97-1056 La.App. 3 Cir. 3/6/98, King's Farm, Inc. v. Concordia Parish Police Jury

• Decision Date: 06 March 1998
• Citation: 709 So.2d 953
• Parties: 97-1056 La.App. 3 Cir
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 953

709 So.2d 953

97-1056 La.App. 3 Cir. 3/6/98

KING'S FARM, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CONCORDIA PARISH POLICE JURY, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 97-1056.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana Third Circuit.

March 6, 1998.

Rehearing Denied April 28, 1998.

Virgil Russell Purvis, Jr., Jonesville, for King's Farm, Inc.

Madeline Cross Gibbs, Asst. Dist. Atty., for Concordia Parish Police Jury.

Before YELVERTON, THIBODEAUX and PETERS, JJ.

[97-1056 La.App. 3 Cir. 1] YELVERTON, Judge.

This appeal is from an action brought by King's Farm, Inc. (King's Farm) to have a boundary between properties owned by it and the Concordia Parish Police Jury judicially determined. The land in dispute is a 105.78 acre tract of land situated in Township 7 North, Range 7 East (T7N-R7E), Concordia Parish, Louisiana. Black Lake, stipulated by the parties to have always been non-navigable, encloses several hundred acres within its meander lines as shown on the Government Land Office Township Map of 1842. The land in dispute is on the north bank of Black Lake. King's Farm owns 110.90 acres in the northeast corner of Section 14 of the township [97-1056 La.App. 3 Cir. 2] down to the meander line of the lake. There is some considerable distance between the meander line of the lake, as shown on old government surveys, and the north shore of the lake itself. Between the meander line and the north shore line there is a strip of land across Section 14 containing an area approaching 200 acres. The eastern 105.78 acres of that strip is the land in dispute. It was stipulated that the police jury owns Black Lake, the property to the south of the land in dispute. The trial court held that the boundary should be set on the southern boundary of the land in dispute, thus ruling in favor of King's Farm. The police jury appeals. We reverse and render judgment in favor of the police jury fixing the boundary as the north meander line of Black Lake as shown on the government township map of 1842.

We will use an enlarged tracing of Section 14 as shown on the 1842 township map to show approximately where the disputed area is. We do this solely for the benefit of the reader's better understanding of the problem. The 1842 map reflects an 1838 subdivision by the government of the public land, or upland of Section 14, into five lots. Four of these lots, numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, lie across the north portion of Section 14 north of Black Lake. These lots contain 213.9 acres. Lot 5 lies to the southwest, across Black Lake, in the extreme southwest corner of Section 14. It contains 7.1 acres. Our tracing of Section 14 from the 1842 survey depicts these lots and the acreage of each. Using King's Farm's Exhibit No. 1, a survey of the disputed area, we have drawn in, for illustrative purposes only, an outline of the disputed area represented by dash lines on the west and south sides, the meander line on the north, and the section line on the east [97-1056 La.App. 3 Cir. 3]

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINS TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

Boundary Action

King's Farm contends that it has been in possession of the 105.78 acre disputed area since only as recently as 1992, when it acquired Lots 1 and 2 of Section 14 to the north of the disputed area. King's Farm does not seriously claim title. The police jury claims ownership under a title going back to 1853 under a patent from the United States which, by the formalities proclaimed by patents, recognized the separation of the property from the public domain.

The precise issue is whether the police jury proved ownership of the land in dispute in this boundary action. In a boundary action, the court must fix the [97-1056 La.App. 3 Cir. 4] boundary according to the ownership of the parties. La.Civ.Code art. 792. If neither party proves ownership, the court must fix the boundary according to possession. Id. A political subdivision of the state, including a police jury, cannot acquire property through acquisitive prescription. Parish of Jefferson v. Bonnabel Properties, 620 So.2d 1168 (La.1993). Thus, for a court to fix the boundary in favor of a police jury, it must find that the police jury has proved ownership of the property within the boundary. When both parties rely on titles only, the boundary shall be fixed according to titles. La.Civ.Code art. 793. When the parties trace their titles to a common author preference shall be given to the more ancient title. Id. In a boundary action, "[a] party that proves ownership by an unbroken chain of transfers from a previous owner or by virtue from a more ancient title from a common author prevails, unless the adverse party proves ownership by acquisitive prescription." Yiannopoulos, Property, § 268 in 2 La.Civ.L. Treatise 527 (3rd ed. 1991). A patent regularly issued by the government is the best and only perfect title. Young v. Miller, 125 So.2d 257 (La.App. 3 Cir.1960). In this case the police jury claims to have acquired ownership through an unbroken chain of title going back to the separation of the property from the public domain.

