Opinion ID: 1816783
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: legal servitude of passage

Text: Although plaintiff does not specifically claim a legal servitude of passage, she may be entitled to such a right if she could show that her estate was without access to any public road. This right of passage for enclosed estates is provided for in C.C. 689, et seq. Article 689 provides for a legal servitude over neighboring estates to the closest road. Under C.C. 692, [t]he owner of the enclosed estate may not demand the right of passage anywhere he chooses. The passage generally shall be taken along the shortest route from the enclosed estate to the public road at the location least injurious to the intervening lands. In her supplemental petition, plaintiff alleges that the road constitutes the only access to and from a public highway, namely, Louisiana Highway No. 412. (Paragraph IV of the Supplemental and Amending Petition). In her description of her estate, plaintiff states that her estate now or formerly was bounded to the south by a public road. She alleges that this road became impassable during the 1930s and has remained in that condition. Although plaintiff alleges that her estate is enclosed, she has failed to allege, as required by C.C. 692, that the gravel road is the shortest and least injurious route from her estate to Highway 412 or any other public road. In order to show an entitlement to a legal servitude of passage over that road, plaintiff must allege and prove that the gravel road furnishes her with the most feasible route in terms of length, directness and injury to intervening lands. C.C. 692; State v. Joseph, 256 La. 627, 237 So.2d 663 (1970). She has failed to plead facts which show that the gravel road would be the proper location for a legal servitude of passage. For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent. Defendant's exception of no cause of action should be sustained and the plaintiff should be given time to amend her petition to state a cause of action.