this property was a finger of land, or peninsula, which was attached to the land of plaintiffs and was bounded on the north, west and south by Red River. It is conceded that this peninsula was alluvion created by the river and had been attached to the property of plaintiffs for many years. The trial judge, in a well-considered opinion, appropriately observed:

“This peninsula or finger of land was ‘made’ land or alluvion formed by the actions of Red River and had existed as an attachment to the other property of the plaintiffs for many years. The defendant owns land located at that time across Red River from the western end of the peninsula as well as across the river and south of the peninsula. Not before the spring of 1945, did the plaintiffs claim any land in this vicinity on the west side, or right descending bank, of Red River, and likewise the defendant claimed no land on the other or east side of Red River.
“Since time immemorial during the spring seasons Red River has been overflowing, changing its course, cutting new channels,, cutting off horseshoe-shaped lakes, straightening its course, bending its course, eating away at high banks on one side and making new lands on the other side. Such has been the actions of the impetuous Red River since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. These are things of common knowledge to those of us who live in the great Red River Valley.”

In 1945 the Red River overflowed its banks in many places and during this overflow cut a new channel across the base of the peninsula and in succeeding years both ends of the old channel silted up completely, sealing it off from the flow of water from the Red River. The land in controversy herein at first embraced that within the former channel of the river, but the defendant no longer lays claim thereto, nor is it disputed that the ownership of the peninsula was vested in the Stephens prior to the creation of the new channel. In [676]*676explanation, counsel for defendant stated in brief:

“We must admit that under the provisions of C.C. Art. 518 and the case of Fitzsimmons v. Cassity in [La.App.], 172 So. 824, the Stephens Family are entitled to the bed of the river as it flowed immediatly before the 1945 high water, to indemnify them for what they lost to the new channel. However, they are not entitled to that sand bar that had built back from the westernmost channel the riker at one time had occupied before it started building up against the west bank, which sand bar according to the undisputed testimony had built up about of a mile from west to east. They must be confined to the channel as it existed just before the cut through.”

It is thus clear that appellant limits his claim to the detached strip of land which had been a peninsula and any alluvion that had become attached to his land. His position is stated by counsel to be:

“It is our contention that the widow and heirs of T. P. Stephens, Sr., deceased, cannot recover in this lawsuit under Article 509 of the Revised Civil Code, for the simple reason that the record shows without contradiction that the entire peninsula, prior to the 1945 cut off, was alluvion. That since the cut off, it is no longer attached to Squirrel Point Plantation but in fact is now attached to the property of Luther A. Drake.”

Codal Article 509 defines alluvion and declares it belongs to the owner of the soil situated on the edge of a river or stream. Appellants’ claim however, is predicated upon LSA-C.C. Art. 511, which provides:

“If the river or stream, whether navigable or not, carries away by a sudden irruption a considerable tract of land from an adjoining field, which tract of land is susceptible of being identified, by carrying the same on a field lower down, or on the opposite shore, the owner of the tract of land thus carried away, may claim his property, provided he does it within a year, or even after the year has elapsed, if the person, to whose land the soil thus carried away has been united, has not yet taken possession of the same.”

The trial court rej ected the argument so made, reasoning that:

“In the first place, no tract of land was moved or carried away by a ‘sudden irruption’ o.r otherwise, except, of course, the land taken by the action of the river in establishing a new channel. There is another good reason why RCC Article 511 has no application here. This article says ‘by carrying the same on a field lower down or on the opposite shore.’ The land that was ‘carried away’ if it can be said to have been carried away, never attached itself to any land of the defendant for RCC Article 518 provides:
“ ‘If a river or stream, whether navigable or not, opens itself a new bed by leaving its former channel, the owners of the soil newly occupied shall take, by way of indemnification, the former bed of the river, every one in proportion to the quantity of land he has lost.
“ ‘They shall again take their former property, if the river or stream returns to its former channel.’
“So, the plaintiffs, by operation of law, upon the giving of the land for the new channel acquired the old or former bed of the river. Therefore, if the land was carried away it never attached itself to any property of this defendant. Furthermore, apparently the defendant has abandoned any claim to the peninsula area.
“The evidence adduced on trial establishes that the defendant’s boundary on Red River was a steep bank, that it had been, in time past subject [677]

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Bluebook (online)
134 So. 2d 674, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1459, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stephens-v-drake-lactapp-1961.