Vicknair v. Langridge

57 So. 2d 714, 1952 La. App. LEXIS 504
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 17, 1952
DocketNo. 19725
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 57 So. 2d 714 (Vicknair v. Langridge) 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
Vicknair v. Langridge, 57 So. 2d 714, 1952 La. App. LEXIS 504 (La. Ct. App. 1952).

Opinion

JANVIER, Judge.

This is an action in boundary. The plaintiffs, Mr. and Mrs. Warren J. Vick-nair, own Lot Seven in Square Six of the Village of Mechanickham, which is now a part of the City of Gretna, Louisiana. The defendant, Robert J. Langridge, owns Lot Six in this square. Both lots front on Lavoisier Street. The plaintiffs alleged that it is necessary to establish this boundary line between their lot and that of the defendant, and they prayed that a surveyor be appointed to survey the properties and to establish the boundary line between them.

Defendant answered, denying that there is any necessity for the establishment of a boundary line between the two properties, and especially averred that there had existed for more than thirty years a fence between the said properties, and that he and his ancestors in title had been “in continuous, uninterrupted, peaceable, public, open, physical and unequivocal possession as owners for a period in excess of thirty (30) years of the whole of said lot Six (6) and that portion of said lot No. Seven (7) located on the Second Street side of said fence and walkway * *

A surveyor was appointed and a survey made and the process verbal and a copy of that survey appear in the record. From this survey it appears and, in fact, it is admitted 'by defendant that the line between the two properties, as said line now exists, is not that which, according to the two titles should be the dividing line, defendant conceding that at the front of the properties on Lavoisier Street his property encroaches upon the property of plaintiffs 8%oo of a foot and in the rear Wio feet but he maintains that he has acquired the said strip as a result of the prescription of thirty years.

In the lower court there was judgment in favor of plaintiffs establishing the boundary in accordance with the written titles and decreeing that “plaintiffs have the right to remove to the boundary line, as herein fixed, the fence now encroaching upon their property * * From this judgment defendant has appealed.

Defendant relies upon Articles 852, 3493-95, 3503 of our Civil Code. Article 852 reads as follows: “Whether the titles, exhibited by the parties, whose lands are to be limited, consist of primitive concessions or other acts by which property may be transferred, if it be proved that the person whose title is of the latest date, or those under whom he holds, have enjoyed, in good or bad faith, uninterrupted possession during thirty years, of any quantity of land beyond that mentioned in his title, he will be permitted to retain it, and his ■neighbor, though he have a more ancient title, will only have a right to the excess; for if one can not prescribe against his [715]*715own title, he can prescribe, beyond his title or for more than it calls for, provided it be by thirty years possession.”

Article 3503 it will be noted provides that “in the prescription of thirty years, which is acquired without title, it extends only to that which has been actually possessed by the person pleading it.” However, it will be further noted that Article 3493 provides for the “tacking” on to the possession of the person who claims by prescription the possession of his author in title. That article reads as follows: “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.” And Article 3495 provides that if the possession of the author in title is to be “tacked” on “the different possessions must have succeeded each other without interval or interruption.”

For many years these, articles furnished ground for litigation. However, in Opdenwyer v. Brown, 155 La. 617, 99 So. 482, the Supreme Court held that the possession of an ancestor in title could be tacked on for the purpose of supporting a claim of prescription of thirty years provided the property which was claimed “beyond” the title was marked by an existing visible boundary.

In Henly v. Kask, La.App., 11 So.2d 230, 235, this court considered this question, discussing various cases in which it had been previously considered and said: “It seems clear to us, as a result of these decisions, that the now well-established rule is that where there is a visible boundary, which has been in existence for thirty years or more, and the defendant in a boundary action, or his predecessors in title have, in addition to the land described in the title, actually possessed land extending to that visible boundary, a plea of prescription of thirty years will be sustained, since the defendant may show that, though he, himself, has not occupied the property for thirty years, the occupancy of his predecessors in title may be ‘tacked’ to his own. It is true that, in order that this rule apply, certain conditions must be met. First, there must be a visible boundary, such as a fence or wall, and second, there must be actual possession, either in person or through ancestors in title, for thirty years or more, of the land described in the title and also of that beyond the title as far as the actual physical boundary.”

The question then presented is one of fact, — whether the little strip of land beyond the title boundary of defendant was possessed by him or by his ancestors in title without interruption for more than thirty years, and whether during such continuous period of thirty years that additional strip, which is not included within his legal title, was contained within “an existing visible boundary.”

The evidence establishes beyond any possible doubt that for some time there was between the two properties a fence which, for at least a distance of 103 feet from the front line of the properties, was not on the correct title boundary but was on the line which encroaches upon the property of plaintiffs. And the evidence further shows beyond any doubt that that fence also extended to the rear line of the properties, though there is some dispute as to whether beyond the point, already mentioned as being 103 feet from the front line of the properties, it continued in a straight line to the rear, defendant contending that it did and plaintiffs maintaining that it did not, and that from that point it extended to the front of a shed which was at the rear of defendant’s property, and that where it connected with the shed it did not encroach upon plaintiff’s property.

The record shows also that in 1938 the fence was removed for a distance extending from the front line of the properties 103 feet towards the rear, but that there remained the markings of the holes of the posts which had supported the fence and that there was also clearly marked in concrete the line on which the base of the fence had been located.

It is the contention of defendant that this fence was erected in 1906 or early in 1907, and remained until 1938, and that during that period of more than thirty years it constituted a visible boundary.

[716]*716There is no dispute that during that period the property of the defendant was in the possession either of defendant or his ancestors in title without interruption, and it necessarily follows that if that fence was erected in 1906, or 1907, and remained until 1938, the title to that little strip of land, which was included within the fence but which was not included in the title of the defendant, was acquired by prescription as a result of the codal articles already cited.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Finley v. Morgan
80 So. 2d 196 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1955)
Sattler v. Pellichino
71 So. 2d 689 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1954)
Adams v. Etheredge
70 So. 2d 388 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1953)
Rock v. Varuso
61 So. 2d 741 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1952)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
57 So. 2d 714, 1952 La. App. LEXIS 504, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vicknair-v-langridge-lactapp-1952.