Case Name: Convie D. BAILEY, II, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Neal KRUITHOFF, Defendant-Appellee
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1973-03-30
Citations: 280 So. 2d 262
Docket Number: No. 12038
Parties: Convie D. BAILEY, II, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Neal KRUITHOFF, Defendant-Appellee.
Judges: Before AYRES, HEARD and HALL, JJ-
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 280
Pages: 262–271

Head Matter:
Convie D. BAILEY, II, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Neal KRUITHOFF, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 12038.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.
March 6, 1973.
On Rehearing May 30, 1973.
Henri Loridans, Bossier City, for plaintiff-appellant.
Wilson & Armstrong, by Glenn F. Armstrong, Bossier City, for defendant-ap-pellee.
Before AYRES, HEARD and HALL, JJ-

Opinion:
HALL, Judge.
Plaintiff, Convie D. Bailey, II, brought this suit to recover the sum of $668.77 from defendant, Neal Kruithoff, for the alleged wrongful removal of 1,500 feet of four-strand barbed wire fence, with 150 creosote posts, eight of which were embedded in concrete, and an iron sucker rod gate from plaintiff's property. Included in plaintiff's petition for damages was a claim for pasturage of fifteen head of defendant's cattle for a period of seventeen days at $.50 a head per day or $127.50. The defendant answered denying plaintiff's allegations and asserting he was authorized to remove the fence in accordance with a written agreement with his lessor, Mrs. Barbara Sandy, at the termination of the lease. Mrs. Sandy had sold the property enclosed by the fence to the plaintiff on January 27, 1972. The district court rendered judgment in defendant's favor and plaintiff perfected this appeal. We reverse the judgment of the district court.
The facts relating to the removal of the fence are undisputed. Defendant leased the 71/2 acres of pasture land in Bossier Parish from Mrs. Sandy on November 27, 1970, for $15 per year. As part of their agreement, Mrs. Sandy in a separate written instrument, gave defendant permission to remove, at the termination of the lease, a fence and hay shed he might construct on the property. This agreement was never recorded. Defendant erected a four-strand barbed wire fence consisting of approximately 150 fence posts and an iron sucker rod gate on the property and used the land to graze several head of cattle.
On January 27, 1972, plaintiff purchased the 7]/2 acres from Mrs. Sandy, his sister. The deed contained no reservations and made no mention of the agreement between defendant and Mrs. Sandy concerning defendant's right to remove the fence. Plaintiff's uncontradicted testimony at the trial was that he had negotiated for some time by phone with his sister who lived in El Paso, Texas, before the sale was finalized and at no time during these negotiations did she ever mention the written agreement with the defendant concerning his right to remove the fence. He stated she merely told him of the lease to the defendant and that it was to terminate in December, 1971.
Approximately three weeks after the sale defendant came onto the property and physically removed the fence, except for about eight of the posts which he had to break off just above the ground because they were embedded in concrete. In addition, during this three-week period following the sale, defendant continued to graze twelve to fifteen head of cattle on the property.
The issue is whether defendant had the right to remove the fence. The decision of this issue, as correctly noted by the trial judge in his written opinion, depends on whether the fence is classified as a movable or an immovable.
Article 464 of the Louisiana Civil Code defines an immovable by nature as follows :
"Land and buildings or other constructions, whether they have their foundations in the soil or not, are immovable by their nature."
The resolution of the issue involved in this case depends on the interpretation of the term "other constructions" as used in Article 464. Some of the various objects which have been included within the definition of "other constructions" under Article 464 are: railroad trackage, American Creosote Company v. Springer', 257 La. 116, 241 So.2d 510 (1970); a tractor shed and poultry house, Prevot v. Courtney, 241 La. 313, 129 So.2d 1 (1961); a canal, Albert Hanson Lumber Co. v. Board of State Affairs et al., 154 La. 988, 98 So. 552 (1923); a brooder for beagle puppies 25x5x4 feet and a chicken brooder 10x5x4 feet, each set on 4x4 inch posts in the ground, Laf-leur v. Foret, 213 So.2d 141 (La.App. 3d Cir, 1968); an outdoor advertising sign, Industrial Outdoor Displays v. Reuter, 162 So.2d 160 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1964); a brick pit, Folse v. Loreauville Sugar Factory, 156 So. 667 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1934); and a gas tank, Monroe Automobile Co. v. Cole, 6 La.App. 337 (2d Cir. 1927).
