The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-03-29

F,f;ou tn In IN
| ti0R therein. - a.,
/ The nature of the foreign news recently re-
.o.d bas suspended our examination OF the = bat
.,,,o ouas,ion. but its importance to the city OF
Nv Orleans and the State at large. torblds lis
c.o,, s,onnne in the middle of the inquiry, and we
.hauafre resume for the instruction and benefit
ofour readers.
| In the last article upon the subject, We stated
tho nature of the donation - of 1920, and reced
ts essential condition Since that date the batture
has continued yearly to increase until 1t attained
its present extent The value of the accretion gave
rise to many speculations to the final disposition
which would be made of it. A sort of hazy idea
seemed take possession of our citizens that 1t be-
longed in absolute property to the city, and that
could be apportoned and sold for the benefit OF the
treasury of the corporation. Since the DIVISION OF
the city into Municipalities, although the act OF
division forbids any other use to be made OF the
batture than that stipulated in the - donation,
the citizens of the Second Municipality have been
from time to time amused by ford financial re-
ports, in which it was taken for granted that dn
the batture as we'll above as below DelOrd street
was the property of the corporation, and that ny
means of its sale the debt would not only he PAID,
bu. taxation would be abolished and surplus re-
main i'm the treasury for distribution. If we mis-
take not the " financial report - of 1899 or 1910,
went to the full extent of the proposition here stated
The result of these dreams has only been hereto
FORE large expenditures in unsuccessful attempts to
gain by law such possession ct acknowledgment
of title as would enable the corporation take the
first step to realize the first from appropria-
ton of the batture. Over thirty thousand dollars
in thoS tba ottn To nh
tain decision which any one acquainted with the
subject must have foreseen-but which adverse as
it was to the preensons of the corporation-was
useless as a lesson teaching its managers to mod
crate those pretensions in the future. Defeated at
one point, the Council turned its attention to
another-forbidden to appropriate that to which it
had shadow of title it seriously thought of sell
ing that which the very act under which it claimed
title prohibited it from selling, giving away, or in
any wise alternating or incmbering. Repulsed in
the g faubourg Saulet" it fell back upon the
g faubourg st. Mary
The daughter and heir of Pierre Delabigarre,
hearing of the intention of the Council, at least
of the project of some of its members, to sell the
batture, brought suit in May, 1915, for the undivi
ded fourth of certain portions of it. This suit the
Municipality resisted, pleading in bar thereof the
contract of 1920. To this plea the plaintiff replied
that the $ donation as to her Was nnlity-that
she was no party to it-that Lafon, the testament
ary executor of her father, who signed it behalf
of the succession of Delabgarre had no authority
in fact nor in law to make a 60 Donation While
the suit was depending on this issue, the Council
of Municipality No. 3, as if to assist Madamoselle
Delabgare, in the prosecution of her claim--in
IaGar &c h. I,i,,th
had set up in Defence formally resolved that the
bature should be laid off in squares and lots and
sold And this wise act Of disqualification, We
must state for the benefit of both parties represent
ed in the Council, was carried by unanimous
vote But worse than all, after having by their
resolutions done all the injury they could to their
own cause. and benefited as much as possible that
of the plaintiff, they repealed the resolutions with
out attempting to carry them into etect-lnd if we
are not misinlormed some of the Aldermen assume
great credit for voting both for the passage and the
repeal
The suit of Delabigarre went on, and in due
course of time tried and determined. The
District Court in an able, logical legal argument
exposed the whole merits of the case. 1t decided
that the "donation as to the plaintiff was
nullity, and that the undivided fourth part of the
property which she claimed was vested in her. but
that the administration of it so long as required for
public purposes belonged to the Council of Munich
pality No2.
The consequences OF this Judgment We're to
annul the donation as to all the other parties as
well as to the heirs of Delabigarre and place the
property in precisely the same condition to
ownership that it occupied in 1920. This condition
would be either that the title to the whole of the
batture formed in front of the faubourg St Mary
from its original formation, would be placed in dis
pute, as the Judges of the Supreme Court in their
opinion very broadly intimate, or that the present
unappropriated part of that batture would have
been held by the persons entitled to the right of
property therein, under the same restriction that
other front propretors hold in the upper part of the
municipality in the first case the corporation
might have renewed the question of title, and per-
haps in the present organization of courts have
obtained a judgment in their favor, which would
have given them claim to all in front of Tchoup-
toulas street-in the second, they might have au-
thorzed the appropriation of the property to private
uses, and thus have abated the nuisance to COM
merce which is complained of, have increased the
absolute wealth of the city, and have constituted
permanent resource for the supply of the trea
Sury.
1t appears that neither of these measures compor-
ted with the conclusions of municipal wisdom
The first, for obvious reasons, would never have
been adopted---toG many are interested in main
tenance to the titles TO the property already con-
vered TO private uses, 10 justify any apprehension
that they would be attacked by any proceedings of
the Council. And to have fallen back on the Sc
rond, would have been to acknowledge that Alder
manic sagacity could by possibility be lead asray,
and that many beautiful and eloquent report,
but little better than financial fiction. The iudg
ment of the District Court must, therefore, be ap
peaied from-and the appeal was accordingly or
dered And here grave question arises to the
person entitled to the honor of having advised this
appeal II Is question Of deep interest 10 the we'll
hemg OF the community, and ii has, in consequence.
been discussed with no little warmth and some de-
gree OF bitterness, as well in private circles as i'm
Inc pubhc journals The Commercial Bulletin and
hal art al lnr