## Facts

- Hodge-Hunt Lumber Company, Inc. owned Louisiana land with standing timber.
- In 1906, Hodge-Hunt sold the land to G.A. Woods but expressly reserved ownership of the “saleable timber,” plus the right to enter and remove it, with no stated removal deadline.
- Woods died; the land was later sold for delinquent taxes and conveyed through subsequent purchasers.
- Brown ultimately purchased the land; the intervening tax and private conveyances referred to the land and did not expressly convey the reserved timber.
- After Brown acquired the land, Hodge-Hunt entered and cut and removed timber under the 1906 reservation.
- Brown sued for damages, alleging he owned both the land and the timber and that the timber cutting was wrongful.
- The trial court ruled for Brown on ownership and awarded damages; both parties appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a deed reserving “saleable timber” while conveying land separates timber ownership from land ownership into distinct estates under Louisiana law.
2. Whether later tax sales and conveyances of the land, without express reference to timber, transfer title to previously reserved timber.
3. Whether a tax assessment and sale of land divests title to a separately owned timber estate that was not separately assessed or sold.

## Decision

- The Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the trial court.
- The court held the 1906 timber reservation segregated the timber from the land, creating two separate estates: land in the purchaser and successors, and timber in Hodge-Hunt.
- The tax sales and subsequent conveyances transferred only the land estate and did not divest Hodge-Hunt of the timber estate because the timber was a separate immovable that was not assessed or sold as such.
- Brown did not acquire title to the reserved timber and therefore had no right to damages for its removal.
- Judgment was rendered recognizing Hodge-Hunt’s ownership of the timber and its right to enter and remove it.

## Legal Principles

- A clear reservation of standing timber in a land conveyance segregates timber ownership from land ownership and creates separate and distinct immovable estates.
- After segregation, timber and land are separate immovables for taxation purposes and should be separately assessed.
- A tax sale of land does not transfer a separately owned timber estate when that timber estate was not separately assessed and sold.
- A purchaser who acquires only the land estate cannot recover for removal of timber owned by another under a valid reservation.

## Conclusion

The court held that a deed reserving “saleable timber” creates a separate immovable timber estate that survives later tax sales and conveyances of the land when the timber estate is not separately assessed and sold, defeating the landowner’s claim to ownership and damages for timber removal.


Brown v. Hodge-Hunt Lumber Co., 110 So. 886 (La. 1926)