Snelling v. Adair

• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: FOURNET, Justice.
• Citation: Snelling v. Adair, 196 La. 624, 199 So. 782 (La. 1940)
• Decision Date: 02 December 1940
• Docket Number: 35818.
• Parties: SNELLING v. ADAIR et al.

199 So. 782

196 La. 624

SNELLING v. ADAIR et al.

No. 35818.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

December 2, 1940

Rehearing Denied Jan. 6, 1941.

Appeal from Twelfth Judicial Distirct Court, Parish of Avoyelles; C R. Bordelon, Judge.

Suit by Mrs. Elizabeth Snelling against Mrs. Emma C. Adair and another heir of Max Chamberlain, deceased, and against the heirs of Charles A. Knoll and others, to establish title to certain land. From a judgment declaring plaintiff to be the owner of an undivided half interest and the heirs of Charles A. Knoll to be the owners of the other half, the Knoll heirs appeal, and the Chamberlain heirs filed an answer asking that the judgment be amended so as to award them a half interest in the property.

Amended and affirmed.

White, Holloman & White, of Alexandria, for plaintiff and appellee.

Peterman, Hunter & Neilson, of Alexandria, Wiley R Jones, of Colfax, and Ward T. Jones, of Alexandria, for defendants and appellees.

Laborde & Edwards, of Marksville, Ellis & Bostick, of Amite, Julius B. Nachman, of Alexandria, and Smitherman & Smitherman, of Shreveport, for defendants and appellants the heirs of Charles A. Knoll.

FOURNET, Justice.

The plaintiff instituted this suit under Act No. 38 of 1908 to establish title to 30 acres of land located in what is known as the Eola Oil Field-being the west 30 acres of the E1/2 of the NE1/4 of Section 6, Township 2 South, Range 3 East, Avoyelles Parish-alleging that the property was not in the actual possession of anyone but was being claimed by the heirs of Max Chamberlain and the heirs of Charles A. Knoll. The lessees of the several defendants were also made parties to these proceedings.

In answer to plaintiff's action the defendants Mrs. Emma C. Adair and Mrs. Elizabeth C. Baker asserted title to a half interest in the property by virtue of their inheritance from Max Chamberlain, who had acquired the same by deed from plaintiff's father, James Murdock Murph, which interest, according to their allegation, had never been disposed of either by Chamberlain or by them. The remaining defendants, other than the lessees, likewise deraigning their title from plaintiff's father since their ancestor, Charles A. Knoll, had acquired the property from Max Chamberlain, filed pleas of prescription acquirendi causa of ten and thirty years and also pleas of acquiesence, ratification, and estoppel.

The trial judge, without passing on the pleas of acquiescence, ratification, and estoppel, overruled the pleas of prescription and adjudged the plaintiff to be the owner of an undivided half interest in the property, and the heirs of Charles A. Knoll to be the owners of the Charles A. Knoll to be the owners of the other half. The heirs of Chamberlain and the heirs of Knoll both obtained orders of appeal from this judgment, but only the heirs of Knoll perfected the same. After the appeal was lodged here, however, the Chamberlain heirs filed an answer asking that the judgment be amended so as to reject the claims of the Knoll heirs to the property in its entirety at their (the Knoll heirs') cost, and that they (the heirs of Chamberlain) be decreed to be the owners in indivision of a half interest in the property.

The Knoll heirs contended, both orally and in brief, that the Chamberlain heirs, having failed to perfect their appeal, ‘ cannot make themselves parties to this appeal by terming themselves appellees and filing a pretended answer to the appeal by these appellants from the judgment [appealed from].’ (Brackets ours.)

The record discloses that James Murdock Murph acquired title to Lot No. 1, or the E1/2 of the NE1/4 of Section 6, T. 2 S., R. 3 E., on August 10, 1870, from the descendants and heirs of the original patentee, and that on February 25, 1882, Lewis W. Murdock, by virtue of a power of attorney from Murph, executed a deed in favor of Max Chamberlain transferring, together with other property, an undivided half interest therein. Subsequently, on December 23, 1909, Chamberlain executed a deed to Charles A. Knoll covering his ‘ entire holdings of land in Avoyelles Parish, State of La., and being more fully described as follows: 1st. * * * 2nd. * * * 3rd. A certain tract of woodland * * * situated in the swamp between Bunkie and Eola and lying west of the Louisiana East and West Rail Road containing Thirty (30) acres more or less, and being bounded North by lands of Robert Tubre, South and East by lands of Robert D. Windes, and West by lands of Billy Moore.’

It is admitted by all of the parties that the plaintiff is the sole and only heir of James Murdock Murph; that the defendants Mrs. Emma C. Adair and Mrs. Elizabeth C. Baker are the sole and only living heirs of Max Chamberlain, who died on April 28, 1912; and that the remaining defendants (not including the lessees), some forty-two in number, are the sole and only heirs of Charles A. Knoll, who died on February 11, 1933.

