Parish of Caddo v. Parrish of Bossier

• Decision Date: 11 July 1927
• Docket Number: 28558
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: PARISH OF CADDO v. PARRISH OF BOSSIER

113 So. 882

164 La. 378

PARISH OF CADDO v. PARRISH OF BOSSIER

No. 28558

Supreme Court of Louisiana

July 11, 1927

Appeal from First Judicial District Court, Parish of Caddo; E. P Mills, Judge. Suit by the Parish of Caddo against the Parish of Bossier. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.

Judgment set aside for the purpose of recasting it, and judgment rendered for plaintiff.

A. S Drew and A. M. Wallace, both of Minden, for appellant.

Aubrey M. Pyburn, of Shreveport, for appellee.

OPINION

OVERTON, J.

A dispute arose between the parishes of Caddo and Bossier with respect to the correct boundary between them in section 9, 15, 16, and 21, the territory in dispute being Shreve Island. Because of this dispute, surveyors were appointed, pursuant to the provision of section 2624 et seq. of the Revised Statutes, to ascertain the correct boundary line. The surveyors proceeded to discharge their duties. H. L. Mitchell, the surveyor for Caddo parish, found the boundary at the point in dispute to be Red river as that river presently runs. This placed Shreve Island in the parish of Caddo. Witbeck, the surveyor for Bossier parish, found the boundary at the point in controversy to be what is now known as Old river, which, until some time in 1835, was the bed of Red river. This finding placed Shreve Island in the parish of Bossier. Both surveyors filed their returns, and, since they failed to agree, the present suit to establish the boundary line, at that point, between the two parishes, was instituted.

In 1835, Red river, at the point in controversy, made almost a complete loop. In what year Captain Henry M. Shreve, a civil engineer, was engaged in removing the great raft, which obstructed a considerable section of the river, including that part of the river in the locality in question. An account of this raft is given in State v. Bozeman, 156 La. 635, 644, 101 So. 4. While thus engaged, Captain Shreve conceived the idea of cutting a canal across the neck of land formed by the almost complete loop, mentioned above. The cutting of the canal required an excavation of approximately 201 yards in length, 8 yards wide, except in a low flat bottom at the lower end, where an excavation 100 feet wide was required. The canal was dug 9 feet deep throughout, was finished on April 2, 1835, and water was permitted to run through it on May 13, 1835. It appears from the report of Captain Shreve, made to the chief of engineers, at Washington, from which the foregoing facts are taken, that on May 16, 1835, three keel boats passed through the canal, and that ten days later two steamboats passed through it. At the time of the passage of the steamboats the canal was upwards of 200 feet wide and 30 feet deep, this being approximately the width and depth of the channel of the river. From that time to the present Red river has run through the canal. What was the canal is now the continuation of Red river, and has been since 1835. What was Red river in that locality prior to April, 1835, is now commonly referred to as Old river, and, when the canal was dug, was not in a condition to be navigated, due to the presence there of a part of the great raft, which condition, we take it, existed when the parishes of Caddo and Bossier were created. The effect of digging the canal was not only to change the course of Red river at that point, but was to shorten it approximately 8 miles, and to make the body of land, which lay in the bend of the river, as it formerly flowed, an island, known as Shreve Island. It is over this island that the controversy here has arisen, the parish of Caddo claiming the right to exercise jurisdiction over it and the parish of Bossier claiming the same right. We insert at this point a plat, which may serve to give a better idea of the situation.

[SEE FIGURE IN ORIGINAL]

When the canal was drug in 1835, neither the parishes of Caddo nor Bossler had been created. What is now Shreve Island was in the parish of Claiborne; Red river, as it then ran, or what is not referred to as Old river, being at that time of the western boundary of that part of Claiborne parish. Act 42 of 1828. The island, of course, remained a part of Claiborne parish until it was made a part of another parish by legislative act.

The parish of Caddo was created by Act of January 18, 1838, No 15, p. 11, nearly three years after the course of Red river had been changed. Section 1 of the act defines the boundaries of the new parish, and reads as follows:

"That all that territory within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning on the southwest side of Red river, where the township line between to townships twelve (12) and thirteen (13) strikes the same due west, to the southwest bank of Bayou Pierre Lake: thence up said lake thence up said bayou to the most western part of Messrs. Bouduge and Vascocu's plantations; thence by a due south line until it intersects a direct line running from said western bank of Bayou Pierre lake to the Sabine river, where the line between townships nine and ten strikes the same; thence pursuing the boundary line of the United States to Red river and down the same to the point of beginning, to form and constitute a new parish, to be called the parish of Caddo." (Italics ours).

Defendant relies on four sections in this act as tending to show that the parish of Caddo was created entirely out of a part of the parish of Natchitoches, and hence did not include Shreve Island, which was then in the parish of Claiborne. These sections read as follows:

"Section 8. Be it further enacted, etc., that the parish of Caddo shall remain united with the parish of Natchitoches in elections for all state and federal officers, and the parish judge and commissioners of elections shall, immediately after the polls are closed, transmit a certified statement of the vote of the parish of Caddo to the parish judge of Natchitoches, who shall receive and count the same as a part of the vote of the latter parish.

"Section 9. Be it further enacted, etc., that the parish of Caddo shall receive no portion of the land credits or other property belonging to the parish of Natchitoches.

"Section 11. Be it further enacted, etc., that the parish judge of Natchitoches shall forthwith furnish to the state treasurer a list of the names of all electors embraced within the limits specified in the first section of this act; and the state treasurer, before paying to the directors of the parish schools of Natchitoches, shall deduct two and five-eights dollars for each elector included in the aforesaid list, which shall be paid over, on the warrant of the president of the police jury of the parish of Caddo, for the use of schools therein.

"Section 12. And be it further enacted, etc., that the sheriff of the parish of Caddo, shall collect the state taxes against the citizens residing within the limits of the new parish, and to enable him to do so, the sheriff of Natchitoches shall furnish him with a certified list of the names of such persons in the new parish as may have been assessed, together with the amount of tax standing against them, which taxes, as fast as collected, shall be paid over by the sheriff of Caddo to the state treasurer."

The parish of Bossier was created five years after the creation of the parish of Caddo by Act 33 of 1843. The first section of the act defines the boundaries of the new parish, and reads as follows:

"That all that portion or tract of country in the Parish of Claiborne bordering on Red river and bounded as follows, to wit:

"Starting at the mouth of Logy...