The trial court found that the land in dispute was not a part of Section 14 in T7N-R7E and, therefore, was not included in the police jury's title. As we will explain, this finding of fact was clear error because the public records reveal that the police jury became the owner of all but 7.1 acres of Section 14 of the township by a title traceable to the patent and that its ownership includes the land in dispute.

The trial judge also found that King's Farm had failed to establish ownership to the land in dispute either through title or acquisitive prescription of thirty years, but that it had established facts sufficient to prove actual possession of the [97-1056 La.App. 3 Cir. 5] disputed property for over one year, i.e., since its acquisition of the property north of it in 1992. The trial court therefore fixed the boundary according to King's Farm's possession, which was to the southern boundary of the land in dispute, the southern boundary being the water's edge of Black Lake.

The trial court's finding that King's Farm did not prove ownership of the disputed strip is correct, and that is not an issue before us. Because of our resolution of this case in favor of the police jury, King's Farm's possession is not an issue either, and we will not discuss it.

The Police Jury's Title Chain

It is axiomatic that titles are based on public records, and according to the public records of Concordia Parish, the police jury's title begins with a patent from the United States issued to Thomas Curry and Rice Garland on October 1, 1853. The patent was based upon a confirmation judgment granted Curry & Garland by the United States District Court for the District of Louisiana in 1846. Their title was confirmed to land conveyed, under a Spanish Grant to Louis Bringier, before the Louisiana Purchase. The patent was based on a survey, and the land included nearly all of T7N-R7E and all of Section 14 of that township. The property recognized in the patent was meticulously described both in arpents and in acres. Other parties acquired undivided interests in the Bringier Grant, and on July 10, 1855, the Bringier land was sold at a sale by licitation to effectuate a partition. The Estate of William C. Micou, one of the co-owners, was the purchaser out of T7N-R7E of "All of section fourteen in the same township & range (except a small fraction in the South West corner) containing Six hundred & thirty-two 90/100 acres."

[97-1056 La.App. 3 Cir. 6] On November 11, 1856, the Estate of William Micou conveyed out "of Township Seven, Range Seven East ... all of Section Fourteen in the same Township and Range (except seven 10/100 in the South West corner thereof) containing Six hundred and thirty-two 90/100 at the price of Nineteen hundred and Sixty Seven dollars for the Section." The conveyance was to the Police Jury of Concordia, and it is recorded in Conveyance Book N at page 87 of the public records of Concordia Parish.

Retired Judge W.C. Falkenheiner testified at the trial of this case as an expert for the police jury. It was stipulated that he was an expert title examiner (not, as referred to in King's Farm's brief, an expert title abstractor ). He testified that during the 1950s, before he was elected to the bench, he represented oil companies which leased this property from the police jury for oil and gas exploration and that he became very familiar with the property at that time. After retiring from the bench, he did further legal work involving the property. He reviewed some 21 exhibits in evidence which constitute the chain of title.

Judge Falkenheiner was the only expert in title examinations to testify in the case. His qualifications as an expert were never disputed. We have carefully reviewed the exhibits constituting the chain of title, and we find that Judge Falkenheiner correctly interpreted the public records and was correct in his legal opinion that the police jury is the record owner of this property today.

Judge Falkenheiner explained this chain and stated that when the police jury acquired the property, it acquired all of Section 14 as shown on an 1842 government survey of the township. The only exception was 7.1 acres in the southwest quarter. Its acquisition by conveyance was stated in the deed to be 632.9 acres. This township plat shows two big geographical features named Cypress Brake and Black [97-1056 La.App. 3 Cir. 7] Lake. As to Section 14, the 1842 plat shows 221 acres of public land consisting of a subdivision creating Lots 1 and 2 of the fractional Northeast Quarter, Lots 3 and 4 of the fractional Northwest Quarter, and the 7.1 acre Lot 5 in the Southwest Quarter. Judge Falkenheiner interpreted the dimensions of Section 14 on the plat to be a regular section containing 640 acres. He compared Section 14 containing Black Lake to other parts of the township plat, notably the sections containing Cypress Brake, which was also part of his...