Watson v. Crown Zellerbach Corp.

124 So. 2d 138, 240 La. 500, 1960 La. LEXIS 1052
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 7, 1960
DocketNo. 44652
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 124 So. 2d 138 (Watson v. Crown Zellerbach Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Watson v. Crown Zellerbach Corp., 124 So. 2d 138, 240 La. 500, 1960 La. LEXIS 1052 (La. 1960).

Opinion

HAMITER, Justice.

The instant proceeding began as an injunction suit in which plaintiffs (Samuel L. Watson, W. Iverson Watson and W. Bryan Watson, who are brothers and also are children and heirs of Mrs. Irene Young Watson, deceased) sought to prevent the defendant (Crown Zellerbach Corporation) from trespassing on and removing timber from a small tract of land located in Livingston Parish that allegedly belonged [139]*139to them. In its answer to the original petition the defendant, relying on a record title derived from one William P. Young (brother of Mrs. Irene Young Watson) and also on the acquisitive prescription of ten years, asserted ownership of such property. Thereupon, the plaintiffs, in a supplemental petition, specially pleaded the prescription of thirty years acquirendi causa under Articles 3499 to 3505, inclusive, of the Revised Civil Code.

The district court rendered a judgment in favor of plaintiffs, maintaining their prescriptive plea of thirty years, and it was affirmed by the Court of Appeal. See 110 So.2d 862, 868.

The cause is before us on a writ of cer-tiorari or review.

The record discloses that in 1883 plaintiffs’ mother (Mrs. Irene Young Watson) acquired, by donation from her parents (Laurance and Nancy Story Young), a 100 acre tract of land situated partly in St. Helena and partly in Livingston Parishes. The land thus donated was described as being bounded on the east by the Tickfaw River and lying between parallel lines running west from such river. Subsequently, a survey of the property was made by a Mr. Womack which established and marked its boundaries.

On March 8, 1902, following the death of her father, Mrs. Watson joined with her mother and her sisters and brothers in conveying to William P. Young (defendant’s ancestor in title) 133.75 acres of land lying mainly to the south of Mrs. Watson’s tract, the conveyance instrument reciting that it was executed in consideration of a donation of such property previously made by the deceased Laurance Young to William P. Young (but not formally confected prior to the former’s death), and, further, that the description contained therein was in accordance with a survey on January 7, 1902 of George P. Schmidt.

Plaintiffs admit that (according to the plat of the Schmidt survey) the property described in the conveyance instrument to William P. Young included a 14 acre triangular piece of Mrs. Watson’s originally acquired land, the base of the triangle running along her south boundary as established by the Womack survey and its apex lying in the southern part of her tract. And it is this 14 acres, undeniably covered by the donation to Mrs. Watson in 1883, that is in dispute in this litigation.

Primarily to be determined, therefore, is the correct southern boundary of the property of plaintiffs (heirs of Mrs. Watson). Is it the line as established by the Womack survey? Or does it follow the two legs of the triangle which extend north of the Womack line and into Mrs. Watson’s original tract?

Conceding that in 1902 their mother did include the disputed area in the conveyance to William P. Young (albeit unintentionally), plaintiffs insist that nevertheless she continuously thereafter, as well as they following her death in 1947, maintained open, notorious, corporeal possession of the property as owner; and that, consequently, their mother (from whom plaintiffs inherited) acquired title thereto by the prescription of thirty years. The defendant, on the other hand, denies the sufficiency of such possession.

With reference to its findings of fact on the question of possession the Court of Appeal observed: “In the case at bar the facts reveal that the retention of possession by appellee’s mother was so pronounced that the people in the community or neighborhood, as well as the contiguous owners, knew that she regarded and claimed the property in dispute as owner * * *. The record conclusively shows that from 1883 until the date of her death in 1947, Mrs. Irene Young Watson, mother of appellees, with the aid and assistance of two of her sons, exercised close supervision and possession over the disputed property. * * * The Watsons kept a close watch and no trespasser escaped for any length of time, * * *. Mrs. Irene Young Watson re^ [140]*140tained open and unequivocal possession of that part of the property which is now in dispute and up to the visible boundary made by Womack, the surveyor, in 1891, and which was still visible. Mrs. Irene Young Watson, and her heirs, appellees herein, have done more than just depend on the visible boundary line by constantly and at frequent intervals guarding the property against trespass and notifying contiguous owners at every opportunity that they claim all property to the Womack line. * * * ”

In addition to the aforementioned circumstances mentioned by the Court of Appeal the record specifically shows that between 1941 and 1943 Newton Starns (one of defendant’s ancestors in title) commenced to erect a fence north of the Womach line, but before the fence’s completion he moved it to the boundary claimed by the Watsons because of their protests. Again, purchasers of timber from defendant’s ancestors in title were never permitted by the Watsons to cut north of the Womack line; rather, in fact, Mrs. Watson made several sales of timber from the entire disputed tract prior to her death.

Therefore, we conclude, as did the Court of Appeal, that continuously for more than 30 years from and after 1902 Mrs. Watson maintained open, notorious, corporeal possession as owner of the property in question.

But the defendant urges that, despite the possession enjoyed by Mrs. Watson, these plaintiffs (her heirs) cannot rely on the 30 years’ prescription for the reason that the disputed tract was not enclosed by suitable boundary markings, it invoking the provisions of Article 826 of the Revised Civil Code which read: “By boundary is understood, in general, every separation, natural or artificial, which marks the confines or line of division of two contiguous estates. Trees or hedges may be planted, ditches may be dug, walls or inclosures may be erected, to serve as boundaries.

“But we most usually understand by boundaries, stones or pieces of wood inserted in the earth on the confines of two estates.”

In Hill v. Richey et al., 221 La. 402, 59 So.2d 434, 439 we discussed at length the question of whether there need be “enclosures” when the property has been actually possessed for a period of 30 years and, during the course of the discussion, said: “In the articles of our Code dealing with this prescription of 30 years, Articles 3499 through 3505, both inclusive, there is nothing which limits it to land possessed by enclosures for a period of 30 years. The only restriction is that announced in Article 3503 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’.”

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Bluebook (online)
124 So. 2d 138, 240 La. 500, 1960 La. LEXIS 1052, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/watson-v-crown-zellerbach-corp-la-1960.