Title: Pure Oil Company v. Skinner

State: louisiana

Issuer: Louisiana Supreme Court

Document:

294 So. 2d 797 (1974) The PURE OIL COMPANY v. Henry Carl SKINNER et al. Henry Carl SKINNER et al. v. W. Clayton SIMONTON et al. Nos. 54087, 54088. Supreme Court of Louisiana. April 29, 1974. Rehearing Denied June 7, 1974. *798 John M. Shuey, Shuey, Smith & Carlton, Shreveport, for defendants-applicants. Bobby L. Culpepper, Donald C. Brown, Holloway, Baker, Culpepper & Brunson, Jonesboro, Ray A. Barlow, Hargrove, Guyton, Ramey & Barlow, Shreveport, for plaintiff-respondent. BARHAM, Justice. We granted writs (285 So. 2d 541 (La. 1973)) to review the decision of the Court of Appeal on the issue of a plaintiff's burden of proof in a real action when defendant is the possessor of the property in controversy. Defendants, the relators in these cases, contended in their writ applications that the decisions of the Court of Appeal (284 So. 2d 608, 284 So. 2d 614 (La.App.2d Cir. 1973)) conflict with that of the Third Circuit in Deselle v. Bonnette, 251 So. 2d 68 (La.App.3d Cir. 1971), wherein it was held that in a petitory action against a defendant in possession, a plaintiff must make out his title to the property in dispute without regard to the title of the party in possession. The Court of Appeal in the instant cases held that respondents, the parties claiming title or ownership of the disputed land against adverse claimants in possession without a deed translative of title, did not have to prove a title good against the world but only had to prove better title than relators. The issues in the instant cases were first presented for consideration in 1961 when The Pure Oil Company, which had oil, gas and mineral leases covering the disputed property from both claimants, instituted a concursus proceeding by depositing royalties attributable to the property in controversy in the registry of the court and citing both relators and respondents to assert their respective interests. Subsequent to the institution of the concursus proceedings, respondents instituted a boundary action against the relators and, by stipulation, the parties agreed that judgment rendered in the concursus proceedings would be determinative of the issues in the boundary action. The one and one-half acres tract of land, the ownership of which is the subject of the controversy, is claimed under two chains of title. It was established in the lower courts to their satisfaction, and to ours, that neither respondents nor relators have valid record title to the property in dispute. Code of Civil Procedure Article 3654 provides: The record in this case establishes, and it is undisputed, that the relators have possessed the property in question since 1947. Therefore, it is clear that the burden of proof placed on respondents is greater than that provided in Code of Civil Procedure Article 3654(2), the burden of proving a better title. The statutory imposition of a higher burden of proof than simply proving better title when an adverse claimant is in possession of disputed land leads to the *799 inevitable conclusion that respondent's burden was to "make out his title thereto." In other words, respondents were required to prove valid record title, to show title good against the world without regard to the title of the party in possession. C.C.P. Arts. 3653, 3654. See 2 A. Yiannopoulos, Louisiana Civil Law Treatise, § 137 (1967); 35 Tul.L.Rev. 541, at 547 (1961). This respondents have failed to do. The record reveals that there is a 16-year break in the title of the respondents from 1858, when an entry by Charles M. Cawthoon from the United States Government is recorded, to 1874, when conveyance of the subject property from Jeremiah Payne to Elizabeth J. Colvin was recorded. Upon oral argument, in response to an inquiry by the Court, respondents contended that they had established acquisition of prescriptive title to the property in dispute prior to 1947, when relators entered into possession of the tract in dispute. The state of the record, however, does not support this contention of respondents and there is no holding by the lower courts to this effect. Respondents, therefore, have not established either valid record title or prescriptive title to the property in dispute. Hutton v. Adkins, 186 So. 908 (La.App. 2d Cir. 1939), the case relied upon by the Court of Appeal for the holding that relators were required only to prove better title than respondent who was in possession without a deed translative of title, is hereby overruled. The judgments of the lower courts are reversed and it is ordered, adjudged and decreed that there be judgment herein in favor of the relators, Felix L. Simonton, Lula Bell Simonton Fish, Hattie Simonton Sample, Edwin S. Keasler, David A. Keasler, Jr., James R. Keasler and Rose Villa Plantations, Incorporated, decreeing that they are declared owners of the following described property:[*] It is further ordered that all costs are assessed against respondents, Henry Carl Skinner and Henry Carl Skinner, Jr. Reversed and rendered. SUMMERS and MARCUS, JJ., dissent and assign reasons. MARCUS, Justice (dissenting). I respectfully dissent. I agree with the opinion of the Court of Appeal. 284 So. 2d 608 (La.App.1973). SUMMERS, Justice (dissenting). The Skinners in these proceedings are the parties out of possession of the disputed lands. They are claiming title against the Simontons, the parties who have been in possession for more than one year. The trial court and Court of Appeal have found that the deed under which the Simontons are claiming is not translative of title. Apparently the majority agrees with this finding. I agree also, and I shall therefore consider the Simontons as mere possessors. The only fault, if it can be considered such, in the chain of title asserted by the Skinners is a missing link between the original entry from the United States Government by Charles M. Cawthoon in 1858 and a deed from Jeremiah Payne to Elizabeth J. Calvin in February 1874, a period of sixteen years. However, as the trial judge found, *800 After 1874 the links in the Skinner chain of title are complete. Their ownership was never brought into question until the Simontons enclosed the disputed one and one-half acres in 1947. Since the concursus proceeding provoked these adverse claims between the Skinners and Simontons in 1961, the issues formed by the pleadings have assumed the character of a petitory action, with the Skinners, out of possession, claiming title against the Simontons, who are in possession but without semblance of title. The first error committed by the majority is its decree that the Simontons are the owners of the property. In the posture in which the pleadings place the parties, the