## Facts

- John Walter Boudreaux owned farmland adjacent to land owned by Paul Christopher Cummings, whose ancestor in title was the Weill family.
- Boudreaux alleged that he and his ancestors had used a pathway and gate across the neighboring property since at least 1948 for farm and personal access.
- Testimony indicated Boudreaux, his family, and farm workers used the route to transport equipment, travel to town, and reach an adjacent road.
- In 1969, the Weill family asked Boudreaux to relocate the route; Boudreaux agreed and continued using the adjusted pathway.
- In 2012, Cummings locked the gate and prevented further use.
- Boudreaux sued to have a predial servitude/right of way recognized as acquired by thirty-year acquisitive prescription and sought a permanent injunction against interference.
- Cummings contended Boudreaux’s use was by permission (precarious possession), preventing acquisitive prescription from running.

## Issues

1. Whether Boudreaux’s long-term exercise of the right of passage constituted adverse quasi-possession sufficient to acquire a predial servitude by thirty-year acquisitive prescription.
2. Whether Boudreaux’s use was precarious (by permission or on behalf of the owner) such that prescription never commenced absent actual notice of an intent to possess for himself.
3. Whether the rules distinguishing precarious possession from possession as owner apply to quasi-possession of incorporeal rights such as predial servitudes.

## Decision

- The Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the court of appeal and rendered judgment for Cummings.
- The Court held Boudreaux was a precarious possessor of the alleged servitude.
- The Court found Boudreaux never gave actual notice to the owner of an intent to possess the servitude on his own behalf.
- Because possession remained precarious, acquisitive prescription could not and did not run in Boudreaux’s favor.
- Boudreaux’s claims for recognition of a servitude by prescription and for a permanent injunction were rejected.

## Legal Principles

- Quasi-possession is the exercise of a real right (such as a servitude) with intent to have it as one’s own; rules governing possession apply by analogy to quasi-possession of incorporeal rights.
- A precarious possessor possesses with the permission of, or on behalf of, the owner; acquisitive prescription does not run in favor of a precarious possessor.
- To convert precarious possession into possession as owner for prescriptive purposes, the possessor must give the owner actual notice of intent to possess for himself.
- Thirty-year acquisitive prescription for a servitude requires adverse quasi-possession as owner throughout the prescriptive period; long-term use alone is insufficient if the use remains precarious.

## Conclusion

The court held that decades of using a right of way did not establish ownership of a predial servitude by thirty-year acquisitive prescription because the use began and remained permissive and was never converted into adverse quasi-possession through actual notice to the owner.


Boudreaux v. Cummings, 167 So. 3d 559 (La. 2015)