Opinion ID: 1939762
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the four links in plaintiffs' title are null and void.

Text: Link 1. April 2, 1895. Transfer by State of Louisiana to Lake Borgne Levee District. Link 2. July 27, 1910. Transfer by State of Louisiana to Lake Borgne Levee District. The Court of Appeal held that these transfers are valid. I do not agree. It is my view that they are not valid because the land was the bed of a navigable body of water insusceptible of private or quasiprivate ownership; and, being sovereignty lands the Register of the State Land Office and Auditor were not authorized to transfer same to the Levee District. Further, Acts 189 and 258 of 1910, besides prohibiting such transfers, operated to retake title thereto and reinvest it in the State; hence, the Levee District had no title to the property here involved on the date of Links 3 and 4 following. Therefore, such purported patents could convey no title to The Plaquemines Land Company. Compare State v. Board of Commissioners of Caddo Levee District, 188 La. 1, 175 So. 678, for a discussion of the effect of Act 258 of 1910. Link 3. Patent No. 59, which recites that The Plaquemines Land Company purchased at Sheriff's Sale, September 30, 1911, under the provisions of Act No. 215 of 1908, 160 acres of land. Link 4. Patent No. 60, which is the same as Patent No. 59, but with respect to a different portion of the property. The Court of Appeal held that these transfers are fatally defective. In so doing, the Court of Appeal cited Act 189 of 1910, which it designated as an Oyster Statute, and Act 258 of 1910. Section 1 of Act 189 provides that the type of property involved in this case shall be, continue and remain the property of the State of Louisiana, and prohibits a sale thereof thereafter by the Register of the State Land Office by any other official, or by any subordinate corporation. Section 1 of Act 258 provides that the type of property involved in this case (not then under the direct ownership of anyone else or other entity) are hereby declared to be the property of the State. The Acts of 1910 were in full force and effect at the time of Transfer No. 2, July 27, 1910, from the State to Lake Borgne Levee District. They were also in full force and effect at the time of Transfers Nos. 3 and 4, September 30, 1911, from the Levee District to The Plaquemines Land Company. Therefore, the property, having been declared the property of the State by Act 258, and a sale thereof being prohibited by Act 189, could not be legally and validly sold on September 30, 1911, by any subordinate corporation, the Levee District, to The Plaquemines Land Company. The Levee District had absolutely no title to convey. If it ever had a title, which I deny, the State had retaken it. Rights of The Plaquemines Land Company had not intervened. (Compare State v. Board of Commissioners of Caddo Levee District, 188 La. 1, 175 So. 678, for a discussion of the effect of Act 258 of 1910.) This prohibition and retaking, in my opinion, are expressions of the sound public policy expressed by Justice Hawthorne, supra.