possessors can only be maintained in their right to possession, and, perhaps, be decreed entitled to the funds on deposit by virtue of the concursus proceedings. La. Code Civ. P. art. 3654. They assuredly cannot be decreed the owners of property when the majority has found that the possessors have no "valid" title. Moreover, on the record before us, I would say that the Skinners have a title good and valid against the world. They have a complete and unbroken chain of title from 1874 to date. Their possession was disturbed in 1947 and, since these adverse claims were asserted in 1961 when this concursus proceeding was filed, there is no question of an adverse title in the Simontons acquired by the prescription of thirty years. More importantly, however, the majority is further in error when it imposes upon the Skinners, plaintiffs in a petitory action, who are out of possession, claiming title as against the Simontons who are possessors without title, the obligation "to prove a valid record title, to show title good against the world without regard to the title of the party in possession." Under this stringent requirement the majority has held that the break in the chain of the Skinner title from 1858 to 1874 denies them the title requisite to maintain their petitory action. The requirements of proof of title imposed upon a plaintiff in a petitory action were not changed by the enactment of Article 3654 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Under that article the possessor is entitled to be maintained in possession unless the adverse party "makes out his title" to the immovable or real right in question. Article 3653(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure utilizes the identical language: In addition, in a "Summary of Procedural Changes in Chapter 1" by Henry G. McMahon, appearing prior to the codal articles relating to real actions, this statement is found: "Art. 3653 makes no change in the burden of proof imposed on the plaintiff when the defendant is in possession." Article 44 of the Code of Practice of 1870, like the Code of Practice of 1825, declares "The plaintiff in an action of revendication must make out his title, otherwise the possessor, whoever he be, shall be discharged from the demand." (emphasis added). *801 It is not open to question, therefore, that the standards established by the jurisprudence interpreting Article 44 of the Code of Practice still govern the proof required of a plaintiff in a petitory action. Considering the importance of land titles, it may be appropriate to recall the first principles established by this Court on the question before us. To do so, I quote from Bedford v. Urquhart, 8 La. 241, 245 (1835) as follows: Again in Verdun v. Gilmore, 128 La. 1063, 55 So. 675 (1911), the principles were repeated: The statement sometimes used that the plaintiff in a petitory action must make out his title "against the whole world" is explained early in our law by the decision in Williams v. Riddle, 10 Rob. 505 (La.1845) where Mr. Justice Garland said: As I understand this statement, it means that the defendant in a petitory action, who is in possession, may oppose to the plaintiff's title the title of any other (the whole world), and if he does, and if the title thus opposed to the plaintiff's is a better one than plaintiff's, defendant cannot be deprived of his possession by the plaintiff, the reason being that the better title opposed to plaintiff's has the superior right to dispossess the possessor. Therefore, the right is reserved by the law to the better title to bear against defendant's possession, and plaintiff's action must be dismissed. When these principles are applied to the case at bar, it is readily apparent that the Simontons have not opposed the Skinners' title by the title of anyone else. They have only asserted their deed which is not translative of title and hence is no title at all. The Simontons have only the rights of possessors to assert against the title of the Skinners. Cases that have been decided indicate that the burden upon the plaintiff in a petitory action is less where the defendant is a mere possessor than where defendant *803 possesses by some semblance of record title. Phelps v. Hughes, 1 La.Ann. 320 (1846); Glover v. Haley, 118 La. 649, 43 So. 265 (1907); Zeringue v. Williams, 15 La.Ann. 76 (1860); Bedford v. Urquhart, 8 La. 241 (1835); Gravenberg v. Savoie, 8 La.Ann. 499 (1852); Young v. Chamberlain, 15 La.Ann. 454 (1860). The clear implication to be drawn from this rule is that the plaintiff in the petitory action need not establish a perfect title to prevail against the possessor. The traditional rule to be applied here, and what is meant by "make out his title", is well expressed in Smith v. Chappell, 177 La. 311, 148 So. 242 (1933): From this statement of the Court, supported by a long line of decisions, I conclude that "an apparently valid title" is all the Skinners had to prove to overcome the presumption of ownership arising from possession. Johnson, Real Actions, 35 Tul.L.Rev. 541 (1961). By doing so the Skinners proved their right as owners to dispossess the Simontons. At this stage of the proceeding it was incumbent upon defendants to assert their title. Having failed to establish any title whatever, the "apparently valid" title of the Skinners was sufficient to entitle the Skinners to a decree of ownership and an order to the Simontons to deliver possession. To impose the requirement of a title perfect against the whole world, when no better title is asserted to oppose the plaintiff's title in a petitory action, is virtually to require the impossible in some cases, as this case illustrates. Undoubtedly no complete chain of title can be established by the Skinners, for the deeds needed to complete the chain between 1858 and 1874 were lost. In many instances, as we all know, court houses have burned and the deeds needed to complete chains of title are nonexistent. The invalidity of the Skinner title upon which the majority relies is the sixteen-year break in the chain between 1858 and 1874. Otherwise the title is in all respects good and valid. In my view the Skinners have not only made out an "apparently valid" title, they have established a good, valid and perfect title against every title opposed to it. To permit a possessor to occupy one's property for more than a year, and then compel the owner to come forth with a complete chain of title, perfect in all respects, to oust the possessor is entirely unsupported by the statutes or decisions of this Court. Such a rule is certain to create many problems seriously impairing stability of titles in this State. I respectfully dissent. [*] The following property description was stipulated by the parties as correct.