104 So. 636 | La. | 1925
This suit is for compensation for losses alleged to have been *739 caused by the levee board moving a levee inland on the plaintiff's farm. The claim is for the loss of growing crops and the cost of moving buildings and fences. It is admitted in the petition that the board of commissioners of the levee district proceeded legally and regularly and according to the directions of the board of state engineers, in the moving of the levee. The suit was dismissed on an exception of no cause or right of action. The plaintiff appealed to the Court of Appeal, and the court has asked for instructions, under section 25 of article 7 of the Constitution, propounding the following questions:
First. Does the law of Louisiana, which allows compensation for lands and improvements actually used or destroyed for levee purposes, allow compensation also for the destruction of growing crops?
Second. Does the law of this state allow compensation for the cost of moving buildings and fences from land that is taken for levee purposes?
Third. Does the law allow compensation for property used or destroyed for levee purposes if the property was not assessed for taxes in the last year before it was so used or destroyed?
Fourth. Is it necessary for the plaintiff to allege, in a suit for compensation for the loss of property used or destroyed for levee purposes, that the property was assessed for taxes in the preceding year?
Our answer to the first, second and third questions propounded is: No. Section 6 of article 16 of the Constitution makes the levee districts liable only for the loss of lands and improvements thereon, used or destroyed for levee purposes, or for levee drainage purposes, and limits the value of such lands and improvements to the assessed value for the preceding year, viz.:
"Lands and improvements thereon hereafter actually used or destroyed for levees or levee drainage purposes shall be paid for at a price not to exceed the assessed value for the preceding *740 year; provided, this shall not apply to batture, nor to property control of which is vested in the state or any subdivision thereof for the purpose of commerce.
"If the district has no other funds or resources out of which such payment can be made, it may levy, on all taxable property situated therein, a tax sufficient to pay for said property so taken, not to exceed one-fourth of one mill on the dollar, to be used solely in the district where collected. This shall not prevent the appropriation of said property before payment."
Before the Constitution of 1921 was adopted, one whose farm or other rural property was appropriated by a levee district for levee purposes had no right whatever to be compensated for the loss. See Peart v. Meeker, President, 45 La. Ann. 421, 12 So. 490. By article 312 of the Constitution of 1898, the right to be compensated was granted only to persons whose urban property was appropriated by the Orleans levee board. See Ward v. Board of Levee Commissioners of Orleans Levee District,
The cost of moving buildings and fences from land that is to be taken for levee purposes might well be the measure of the levee board's liability for such improvements on the land, provided the cost of moving them would not exceed their assessed value for the preceding year.
Our answer to the fourth question propounded is: Yes; it is necessary for the plaintiff, in a suit for compensation for property used or destroyed for levee purposes, to allege that the property was assessed for taxes in the preceding year, and to allege what the amount of the assessment was, for that is all that the plaintiff could have a right of action for. When a right of action depends for its existence upon a statutory or constitutional grant, it cannot extend beyond the terms of the grant. Ward v. Board of Levee Commissioners,
The judgment of the district court, in this case, dismissing the suit for want of a cause or right of action, is correct.