Tremont Lumber Co. v. Davis Bros. Lumber Co.

8 La. App. 555, 1928 La. App. LEXIS 181
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 3, 1928
DocketNo. 3045
StatusPublished

This text of 8 La. App. 555 (Tremont Lumber Co. v. Davis Bros. Lumber Co.) 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
Tremont Lumber Co. v. Davis Bros. Lumber Co., 8 La. App. 555, 1928 La. App. LEXIS 181 (La. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

ODOM, J.

Plaintiff owns the NE% of NE% of Section 32 Township 12 North Range 3 West.

Defendant owns the forty acres adjoining it on the north, or SE% of SE% of Section 29, same township and range.

While cuttirig timber, on its forty acres in Section 29, the defendant crossed over the line into Section 32 and cut 13,858 feet of cypress and 40,635 feet of gum and oak from a strip running east and west on the north side of the NE% of NE% of Section 32 belonging to plaintiff.

Plaintiff brought this suit for $955.98, alleging that defendant cut the timber in bad faith and that it should pay for timber at $25.00 per thousand for the cypress and $15.00 per thousand for the gum and oak, this being the alleged manufac-' tured value.

Defendant denied that it had cut any timber across its line on plaintiff’s land.

The lower court found for plaintiff and awarded judgment for the stumpage value of the timber which it found was $8.00 per thousand, holding that defendant cut the timber in good faith.

Defendant appealed, and plaintiff answered the appeal asking that the judgment be increased to the amount prayed for.

This suit is the sequel to a dispute between these lumber companies over the [556]*556correct location of a land line. If the line is located where plaintiff thinks it is, defendant is due the amount claimed, provided the timber was cut in bad faith. If it is located where defendant thinks it is, then nothing is due. So we must determine from the evidence which party is correct as to the location of the line.

We have read the voluminous record and conclude, as did the District Judge, that plaintiff’s contention as to the location of the line is correct. We also concur in his holding that the timber was cut by defendant in good faith and that it is due to pay only the stumpage value, and that a valuation of $8.00 per thousand, as found by him, does justice to both parties.

The main" controversy in this suit is over the location of the east and west line between the SEÍ4 of SE14 of Section 29, owned by defendant, and the NE14 of NE1^ of Section 32, owned by plaintiff.

Plaintiff contends that the correct line is the one established by Mr. W. F. Duffy, a civil engineer and licensed surveyor, while defendant relies on a line established by Mr. J. L. Dark, another surveyor.

This is not an action of boundary. Neither side asked the court to have the boundary line between their respective properties fixed according to the rules laid down in the Code, Articles 823, et seq. But they rely upon lines fixed by surveyors who were called as witnesses and who testified.

We must decide the case therefore upon the record as we find it.

The line relied upon by plaintiff was established by Mr. W. P. Duffy. Mr. Duffy is a graduate engineer from the University of Wisconsin and has had twenty-two years experience as a surveyor. In 1910 there was a suit between the Winn Parish Lumber Company and the Little River Lumber Company involving the location of certain lines and corners in the vicinity of this land and especially the location of the common corner of Sections 28, 29, 32 and 33.

In that suit the court appointed Mr. Duffy, Mr. Cookston and Mr. McCain, two other surveyors, to locate the lines and corners. They located the common corner of Sections 28, 29, 32 and 33, and made report to the court. Mr. Dark, whose line is now relied upon by defendant, was with the surveying party at the time, and while Duffy testified in the present suit that Mr. Dark agreed with him that the corners and lines then found and established were correct, yet Dark testified that he did not.

It seems that Mr. Cookston, now parish surveyor of Winn Parish, did not altogether agree with Duffy as to the location of the corners, but we find from Mr. Cookston’s testimony in the present suit that he did not seriously disagree with Mr. Duffy on any material point involved in the present suit.

After this suit was filed Mr. Duffy was employed by plaintiff to resurvey the land 'and especially to locate the line between the SE1^ of SE% of Section 29 and the NE% of NE% of Section 32.

In making the original survey in 1910 he had before him the original field notes and plat made by John Densmore who made the survey for the Government in 1813. The Densmore survey and field notes are referred to and apparently relied upon by all the surveyors. When Mr. Duffy made his resurvey in 1925, he had before him his survey and note's made in 1910, which he followed.

[557]*557In making the survey of 1910, Duffy and the others could find no evidence of the establishment of the common corner between Sections 28, 29, 32 and 33. In order to establish that corner they began on the township line between townships 11 and 12, which is the south boundary line of Sections 32 and 33 and one mile south of the common corner of Sections 28, 29, 32' and 33. They found evidences of the town township line as established by Bensmore, but the corners of the sections on the township line were not easily located.

In order to get a starting point, they tried to locate the corner on that line between Sections 32 and 33. They found from the old field notes that this corner was marked by a holly tree in the bed of a creek. But the holly tree, which it seems they found, there, was not in the bed of the cregk, the inference being that the channel of the creek had changed.

In order to cheek this corner, they ran east on the township line. From the original field notes they found that the quarter section corner on the south line of Section 33 (on the township line) was marked by two pine trees. They did not find the pine trees but did find the stump of one of them and a stump hole indicating the location of the other. These corresponded with the field notes. All the surveyors, including Dark, agreed upon this fact.

Having definitely established, as they considered, the quarter section corner on the south line of Section 33, they took that as a starting point, and in order to locate definitely the corner between Sections 32 and 33, known and referred to as the “holly tree corner,” they ran back west on the township line one-half mile and established the section corner, or the southwest corner of Section 33 and the southeast corner of Section 32, or the “holly tree corner.”

From the corndr thus established they ran north one mile, establishing the section line between Sections 32 and 33 and established the common corner between Sections 28, 29, 32 and 33.

In running this line north between Sections 32 and 33, they found evidences for the first half mile of the old line, which old line corresponded with the one they ran; but for the second half mile, or on the north end, virgin timber had been cut and they found no evidences of the original line.

None of the surveyors, Mr. Dark included, question the fact that in running the north and south line between Sections 32 and 33 they started on the township line or on the south line of Sections 32 and 33, and the fact that they ran •exactly one mile north is not disputed.

Therefore, the common corner of Sections 28, 29, 32 and 33 as located by Duffy is unquestionably one mile north of the township line, and that is where it should be.

Mr.

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8 La. App. 555, 1928 La. App. LEXIS 181, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tremont-lumber-co-v-davis-bros-lumber-co-lactapp-1928.