Ramos Lumber & Mfg. Co. v. Labarre

Citations

• 116 La. 559
• 40 So. 898
• 1905 La. LEXIS 773

Syllabus

<p>1. Trespass — 'Cutting Timber — Claim oe Ownership—Slander oe Title.</p> <p>The exceptions filed hy the defendant were properly disposed of by the court. The exception of no cause nor right of action was properly overruled. The defendant was committed by the exception to the truthfulness of the allegations, and plaintiff was entitled under them to judgment of some kind against the defendant, if true. Plaintiff’s action was not a petitory action, nor one of jactitation. Defendant by his pleadings occupied throughout a purely defensive position, and did not convert the action into a petitory action. Plaintiff, alleging that he was the owner and had been for many years in the possession of certain property, and charging that defendant had wantonly and maliciously trespassed upon the same hy deadening and cutting down trees thereon, prayed for damages against him and for an injunction against further trespass. He incidentally alleged that defendant, by claiming a right to go upon the land, had wantonly and maliciously slandered his title.</p> <p>2. Same—Title oe Plaintixx—Evidence.</p> <p>Plaintiff on the trial failed to establish in itself either ownership or possession, and the decree rendered in the case in favor of the defendant was correct.</p> <p>8. Taxation—Tax Deed—Land Included.</p> <p>The tax title which plaintiff set np to this particular tract of land did not cover and extend to it. No part of it was included within the boundaries given either in the assessment, the advertisement, the adjudication, or the sheriff’s deed of sale. Subsequent purchasers were without power or authority, by giving (as between themselves) additional boundaries to the land adjudicated at tax sale, to give the tax sale a force and effect which the sale itself did not have and make it serve as the basis for prescription. The tax proceedings had to stand or fall as made. They could not be reformed after they had been closed by either the tax collector or subsequent purchasers, with