Craighead v. Connely

Citations

• 124 La. 943
• 50 So. 804
• 1909 La. LEXIS 568

Syllabus

<p>Taxation (§ 79*) — Liability on Persons— Owner .on Property.</p> <p>The owners of timber sold it to plaintiffs, who agreed to dig a certain canal of prescribed location and dimensions, and to leave it free of obstructions and open “when they shall have completed ■ taking said timber,” and gave their note secured by mortgage of the timber for the price. It was agreed that, upon default in payment of any one of the notes, they should all become due at once. Plaintiffs were given five years in which to remove the timber, after which whatever timber might still be on the land was to revert to the sellers. It was also-agreed that plaintiffs should deaden not more than 1,000 trees before completion of the canal, and that they should be entitled to pull timber at the rate of 500,000 feet per month, and that they might pull more than that amount, but, if they did so, they should pay one of the unmatured notes, with interest, for each 500,000 feet extra per month or fraction thereof, and such note should mature and become payable at once. Held, that the clauses limiting the number of trees that might be deadened before the canal was completed and the number of feet of timber which might be pulled per month did not suspend the transfer of ownership, but merely suspended the right to possession, and plaintiffs, as owners of the timber under the contract, were liable for taxes thereon before the conditions were performed.</p>