Case Name: William B. BENNETT, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. LOUISIANA PACIFIC CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1997-05-09
Citations: 693 So. 2d 1319
Docket Number: No. 29598-CA
Parties: William B. BENNETT, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. LOUISIANA PACIFIC CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant.
Judges: Before BROWN, WILLIAMS and CARAWAY, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 693
Pages: 1319–1325

Head Matter:
William B. BENNETT, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. LOUISIANA PACIFIC CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 29598-CA.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.
May 9, 1997.
Concurring Opinion of Judge Caraway, May 13, 1997.
Gaharan & Wilson by Donald R. Wilson, Jena, for Defendant-Appellant.
Dimos, Brown, Erskine & Burkett by David G. Erskine, Columbia, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Before BROWN, WILLIAMS and CARAWAY, JJ.

Opinion:
LBROWN, Judge.
Although his filing was captioned a posses-sory action, plaintiff, William Bennett, essentially sought damages as a landowner for the wrongful cutting of his timber pursuant to La.R.S. 3:4278.1 (formerly 56:1478). Defendant, Louisiana Pacific Corporation (LP), admitted cutting the timber but claimed ownership of the property. After concluding that plaintiff acquired title to the property by 30 years adverse possession, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of Bennett, finding him to be the legal possessor of the disputed property. Bennett was also awarded the fair market value of the timber as stipulated by the parties. LP has appealed. Bennett filed a motion with this court urging that he has acquired ownership of the disputed tract, not mere possessory rights. We amend to rec ognize Bennett's ownership and as amended, affirm.
NATURE OF THE ACTION
To resolve this ease, it is first necessary to determine the nature of the action. Plaintiff captioned his lawsuit "Petition to Be Restored and Maintained in Possession." In the body of the complaint plaintiff alleged that he possessed the property as owner. He then alleged that defendant tore down his fence, entered his land and cut his merchantable timber. Under La.R.S. 3:4278.1, plaintiff sought treble damages for the timber cut, the value of the fence and attorney fees.
In its amended answer to the petition, LP stated that it purchased the property in question in 1980 and had maintained corporeal possession since that time.
In a possessory action, which is a real action, the sole object is the protection of possession and title is not an issue. La. C.C.P. arts. 3655, 3661. Although similar, a suit seeking damages for trespass is not a real action as |2provided for in the Code of Civil Procedure. The cutting of trees on the land of another is denounced in our statutory law where the cutting is done "without the consent of the owner or legal possessor." Trespass is clearly an action in tort backed by statutory law. La.R.S. 3:4278.1. In an action for trespass, title to the land is the pivotal issue. A plaintiff who brings a trespass action bears the burden of proving his ownership.
The trial court concluded that this action was more properly characterized as a trespass claim. We agree. Bennett's petition stated that he possessed as owner. The basis of Bennett's claim was that LP had trespassed by crossing the old fence which was alleged to be the historical boundary between the two adjoining landowners. See Harvey v. Havard, 287 So.2d 780 (La.1974).
FACTS
On October 6, 1993, LP harvested merchantable timber with a stipulated value of $7,510 from immovable property located in Caldwell Parish. The ownership of that property and therefore the timber is in dispute.
LP and Bennett own contiguous tracts of land. Both deeds describe the property as running from the mouth of Cut-off Bayou to the center of Section 34. Bennett owned the property north of Cut-off Bayou and LP the property to the south. The location of Cutoff Bayou is disputed.
The Ouachita River makes a horseshoe bend in this area and Cut-off Bayou traverses the bend. LP's expert, using General Land Office maps and notes and aerial photographs, claims to have located the slough known as Cut-off Bayou. Although now indistinguishable, it had flowed south traversing the bend in -the Ouachita River. A logging road ran parallel to the slough. At approximately the center of Section 34, the slough, as designated by LP's expert, turns southeast to empty into the Ouachita River, while the logging road continues in a south-ernly direction to the river. A net-wire fence follows alongside the logging road. The ^property involved in this dispute consists of approximately twelve acres, triangular in shape. It starts at a point approximately in the center of Section 34 and lies between the net-wire fence and Cut-off Bayou (as designated by LP's expert).
The net-wire fence was constructed as early as 1939 by Bennett's ancestor in title, David Dunn. The . property was included with the, rest of Dunn's property known as Hough Bend. The fence ran parallel to the old logging road. Dunn sold his property, inclusive of the disputed tract, to W.E. McDaniel in 1954. McDaniel maintained the fence until his death in 1972. Thereafter the fence was no longer maintained, though it was still visible.
The McDaniel heirs leased the property to several people after Mr. McDaniel's death. Bennett leased the property in 1987 and purchased it from the McDaniel heirs in 1991. Bennett maintained posted signs on the property along the remnants of the net-fence after he leased it in 1987. He used the property up to the fence line for hunting and grazing livestock.
LP claims to have acquired the property as part of a larger 287 acre conveyance on July 8, 1980. Both parties introduced into evidence, by stipulation, complete and separate chains of title. In fact, their record titles contain the same language that the boundary runs from the mouth of the bayou to the center of Section 34.
