Stutson v. McGee

125 So. 2d 482, 1960 La. App. LEXIS 1298
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 19, 1960
DocketNo. 151
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 125 So. 2d 482 (Stutson v. McGee) 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
Stutson v. McGee, 125 So. 2d 482, 1960 La. App. LEXIS 1298 (La. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

SAVOY, Judge.

This is a petitory action brought by plaintiff against defendant whereby plaintiff desires to be recognized as the true and lawful owner of certain real estate situate in the Parish of Catahoula, Louisiana.

For a cause of action plaintiff alleged an unbroken chain of title to said property, and stated that the defendant was in possession of said property without color of title or right whatsoever, and was possessing in bad faith. Plaintiff prayed that he be decreed to be the owner of said property.

Defendant admitted that he was in possession of said property by virtue of a good and valid title, setting forth his chain of title. In the alternative, defendant stated that he and his authors in title have had the property enclosed under fence and have been in actual, physical, open, corporeal and continuous possession for a period of more than thirty years, and plead specially the prescription o.f thirty years provided in Articles 3475 and 3499 of the Louisiana Civil Code, LSA.

Defendant then assumed the position of plaintiff-in-reconvention, stating that a visible boundary fence separated the land of plaintiff and defendant and that the actual boundary between the properties had been there for more than thirty years, and plead prescription of thirty years as provided for by Article 852 of the Louisiana Civil Code, LSA.

On these issues the case was tried.

The lower court, without- assigning any written reasons, maintained the defendant’s plea of acquisitive prescription of thirty years, dismissed plaintiff’s suit, and decreed defendant to be the owner of the property in dispute. From this judgment the plaintiff perfected an appeal to this court.

During the trial of-the case, plaintiff and defendant agreed that a plat prepared by W. H. Griffith, Engineer, dated July, 1959, gave an accurate description of the property in dispute, and designated same as Tract A on said plat. This-plat was introduced in evidence as a joint offering.

Counsel for defendant now concedes that there was not a common boundary between the property owned by plaintiff and defendant for a thirty year period and therefore has abandoned his reconventional demand dealing with the boundary question. He also has abandoned his defense that defendant has a record title to said property.

An examination of the record shows that the plaintiff is the record owner of the land in dispute, designated as Tract A, through an unbroken chain of title. If the defendant is to succeed in this case, he will have to depend on the thirty years acquisitive pre[484]*484scription provided by Articles 3475 and 3499 of the Louisiana Civil Code, LSA. These articles provide:

“Art. 3475. Immovables are prescribed for by thirty years without any title on the part of the possessor, or whether he be in good faith or not.”
“Art. 3499. The ownership of im-movables is prescribed for by thirty years without any need of title or possession in good faith.”

Defendant contended that he was entitled to tack on the possession of his authors in title and that the combined possessions would exceed thirty years.

The article of the Civil Code dealing with the tacking of possession for acquisitive prescription is found in Article 3493, LSA-Civil Code. This article declares:

“Art. 3493. The possessor is allowed to make the sum of possession necessary to prescribe, by adding to his own possession that of his author, in whatever manner he may have succeeded him, whether by an universal or particular, a lucrative or an onerous title.”

The evidence revealed that defendant purchased from the heirs of W. A. Davis the property shown on the Griffith plat as George McGee Tract. This property consisted of approximately 125 acres. Defendant purchased said property in 1929, so that at the time the suit was filed, the thirty year prescriptive period had not run.

After the filing of the suit, namely on the 4th day of September, 1959, defendant secured an act of correction and confirmation of the deeds wherein he had acquired the property from the W. A. Davis heirs, which act of correction and confirmation purport to include the land in litigation.

In determining tacking of possession of the vendor for the purposes of thirty year prescription, the Supreme Court in the case of Harang v. Golden Ranch Land & Drainage Co., 143 La. 982, 79 So. 768, 780, said:

“ ‘Tacking Possessions of Same Person Temporarily Interrupted. — Since the constructive possession of the true owner revives when actual possession by the adverse claimant ceases, a renewed adverse possession by him after temporary abandonment cannot be tacked to his prior possession to make out the statutory period. Nor can one adverse holder tack together his own several holdings when he has allowed another person to acquire the intermediate tortuous possession before his own has ripened into title.’ 1 Cyc. 1009.
“ ‘Several successive possessions cannot be tacked for the purpose of showing a continuous adverse possession, where there is no privity of estate or connection of title between the several occupants. Entries of this character, neither of which continues for the limitation period, are merely a series of independent trespasses which cannot ripen into title, because the law restores the possession of the rightful owner on every discontinuance of the possession of one who holds adversely to him.’ 1 R.C.L. 720.
“ ‘Between Whom Privity Exists.— Privity denotes merely a succession of relationships to the same thing, whether created by deeds or by other act, or by operation of law. If one by agreement surrenders his possession to another, and the acts of the parties are such that the two possessions actually connect, the latter commencing at or before the former ends, leaving no interval for the constructive possession of the true owner to intervene, such two possessions are blended into one, and the limitation period upon the right of such owner to reclaim the land is thereby continued; indeed that purpose of continuous possession is [485]*485the continuous ouster of the owner.’ 1 R.C.L. 718.”

In support of his position defendant relied on the cases of Coats v. Lee, La.App., 70 So.2d 229 and La.App., 81 So.2d 118, 119.

In the first reported case, supra, plaintiff brought an action of jactitation against defendant. Defendant admitted the adverse possession, but claimed legal title to the property. Upon trial of the case, attorney for plaintiff offered an act .of donation from J. W. Carnes to Mrs. C. L, Coats and attempted to introduce a deed from Mrs. C. L. Coats to plaintiff. The trial court refused to allow the deed because it was executed after the suit was filed. Plaintiff appealed from the ruling of the trial court and filed in the appellate court a plea of prescription of thirty years under the provisions of Articles 3475 and 3499, as qualified by Articles 3430, 3495, 3500, 3501, 3502, 3503 and 3505, LSA-Civil Code.

On appeal the judgment of the lower court was reversed, the court saying:

"From the pleadings and admitted evidence the possession of Coats alone appears to he of three years duration immediately prior to the suit. But clearly if plaintiff through Mrs.

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Related

Stutson v. McGee
130 So. 2d 403 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1961)

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Bluebook (online)
125 So. 2d 482, 1960 La. App. LEXIS 1298, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stutson-v-mcgee-lactapp-1960.