Immovability by nature has been characterized as a creation of the law based on practical considerations and on inherent characteristics of the things concerned. What is a building or other construction qualifying as an immovable under Article 464 is left for judicial determination according to prevailing notions in society. Two criteria that are often mentioned in decisions of the courts are some degree of integration or attachment to the soil and some degree of permanency. Yiannopoulos Louisiana Civil Law of Property, Sections 42, 43, 45 and 48; Civil Law Translations, Aubrey & Rau, Property, Section 164; Movables and Immovables in Louisiana and Comparative Law, 22 LLR 517 (1962).
In this case, the fence was embedded in the ground — a few of the posts were in concrete — and thereby integrated with the soil. Pasture fences are generally regarded as permanent in nature.
The nature of a movable is generally such that its identity is not lost if it is moved from one location to another. Ordinarily, all that is necessary is to detach the object from its present location and move it elsewhere with no apparent diminution of its identification in the process. Certainly this is not true of a fence which has no identity as a fence until it has been constructed. Once constructed the fence becomes a component part of the land on which it is placed and as such must be regarded as an "other construction" and as an immovable by nature under Article 464. In order to move a fence it must be dismantled and its identity destroyed, which is inconsistent with any reasonable concept of a movable.
American Creosote Company v. Springer, supra, is directly in point on the law to be applied in this case. In Springer, the object in question was railroad trackage, which had been constructed on the property under a lease agreement whereby the railroad company remained the owner of the trackage which the landowner was obligated to return at the conclusion of the lease or pay a penalty of $12,000. The lease was not recorded. The land was sold to Springer without reference to the track-age or the lease agreement and Springer disposed of the trackage. Plaintiff as sub-rogee of the railroad company, sued Springer for $12,000 as the value of the track-age.
The Louisiana Supreme Court held that if the railroad trackage was an immovable by nature when constructed on the land acquired by Springer, the lease could not be considered insofar as Springer is concerned and Springer acquired the trackage free and clear of the lease obligations, as he was not a party thereto nor was the lease recorded. McDuffie v. Walker, 125 La. 152, 51 So. 100 (1910); LSA-Civil Code Article 2266 and 2246. The court pointed out that the law provided a means by which the railroad company could have protected its interest in the trackage, that is, by recordation of the lease.
In determining the principal issue- — • whether trackage is an immovable under Article 464 — the Supreme Court quoted from an earlier decision, Morgan's Louisiana & T. R. & S. S. Co. v. Himalaya P. & Mfg. Co., 143 La. 460, 78 So. 735 (1918) as follows:
"It will hardly be denied that a railroad is a 'construction,' or that, when constructed, it has its foundations in the soil, as much as, or more than, many plantation buildings, bridges, and fences; nor as we think, can it be successfully denied that, when the bed of such a road has been graded and surfaced, the cross-ties placed in position, the rails laid upon and spiked to the ties, secured or connected, with angle irons and fish plates, and the spaces between the ties filled with ballast, a new and distinct thing is created in which ties, rails, spikes, irons, plates, and ballast lose their character as movables, and their identities, for all the purposes of the vendor's privileges, since such privileges can no more be enforced with respect to its several constituents without destroying the thing into which they have thus been merged than it can be enforced with respect to the canvas upon which a picture has been painted without destroying the picture." (Emphasis supplied.)
The court pointed out that immovables by nature form an economic unity with the ground. It was held that rationally a railroad track must be regarded as "construction" under Article 464. It is firmly incorporated into the ground and must be regarded as an immovable by nature — a component part of the land.
We conclude that the fence involved in the case before us is an "other construction" under Article 464 and an immovable by nature. The fence was a "construction" under the ordinary, common sense meaning of that word. It was embedded in the soil, incorporated into the ground, and was a component part of the land. A fence is ordinarily regarded as having a degree of permanency — not to be readily moved about.
The agreement under which defendant retained the right to remove the fence was not recorded. The fence, together with the land, passed to plaintiff free and clear of defendant's unrecorded rights. Defendant had no right to come on the property after the sale to plaintiff and remove the fence, ownership of which was then vested in the plaintiff. Defendant is thus liable for the reasonable replacement cost of the fence he removed from plaintiff's property. The evidence shows this amount is $542.30.
In relation to plaintiff's claim for damages for pasturage of defendant's cattle which remained on the property several days after the sale, we find the evidence to be insufficient to support an award for this item.
For the reasons assigned, the judgment of the trial court is reversed and it is ordered, adjudged and decreed that there be judgment in favor of the plaintiff, Convie D. Bailey, II, and against defendant, Neal Kruithoff, in the sum of $542.30, together with legal interest thereon from date of judicial demand until paid, and together with all costs of this proceeding, including the cost of appeal.
Reversed and rendered.
AYRES, J., dissents with written reasons.