Tate v. Cutrer

53 So. 2d 285, 1951 La. App. LEXIS 774
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 29, 1951
Docket3427
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 53 So. 2d 285 (Tate v. Cutrer) 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
Tate v. Cutrer, 53 So. 2d 285, 1951 La. App. LEXIS 774 (La. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

53 So.2d 285 (1951)

TATE
v.
CUTRER et al.

No. 3427.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

June 29, 1951.

*286 Reid & Reid, Hammond, for appellant.

Ponder & Ponder, Amite, Alfred W. Spiller, Jr., Hammond, for appellee.

ELLIS, Judge.

This is a boundary suit in which the plaintiff alleges that he is the owner of 106 acres of land, more or less, partly bounded on the west and south by certain pieces of property owned by the defendant, Robert B. Cutrer, Mrs. Martha Ryals Cutrer, and I. M. McGehee, Jr. and that the boundary line between these contiguous estates has never been determined and established. C. M. Moore, a surveyor, was appointed and sworn to make the survey.

A general denial was filed by the defendants and, in addition, they set forth "that there has been in existence for a period of more than thirty years a certain fence separating the contiguous estates of plaintiff and your appearers, said fence having been placed with the knowledge and consent of plaintiff herein." They further answered that they, together with their authors in title, have enjoyed the peaceable and uninterrupted possession of their several estates in accordance with their respective titles and in accordance with the boundary as established by the said fence for a period of more than 30 years. They further set forth that the boundary line between the estates had been determined and established with the consent and knowledge of the plaintiff and along the above referred to fence line as shown by a previous survey of July 1947 which is annexed to the answer, and also plead prescription of ten years.

The case was duly tried and the District Court, with oral reasons dictated into the record, in effect held that the contiguous properties of the plaintiff and defendants had been separated by a fence for more than 30 years and that the defendants had possessed to this fence for more than 30 years prior to the filing of the suit, and, therefore, rendered judgment recognizing the fence as shown by the appointed surveyor as the boundary line between the properties of the defendant I. M. McGehee, Jr. on the north, and Mrs. Martha Ryals Cutrer to the south of I. M. McGehee, Jr. and the other property of I. M. McGehee, Jr. to the south of Mrs. Cutrer to an old road where the old fence stopped, and then fixed the balance of the boundary as shown by the surveyors map.

From this judgment the plaintiff has appealed.

The record shows that the plaintiff acquired his property by a completely erroneous description as to acreage and location on the 11th day of January, 1905. In this deed, the property is described as 80 acres, more or less, being the W/2 of the SE/4 of Section 8 T 1 S R 8 E, and bounded North by J. E. Stewart, east by S. S. McElveen, south by Anthony Brumfield, and west by E. P. McGehee, and it was agreed that vendee's lands should go to the Wilson public road on the north.

On May 5, 1948 the survey was made by C. M. Moore, the same surveyor who was appointed by the court in this matter, and, as a result of this survey, the plaintiff obtained a corrected deed giving him 106 acres in the E/2 of W/2 of Section 8 T 1 S R 8 E, and more particularly described in accordance with Moore's survey. This corrected deed was signed by the various *287 heirs of the vendor of the plaintiff over a period from December 1948 to January 1949. The present suit was then filed on May 31, 1949.

The property of the defendants, Robert B. Cutrer, and his wife, Mrs. Martha Ryals Cutrer, who is really the owner of the property which was acquired by her prior husband, Joel J. Ryals, from Floyd M. McGehee on the 15th day of Nov. 1926, and is described as 40 acres, more or less, in Section — T 1 S R — E in the Second Ward and bounded on the north by wire fence running east and west (conditional line) and I. M. McGehee, East by Obadiah N. Tate, south and west by H. E. McGehee, Morris Public Road and I. M. McGehee, and being the same property acquired by Joe E. Stewart by purchase from I. M. McGehee.

The Tycer survey, which was excluded as an offering in evidence and which is annexed to the plaintiff's petition, shows that Mrs. Cutrer would obtain 42.30 acres if the boundary is fixed at the old fence line. There are three pieces of property which bound the property of plaintiff on the west and south, on the north is a piece of property belonging to I. M. McGehee, Jr., to the south of this is the property of Mrs. Cutrer, and to the south of Mrs. Cutrer is another piece of property belonging to the same I. M. McGehee, Jr. The testimony shows that there is a wire fence dividing the property of Mrs. Cutrer from that of I. M. McGehee, Jr. on the north. This fence runs east and west and is referred to in the title as a conditional line. We are not concerned with this fence or line. The title shows that Mrs. Cutrer is bounded on the east by plaintiff, Obadiah N. Tate. This is the line in dispute.

The property of I. M. McGehee, Jr. was acquired by Ivy M. McGehee from R. M. Addison and was a part of 220 acres as shown by deed in the record. The judgment in the succession of Ivy McGehee and his wife, Lucille Dykes McGehee, placing the heirs in possession described the property as follows: "Ninety two (92) acres of land more or less, described as sixty seven (67) acres bounded north by Joe Stewart, East by Stewart and Tate; South by Ryles; West by McGehee and Dykes, and Twenty-five (25) acres bounded north by J. J. Ryles, East by Tate, South by Preston School and West by Primes, located in the Parish of Tangipahoa, La."

In this deed we see the property bounded on the east by Stewart and Tate, plaintiff herein, and on the south by Ryles (Ryals), one of the defendants herein, and the 25 acres which is separated from the 67 acres by the property of the defendant, Mrs. Martha Ryals Cutrer, as being bounded on the east by Tate, present plaintiff.

Thus, we see up to this time in none of the deeds is any reference made to any fence running north and south as being a boundary between the plaintiff and the defendants, and it is clear from the surveys of Tycer and Moore that the old fence shown on the map is to the east of the actual boundary line between the plaintiff and defendants. There is no doubt but that the land in dispute between the actual boundary according to the descriptions and survey and the old fence line, which defendants contend is the boundary line, is outside the limits of the defendant's property as given in their titles. In other words, this disputed property is not included by description in the defendant's property. It is included in the description given in the corrected title of the plaintiff executed in December 1948 to January 1949.

In November 1947 the heirs of Ivy M. and Lucille Dykes McGehee sold to Ivy M. McGehee, Jr. (defendant) by surveyor's description the two pieces of property previously described in the judgment placing them in possession in the succession of Ivy and Lucille Dykes McGehee. This description is in accordance with the survey made by Tycer in July 1947 and the map which he made at the time is annexed to defendants' answer. The surveys by Tycer and Moore, who was appointed by the Court, are practically the same, the only difference being that Tycer accepted and fixed the old fence as the boundary line between the plaintiff's and defendants' properties. He explains this in his testimony as follows:

*288 "A. I ran the line as Mr. Moore ran it. First I ran it giving the east and west half sections for Mr. McGehee.

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Bluebook (online)
53 So. 2d 285, 1951 La. App. LEXIS 774, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tate-v-cutrer-lactapp-1951.