Levy v. Gause

Citations

• 112 La. 789
• 36 So. 684
• 1904 La. LEXIS 465

Syllabus

<p>SPANISH GRANT — CONFIRMATION—WHEN TITLE PASSES — VENDOR AND PURCHASER — TAX DEED CURING DEFECTIVE RECITALS — INSUFFICIENT DESCRIPTION — PRESCRIPTION.</p> <p>1. Where a Spanish grant, based on settlement and cultivation, was confirmed by Act Gong. ¿lay 4, 1826, e. 35, 4 Stat. 159, and the tract of land was subsequently surveyed in accordance with the statutes, and the survey was ■examined and approved by the Surveyor General of Louisiana in the year 1856, but the patent did not issue until the year 1873, held, that the title passed on confirmation of the survey, and was not held in abeyance until the patent issued. See Jopling’s Case, 32 South. 243, 107 La. 522 (affirmed by United States Supreme Court, 24 Sup. Ct. 214); Gonsoulin’s Heirs v. Gulf Go., 110 Fed. 251, 53 O. O. A. 31.</p> <p>2. Where a vendor is in actual possession of a tract of land, and sells the same by notarial act, possession is vested in the vendee by virtue of the conveyance, and no physical act in taking possession is necessary. Ellis v. Prevost, 13 La. 230.</p> <p>3. Defective recitals in tax deeds are cured by the constitutional prescription of three years. See Simoneaux Case (recently decided by this ■court) 36 South. 328, ante, 221.</p> <p>4. Where the description in a tax deed is insufficient to identify the land sold, nothing passes by virtue of the tax sale. Improvement Go. v. Fasnacht, 17 South. 800, 47 La. Ann. 1294; Scott v. Parry, 32 South. 188, 108 La. 11.</p> <p>5. Defendants and their authors, having held possession of most of the tract in dispute under well marked and recognized boundaries for more than 40 years, are protected by the prescriptions of 10 and 30 years.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>