Case Name: REYMOND v. CITY OF BATON ROUGE et al.
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1918-11-04
Citations: 145 La. 162
Docket Number: No. 22793
Parties: REYMOND v. CITY OF BATON ROUGE et al.
Judges: LECHE, J., recused.
Reporter: Louisiana Reports
Volume: 145
Pages: 161–171

Head Matter:
(82 South. 75)
No. 22793.
REYMOND v. CITY OF BATON ROUGE et al.
(Nov. 4, 1918.
On Rehearing, May 5, 1919.)
On Rehearing.
(Syllabus by Editorial Staff.)
1. Adverse Possession <&wkey;100(l) — Sufficiency of Possession.
Possession of part of land, with title to the whole, is equivalent in law to the possession of the whole.
2. Municipal Corporations <&wkey;648 — Highways — Establishment by Prescription.
Possession by a city of a strip of land, manifested only by a passing over unfenced land, is equivocal, and cannot serve as a basis for the acquisition by prescription of a servitude of passage, under Civ. Code, arts. 727, 766, 3500.
3. Eminent Domain <&wkey;293(2) — Expropriation — Remedy of Owner — Quieting Title —Pleading—Acquiescence in Appropriation.
■ In an action by a landowner against a city to quiet title to a strip used as a street, a defense that the plaintiff acquiesced in the property being taken and improved for street purposes, and was thereby estopped from revendicating the land, and is relegated to an action in compensation for its value, is a special defense, which must be specially pleaded.
4. Eminent Domain <&wkey;293(2) — Expropriation — Remedy of Owner — Quieting Title —Appropriation of Land for Streets— Answer — Offer to do Equity.
In an action by a landowner to quiet title to a strip of land used by defendant city as a street, defendant, when setting up a defense that plaintiff acquiesced in the property being taken and improved for street purposes and is thereby estopped from revendicating the land and is relegated to an action in compensation for its value, should at the same time offer to do equity by expressing a willingness to pay the value of the property.
5. Costs <&wkey;172 — Attorney’s Fees.
Attorney’s fees cannot be allowed in an ordinary suit.
O’Niell, J., dissenting.
Appeal from Twenty-Second Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge; H. P. Brunot, Judge.
Suit by Henry F. Reymond against the City of Baton Rouge and others. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff appeals. Judgment set aside.
T. Jones Cross, of Baton Rouge, for appellant.
Laycock & Beale, of Baton Rouge, for appellees.

Opinion:
O'NIELL, J.
The plaintiff appeals from a judgment rejecting his demand and dismissing his suit for title and possession of a strip of land in use as a public street. The facts of the case are stated in the opinion handed down to-day in the case of Robert A. Hart v. City of Baton Rouge (No. 22792) 82 South. 79.i The plaintiff knew, when he obtained a deed for the land, that it had been appropriated by the municipality and was used as a public street. The deed itself shows that his purchase was only a speculation in a very precarious title. The price paid, for land admitted to be worth more than $2,000, was only $150. And it was stipulated in the instrument that the vendor did not warrant the title, even to the extent of the price paid, and that the purchaser bought at his own risk and peril.
For the reasons assigned in the case of Robert A. Hart v. City of Baton Rouge (No. 22792) 82 South. 79, the judgment appealed from is affirmed, at appellant's cost.
LECHE, J., recused.
PROVOSTX, J., absent on account of illness, takes no part.
Post, p. 173.