88 So. 2d 211 | La. | 1956
Cologero Scorsune is seeking to recover from the state, through its Department of Highways, the sum of $6,250 as compensation for the reduction in value of property owned by him fronting on the Shreveport-Bossier State Highway, Route No. 4, by reason of the appropriation of a strip from this property when the highway was widened and improved in 1952, the appropriation purportedly having been made under authority granted by him in a deed executed in 1931, which deed he claims to be null and without effect in that it describes no specific property conveyed, was without consideration, and without mutuality of consent.
This case was before us formerly on appeal from the judgment of ther district court sustaining the state’s exceptions to the jurisdiction and of immunity from suit, which judgment we reversed. See, 224 La. 1031, 71 So.2d 557. Following our remand, the state .answered, placing full reliance on the 1931 deed, and also on various pleas of prescription. At that time the plaintiff amended his petition, increasing his demand from $5,000 to $6,250, and pleaded, in the
The record discloses that on June 14, 1924, Scorsune purchased for $100 Lots 4 and 5 of Block 5 in the McCormick Annex of Bossier. City, Louisiana,
In 1952 the road was widened and improved by adding some 15i/£ feet on each side of the former 20-foot roadway with a median strip in the center for the division of traffic, as well as sub-surface drainage and an abutting sidewalk. As a result, the plaintiff now has an unimproved tract triangular in shape consisting of a frontage of some 83 feet on East Fourth street, 68 feet on Colquitt street, and 100 feet on East Texas street.
It may thus be seen that there is no merit to the contention that this deed was executed without consideration, and it is also obvious that the deed is one translative of title. The fact that the exact property over which the right-of-way was granted is not described in detail in the deed itself is immaterial since it was easily susceptible of identification and location by extrinsic evidence. See, Snelling v. Adair, 196 La. 624, 199 So. 782. And although the plaintiff is an uneducated Italian immigrant who has little knowledge of the English language, we think the record clearly and unmistakably discloses that when he executed the right-of-way deed in 1931 he knew and understood fully the purpose thereof and the use to which it was to be put: He further knew that the right-of-way was actually used for that
Under the facts of the case also, the plea of prescription liberandi causa of ten years is not available to the plaintiff. In any event it is untenable, for under the express provisions of the Louisiana Constitution of 1921-LSA, “Prescription shall not run against the State in any civil matter, unless otherwise provided in this Constitution or expressly by law”, Section 16 of Article XIX, and LSA-R.S. 48:226 specifically provides that “Prescription does not run against immovable property or rights thereto legally acquired by the department [of highways] for use as rights of way for public highways.”
For the reasons assigned, the judgment appealed from is annulled and set aside, and the suit is dismissed at the cost of the plaintiff.
. The record shows that while the plaintiff owned other property in Bossier City, this was the only property owned by him that is located on East Texas street, which was the route of Highway No. 4.