Trahan v. Broussard

196 So. 2d 858, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 5651
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 21, 1967
DocketNo. 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 196 So. 2d 858 (Trahan v. Broussard) 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
Trahan v. Broussard, 196 So. 2d 858, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 5651 (La. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinions

HOOD, Judge.

This is a petitory action in which plaintiffs seek to be recognized as the owners of a 53 acre tract of land in Lafayette Parish. Plaintiffs allege that they acquired the property by inheritance from their mother, Adeline Duhon, who owned it at the time of her death. The suit was instituted against Isaac Broussard, who is now in possession of the property, and against Sunray DX Oil Company, the owner of an oil, gas and mineral lease affecting that tract of land.

The defendants, among other pleadings, filed exceptions of prescription of ten years based on the provisions of LSA-R.S. 9:5682-9:5684. After trial, the trial judge rendered judgment sustaining these exceptions and dismissing the suit. Plaintiffs have appealed.

The principal issue presented on this appeal involves an interpretation of the provisions of LSA-R.S. 9:5682-9:5684. Plaintiffs contend that the defendants, in order to invoke the prescription provided in these sections of the revised statutes, must show that defendant Broussard’s possession of the property has been in good faith. Defendants contend that it is not essential for invoking the prescription therein provided that the possession of Broussard be in good faith. Alternatively, they contend that his possession has been in good faith.

There is no dispute as to the facts insofar as they are relevant to the exceptions presented here. Adeline Duhon owned the tract of land here in dispute at the time of her death in 1920. Her succession was opened in 1937, and in that proceeding a petition was filed by some of the collateral relatives of the decedent, and the assignee of others, seeking to have the mother and the collateral relatives of the deceased recognized as her sole and only heirs at law. It was alleged in that petition that Adeline Duhon had never been married and that she had left no descendants. Pursuant to those proceedings, an ex parte judgment was rendered by the district court on April 24, 1937, recognizing the mother and collateral relatives of the decedent as her sole and only heirs and placing them in possession of the 53 acre tract of land which ' is in dispute here.

A few days after that judgment was rendered, one of the persons who had been recognized as an undivided owner of an interest in this property instituted a partition suit against the other undivided owners, and on May 11, 1937, judgment was rendered by the district court recognizing the persons named in the judgment of possession as being the owners of this property, and ordering that the property be partitioned by licitation. Pursuant to that judgment the property was sold at a Sheriffs sale to effect a partition, and at that sale it was adjudicated to Eloi Broussard. The Sheriff’s deed to Eloi Broussard was executed on July 24, 1937, and was duly recorded in the conveyance records of La[860]*860fayette Parish. Eloi Broussard was not an heir of Adeline Duhon, and he had no interest in the property prior to the Sheriffs sale.

EIdí Broussard died in 1940. His succession was opened and judgment was rendered on September 10, 1940, recognizing his surviving spouse and ten children as his sole heirs and sending them into possession of the property left by him, including the property which is involved in the instant suit. Isaac Broussard was one of these surviving children, and he was recognized as one of the undivided owners of this property. On February 12, 1941, a voluntary partition agreement was entered into between all of these undivided owners, and under the provisions of that agreement Isaac Broussard acquired the full ownership of this particular tract of land.

The subject property is farm land, and it was completely enclosed by fences at the time it was sold at Sheriffs sale to effect a partition in 1937. Eloi Broussard took possession of the property immediately after he acquired it in 1937, and he remained in possession of it from that time until his death in 1940. Isaac Broussard took possession of the property immediately after he acquired it in 1941, and he has been in continuous, uninterrupted, peaceable, public and unequivocal possession of it since that time.

The Sunray DX Oil Company is alleged to be the owner of an oil, gas and mineral lease executed by Isaac Broussard on March 26, 1965, and affecting this property. That company was made a party defendant because of the fact that it was the lessee of the property.

The instant suit was instituted on May 27, 1965, by seven plaintiffs who allege that they are the surviving children and sole heirs of Adeline Duhon, having been born of the union between the said Adeline Duhon and John Trahan. They allege that one of the petitioners, Cleovis Trahan, was born after the marriage of Adeline Duhon and John Trahan, and that the other plaintiffs were born prior to that marriage but were later acknowledged and legitimated. Plaintiffs contend that they, as the sole heirs of Adeline Duhon, are entitled to judgment decreeing them to be the owners of the subject property and as such entitled to the possession of it. All of the plaintiffs in this suit had reached the age of majority by the time Isaac Broussard acquired the property in 1941.

The exceptions of prescription which the defendants have filed herein are grounded on the provisions of Act 584 of 1960. The provisions of that statute have been incorporated into our revised statutes as LSA-R.S. 9:5682-9:5684. Section 5682 reads:

“An action by a person who is an heir or legatee of a deceased person, and who has not been recognized as such in the judgment of possession rendered in the succession of the deceased by a court of competent jurisdiction, to assert any right, title, or interest in any of the property formerly owned by the deceased against a third person who has acquired this property from or through a person recognized as an heir or legatee of the deceased in this judgment of possession, is prescribed in ten years if the third person, or his ancestors in title, singly or collectively, have been in continuous, uninterrupted, peaceable, public, and unequivocal possession of the property for such period after the registry of the judgment of possession in the conveyance records of the parish where the property is situated.
“As used herein, 'third person’ means a person other than one recognized as an heir or legatee of the deceased in the judgment of possession. Acts 1960, No. 584, § 1.”

Section 5683 provides that the prescription provided in the preceding section shall accrue against minors and interdicts. And Section 5684 provides that the two preceding sections shall apply retroactively.

[861]*861At the trial of these exceptions plaintiffs attempted to introduce evidence to show that the possession exercised by Eloi Broussard and Isaac Broussard since 1937 had not been in good faith. Defendants objected to the evidence so offered, and the trial court sustained that objection on the ground that it was immaterial whether the possession was in good faith insofar as the application of the prescription provided in LSA-R.S. 9:5682-9:5684 is concerned. Plaintiffs contend that the trial judge erred in arriving at that conclusion, and in refusing to permit them to introduce evidence tending to show that defendant Broussard and his predecessor in title possessed in bad faith.

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Related

Trahan v. Broussard
199 So. 2d 922 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1967)

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Bluebook (online)
196 So. 2d 858, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 5651, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trahan-v-broussard-lactapp-1967.