Plaintiff now concedes that her father, by the deed of February 25, 1882, transferred to Chamberlain a half interest in the property in controversy. It is her contention, however, in which she is joined by the heirs of Chamberlain, that since the deed from Chamberlain to Knoll recites that the property is located in the swamps between Bunkie and Eola on the west side of the Louisiana East and West Railroad, when in fact the E1/2 of the NE1/4 of Section 6, wherein the 30-acre tract in controversy is actually situated, is east of the railroad referred to, plaintiff's interest in the property is not affected by the deed, and no evidence is admissible to alter or change her rights in the premises; that the only way in which this evidence could have been introduced would have been by an action to reform the deed on the ground of error or fraud, which action, she specifically pleads, is prescribed under Article 3544 of the Revised Civil Code. She further contends that the deed, being defective for want of proper description of the property, is not a deed translative of title sufficient to support the prescription acquirendi causa of ten years and, in the alternative, that the Knoll heirs have failed to prove the possession neceassary to establish title by prescription according to the requirements of the Revised Civil Code and the jurisprudence thereunder.

On the other hand, the Knoll heirs, claiming title to the property in controversy by virtue of the deed from Chamberlain to Knoll, contend: (1) That although the act of sale from plaintiff's ancestor to their author in title (Chamberlain) specifically declared only a half interest in the property is being conveyed to Chamberlain, he, nevertheless, became the owner of the other half interest in the property, since it is stipulated in the final clause of the act of conveyance that ‘ All the lands in the said Parish belonging to James Murdock Murph, whether described in this sale or not, are hereby transferred to the said Max Chamberlain; ’ (2) that at the time Chamberlain acquired from Murph a half interest in the 80-acre tract of land (Lot No. 1, E1/2 of NE1/4, Section 6, T. 2 S., R. 3 E.) his vendor had previously donated 50 acres thereof to Lewis Murdock and by a partition had between Chamberlain and the purchaser at a syndic sale of the property donated to Murdock, Chamberlain took the west 30 acres (being the property described in the deed by boundaries from Chamberlain to Knoll) and Rawlins, the purchaser at the syndic sale, took the remaining 50 acres to the east; (3) that the plaintiff is estopped from asserting title to any interest in the property for the reason that she and her father had, by their silence and inaction over a long period of years, acquiesced in Chamberlain's actions and ratified Knoll's title to the entire tract conveyed by Chamberlain; and (4) that in the alternative they claim title by virtue of the prescriptions of ten and thirty years acquirendi causa.

‘ Generally speaking, the cardinal rule in the interpretation of contracts is to ascertain the intention of the parties and to give effect to that intention if it can be done consistently with legal principles. * * * In other words, the object to be attained in construing a contract is to ascertain the meaning and intent of the parties as expressed in the language used.’ 6 R.C.L., Permanent Supplement Edition, 834, Section 225. With further reference to the interpretation of contracts, see, also, Articles 1945, 1950, 1951, 1955, and 1959 of the Revised Civil Code, and the following authorities; Delogny v. David, 12 La.Ann. 30; Larguier v. White, 29 La.Ann. 156; Ker v. Evershed, 41 La.Ann. 15, 6 So. 566; Succession of Bellande, 42 La.Ann. 241, 7 So. 535; Lozes v. Segura Sugar Co., 52 La.Ann. 1844, 28 So. 249; Bender v. Chew, 129 La. 849, 56 So. 1023; Interstate Trust & Banking Co. v. Liquidators of People's Bank & Trust Co., 143 La. 574, 78 So. 968; Bank of Napoleonville v. Knobloch & Rainold, 144 La. 100, 80 So. 214; Rodgers v. S. H. Bolinger Co., 149 La. 545, 89 So. 688; Clement v. Dunn, 168 La. 394, 122 So. 122; Boisseau v. Vallon & Jordano, Inc., 174 La. 492, 141 So. 38; Smith v. Chappell, 177 La. 311, 148 So. 242; South Port Corp. v. Olivier & Sons, 179 La. 233, 153 So. 825; General Talking Picture Corp. v. Pine Tree Amusement Co., 180 La. 529, 156 So. 812; Union Tank Car Co. v. Louisiana Oil Rfg. Corp., 184 La. 121, 165 So. 638; Bremer v. Lane, 185 La. 543, 169 So. 568; Gibson v. Zylks, 186 La. 1043, 173 So. 757; Noel Estate v. Kansas City Southern & Gulf Ry. Co., 187 La. 717, 175 So. 468; Reynaud v. Bullock, 195 La. 86, 196 So. 29; 16 American Jurisprudence 599, Section 285; 13 Corpus Juris 520, §§ 481, 482, 486, 497, 17 C. J.S., Contracts, §§ 294, 295, 297, 309; 13 Cyc. page 601, § 1 (c), page 627, (e); and 6 R.C.L. 837, Sections 227, 231.

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