Vicksburg, S. & P. R. v. Tibbs

Citations

• 112 La. 51
• 36 So. 223
• 1904 La. LEXIS 369

Syllabus

<p>RES JUDICATA — ESTOPPEL — SUCCESSION — REFUSAL TO ACCEPT — JUDGMENT—COLLATERAL ATTACK — SWAMP LANDS — RAILROAD AID LANDS.</p> <p>1. Whatever force there may be in the general proposition that a judgment as to the ownership of a portion of a tract of land is conclusive between the same parties claiming under the same titles, as to the ownership of the whole tract, the fact remains that a final judgment in a particular case is the law of that case, and when such judgment in terms declares that one title is at issue and another is not, it cannot constitute res judicata as to the title held to be not at issue.</p> <p>2. A litigant denying a certain proposition of law and fact, and obtaining a judgment sustaining his position, cannot thereafter be heard to assert that which he had thus denied,, though his opponent is entitled to whatever advantage may thereafter be gained by such adverse ruling.</p> <p>3. Where the heirs have not accepted a succession, an administrator may stand in judgment for the purposes of a suit pending against the de eujus at the date of his death for the recovery of immovable property.</p> <p>4. Where it appears that by consent of counsel and final judgment of this court an appeal taken by an administrator has been dismissed, the fact that the administrator was discharged before the rendition of the judgment of dismissal affords no ground for a collateral attack upon such judgment. The presumption is that the counsel with whose consent the judgment was rendered was properly authorized, and such presumption is not weakened when it appears that during 35 years the parties in interest have made no suggestion to the contrary.</p> <p>5. The swamp land acts of Congress of 1849 and 1850 (9 Stat. 352, 519) were not intended to operate against the will of the state, and, the state having failed to select, and the Secretary of the Interior having failed to approve, certain lands, as falling within the terms of those statutes, and such lands having been c