Woodcock v. Baldwin

34 So. 440, 110 La. 270, 1902 La. LEXIS 189
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 17, 1902
DocketNo. 14,104
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 34 So. 440 (Woodcock v. Baldwin) 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
Woodcock v. Baldwin, 34 So. 440, 110 La. 270, 1902 La. LEXIS 189 (La. 1902).

Opinion

BLANCHARD, J.

Plaintiff’s action is for the recovery of money due as rents or compensation for the detention, occupation and use by defendant of property belonging to him (plaintiff).

In September, 1896, defendant purchased at sheriff’s sale certain property in the Square bounded by Napoleon avenue, Dryades, Baronne and Berlin Streets in the City of New Orleans.

The owner of the property so purchased had been W. F. Fulham, who had mortgaged it, and the sheriff’s sale took place in foreclosure of the mortgage.

Fulham owned at the time other property in the Square and this other property he sold in October, 1896, to the plaintiff.

Fulham had improved the imoperty he owned in the Square, erected houses, etc., but in doing so was not particular as to where he located the improvements with respect to the boundary lines of the lots into which the Square was subdivided. That is to say, it appears that some of the houses he erected would be partly on one lot and partly on another.

But he mortgaged the property by lots and the sheriff’s sale, of course, followed this designation. It thus happened that when Baldwin, the purchaser at sheriff’s sale, came to take possession, and Woodcock, the purchaser at private sale of the remainder of the property owned by Fulham in the Square, came to take possession, clash between them occurred.

Baldwin found that a residence supposed to be located on Lot 5, which he had purchased, was claimed by Woodcock to extend in part over on Lot 4 which he had purchased. And the same contention was made in respect to the house erected on Lot 8, which Baldwin had purchased. Woodcock claimed it extended over on a strip of ground adjoining which he had purchased.

So, too, as to certain out houses appurtenant to the residences Baldwin had purchased. It was claimed by Woodcock that the same were located on lots and parts of lots in the rear of such residences, which he had bought.

It seems Woodcock was seeking to assert his right of entry upon and possession of the property embraced within the description of his deed from Fulham, when he was arrested by injunction sued out by Baldwin.

In his petition for injunction Baldwin gave the description of the property he had purchased at the sheriff’s sale and none other, and averred his possession of the premises, which possession, he said, was being disturbed and his title slandered by Woodcock.

His prayer was that Woodcock and his agent be enjoined from entering upon the premises described in the petition, from denying his (Baldwin’s) title to same, from interfering with the fences as then located, from injuring any of the buildings, from disturbing his (Baldwin’s) tenants, and that he (Baldwin) be maintained and quieted in his possession.

That litigation resulted in a judgment maintaining and perpetuating the injunction, prohibiting and restraining Woodcock from entering on any part of the property described in Baldwin’s petition and from denying his title thereto, or disturbing his tenants in their possession thereof. The judgment further decreed that Woodcock had slandered Baldwin’s title to the property described, and it was ordered that Baldwin be quieted in his possession of the same, “all without prejudice,” says the judgment, “to the trial of title to property in the suit pend[274]*274ing before Division ‘A’ of the Civil District Court between the same parties.”

It seems that Baldwin’s suit, as above, for injunction was followed, a few days later, by a suit by Woodcock against Baldwin, and this was the suit referred to by the judgment in Baldwin’s case.

That counter suit of Woodcock was a petitory action to be declared the owner and put into possession of the property he had purchased from Fulham.

The petition declared that Baldwin, claiming to be owner of portions of same, had taken possession thereof and refused to recognize his (Woodcock’s) right thereto, or to surrender him the possession thereof. It averred that for his detention of the property Baldwin owed him (Woodcock) rents in certain sums named.

The prayer was for judgment decreeing Woodcock the owner of the property described in the petition and putting him into possession thereof, and condemning Baldwin to pay rents as claimed in the petition.

The result of this suit in the District Court was that Woodcock was decreed the owner of the property described in his -petition. The portion, however, of the house, located mainly on Lot 5, owned by Baldwin, which extended over on Lot 4, owned by Woodcock, and the portion of the house, located mainly on Lot 8, owned by Baldwin, which extended over on the adjoining strip of ground owned by Woodcock, were excepted from the operation of the judgment, and it was decreed that Lot 4 and the strip of ground aforesaid was subject in Baldwin’s favor to the servitude of use and habitation to the distance that the two houses, respectively, rested upon said lot and said strip — this servitude to endure only so long as the houses remained standing and no longer.

With regard to Woodcock’s demand for rents, the judgment in that ease dismissed the same as in case of nonsuit, except as to those portions of the property decreed subject to the servitudes aforesaid. The demand for rents as to the excepted portions, -while not in precise terms rejected, such undoubtedly was the intention of the judgment.

Baldwin appealed from the judgment thus rendered and the appeal was determined in this Court in May, 1899. (See 51 La. Ann. 990, 26 South. 46, where a full history of the controversy between these parties is given, and the issues more elaborately stated than is deemed necessary to state herein, and where a plat showing the properties and the divisional lines thereof acquired by Baldwin and Woodcock, respectively, is given.)

The result of the appeal was that the judgment of the court a qua was amended so as to =make the servitude on the portion of Lot 4 occupied by the residence situated in the main on Lot 5, and the servitude on the portion of the strip of ground adjoining Lot 8 occupied by the residence situated in the main on said Lot 8, continuous, instead of limited to the life of the buildings.

It was not until the final determination of the suit last discussed that Woodcock was permitted to enter upon the possession of the property he had acquired from Fulham on October 10, 1896.

He obtained this possession on July 6, 1899.

The evidence establishes that defendant Baldwin had possession of the same until the last mentioned date, and it is for the rental value of the property during the time of his possession of it that this suit is brought.

From a judgment in favor of plaintiff; for $238.45, Baldwin prosecutes this appeal, and in this Court plaintiff files answer to the appeal praying that the judgment appealed from be amended by increasing its amount to $2,628.85, which is the full amount sued for.

The exceptions interposed of no cause of action and want of right on part of plaintiff to stand in judgment have no force.

Res judicata was pleaded, the contention in this regard being that the judgment in the injunction suit heretofore referred to of Baldwin vs. Woodcock constitutes the authority of the thing adjudged.

We do not think the plea good for two reasons, (1) because the only

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Bluebook (online)
34 So. 440, 110 La. 270, 1902 La. LEXIS 189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodcock-v-baldwin-la-1902.