Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca5-16-30147/USCOURTS-ca5-16-30147-0/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 340
Nature of Suit: Marine Personal Injury
Cause of Action: 

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

No. 16-30147

Summary Calendar

CONSOLIDATED GRAIN & BARGE, INCORPORATED,

 Plaintiff

v.

RANDY ANNY,

 Defendant

---------------------------------------

AMERICAN RIVER TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, 

 Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

RANDY ANNY, 

 Defendant - Appellant

---------------------------------------------

RANDY ANNY; Individually and as Administration of the Succession of 

Victoria Ester Martin,

 

 Plaintiff - Appellant

BARBARA FALGOUST

 Intervenor-Plaintiff - Appellant

v.

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

November 2, 2016

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

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No. 16-30147

2

ALBERT DUOURG, The Heirs of 

 

 Defendant

American River Transportation Company

 Intervenor Defendant - Appellee

Appeals from the United States District Court

for the Eastern District of Louisiana

USDC Nos. 2:11-CV-2615, 2:13-CV-5827, 2:11-CV-2204

Before JOLLY, SMITH, and GRAVES, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:*

This appeal arises from a trespass action. The American River 

Transportation Company (“ARTCO”) owned land along the Mississippi River 

in Convent, Louisiana. ARTCO alleged that the neighboring landowner, 

Barbara Falgoust, along with her husband, Randy Anny, trespassed on its 

property when they built a haul road and a fence on ARTCO’s side of the 

property line. Anny and Falgoust responded that they owned the land through 

acquisitive prescription (the Louisiana analogue of adverse possession). After 

a nine-day bench trial, the district court made extensive findings of fact and 

conclusions of law, finding that ARTCO rightfully owned the property, that 

 

* Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not 

be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH 

CIR. R. 47.5.4.

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3

Anny and Falgoust did not acquire it by acquisitive prescription, and that Anny 

and Falgoust owed damages for their trespass.

Anny and Falgoust, now pro se (though they were represented by counsel 

during the district court proceedings), appeal the district court’s judgment, 

arguing primarily that the district court erred in finding that they did not own

the disputed land by acquisitive prescription. They explicitly state that they 

are not challenging the district court’s factual determinations—only its legal 

conclusions. Their arguments, however, do little more than question the 

district court’s factual findings without providing a legal basis for calling them 

into doubt. 

We conclude that the district court did not err in finding that Anny and 

Falgoust did not own the land.1 The district court explicitly found that there 

was no credible evidence showing that Anny and Falgoust (or their 

predecessors in interest) continuously possessed and used the land in question

for any period of years prior to their trespass in 2011; that they never had just 

title to the land; and that they knew, prior to the trespass, where the correct 

boundary line was located. In other words, there was no acquisitive 

prescription, only bad-faith trespass. Moreover, the district court’s findings 

concerning acquisitive prescription were factual findings that are only 

reviewable for manifest error, which Appellants wholly fail to show. See, e.g.,

Lallande v. Verret, 21 So. 3d 444, 447–48 (La. App. 3 Cir. 2009).

Anny and Falgoust’s other arguments are similarly without merit. The 

district judge found that ARTCO had a proper lease agreement with a third 

party that would have been executed but for the trespass, so it did not err in 

assessing damages for loss of a business opportunity. The district court also 

 

1 Falgoust owned the land adjacent to ARTCO’s land. Anny leased land from Falgoust.

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found that both Anny and Falgoust contributed to and were responsible for the 

trespass, so did not err in finding them solidarily liable for damages.

AFFIRMED.

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