DISCUSSION
Acquisitive prescription is a means by which immovable property and related real rights may be gained simply by adverse possession of 30 years. La.C.C. art. 3486. The possessor need not have just title to the property or be in good faith concerning his possession. Id. The possession must be corporeal or if civil, preceded by corporeal. La.C.C. arts. 3488, 3476. This possession must also be continuous, uninterrupted, peaceable, public, and unequivocal. Id.
|4What constitutes adverse possession in any case depends on the nature of the property and is a question which must be determined in each case on its own facts. La.C.C. art. 3435; Rathborne v. Hale, 95-1225 (La.App. 4th Cir. 01/19/96), 667 So.2d 1197; Alford v. Jarrell, 471 So.2d 970 (La.App. 1st Cir.1985).
Calvin Griffin, age 66, testified that he had lived in Caldwell Parish all his life and was personally familiar with the disputed property. From 1939 to 1943, he worked for the owner, David Dunn, running a hay rake on the property. The western boundary of that property was an old road with a hog-wire fence running due south to the Ouachita River. He further testified that Dunn grew hay and grazed dairy cattle up to the boundary of that fence. There were also row crops planted along the river bank. The fence remained intact up to and at the time Dunn sold the property to W.E. McDaniel in 1954. Griffin testified that he hunted on the property when McDaniel owned it.
Edgar Owen, age 77, testified that he had also lived in Caldwell Parish all his life and worked on the disputed property during the time it was owned by David Dunn. Owen had repaired the net-wire fence in question and had tended to cattle and cut and bailed hay on the disputed property. He described the hog-wire fence, which was in existence the entire time he worked on the property, from the 1930's until 1952. He also hunted on the property after it was purchased by McDaniel.
Leonard Gregory, age 56, testified that he grew up and lived not far from the property. He has hunted on or near the property most of his life. He testified that the fence which runs along the dirt road creating the western boundary of the property was maintained by Mr. Dunn and then by Mr. McDaniel until his death in 1972.
_ |5There was also a barbed-wire fence erected in the early 1970's along Cut-off Bayou. Bobby Ryan had leased the property from the McDaniels from 1975 to 1986. Ryan testified that when he inspected the property, he found the net-wire fence that paralleled the logging road and a newer barbed-wire fence that followed the cypress brake to the river. This cypress brake was Cut-off Bayou. Ryan, who farmed the land north of the brake, maintained the barbed-wire fence but not the net-wire fence. Ryan posted the property along both fence lines and hunted the property up to the net-wire fence.
Based upon this testimony, the trial court stated in its reasons for judgment:
There being no evidence of any disturbances to the possession of the disputed property by the plaintiffs ancestors in title prior to 1969, the plaintiff acquired ownership of the disputed property extending to the net wire fence by thirty-years' acquisitive prescription in 1969.
Whether or not disputed property has been possessed for 30 years without interruption is a factual issue and will not be disturbed on appeal absent a showing of abuse of discretion. Livingston v. Unopened Succession of Dixon, 589 So.2d 598 (La.App. 2d Cir.1991); Rogers v. Haughton Timber Company, Inc., 503 So.2d 1079 (La.App. 2d Cir.1987); Hinton v. Weaver, 430 So.2d 134 (La.App. 2d Cir.1983). We find no abuse of the trial court's discretion in this case.
Alternatively, defendant argues that despite plaintiffs ancestors in title acquiring the property by acquisitive prescription, plaintiff has abandoned the property or been dispossessed by his lack of activity and defendant's activities. The trial court found, and we agree, that any disturbance after 1969, when plaintiff, through his ancestors in title, acquired ownership rights, is irrelevant to those rights. La.C.C. art. 481; Livingston v. Unopened Succession of Dixon, 589 So.2d 598 (La.App. 2d Cir.1991); Brown v. Wood, 451 So.2d 569 (La.App. 2d Cir.1984).
IsAs discussed above, Bennett's ancestors in title acquired ownership by 30-year acquisitive prescription in 1969. Thereafter, any interruption in possession would have given rise to a petitory action. In this case, the disputed property was always possessed by Bennett and his predecessors. In 1975, Ryan leased the property. Ryan posted the old net-wire fence line and hunted this area up to 1986. In 1987, Bennett leased the property, posted it along the net-wire fence, grazed cattle and hunted within its bounds.
LP, on the other hand, purchased the property in 1980. Thereafter, they cruised this 12 acres as part of a greater tract and may have cut some bug infested timber. These actions did not interrupt Bennett's or his predecessors' possession up to the historical boundary represented by the net-wire fence.
Although the trial court found that Bennett had acquired ownership of the disputed property by 30 years' prescription, the judgment itself awards Bennett only possession of the tract. We amend the judgment to the extent that it does not coincide with the obvious intent of the trial court in its reasons for judgment.
CONCLUSION
For the reasons stated above, the judgment of the trial court is amended to recognize Bennett's ownership of the disputed tract of land, and as amended, the judgment is affirmed. Costs are assessed to the appellant.
CARAWAY, J., concurs with written reasons to follow.