## Facts

- In 1874, brothers C.C. Colvin and John A. Colvin acquired the disputed tract as co-owners.
- At some later time, John allegedly sold his undivided interest to C.C., but the deed was lost and never recorded.
- From about 1900 forward, C.C. and then his heirs exercised full and complete possession as if sole owners by living on the property, farming it, growing and selling timber, selling sand and gravel, surveying the tract, and marking boundaries.
- A timber deed dated 1899 showed C.C. selling timber from the property; John signed the deed as a witness.
- The evidence did not show any meaningful possession by John or John’s heirs.
- In 1937, succession proceedings for C.C. and his wife produced a recorded judgment of possession recognizing their heirs as owners of the “whole interest in and to” the property.
- In 1937 and 1938, John’s widow and all of John’s heirs except one child executed quitclaim deeds to C.C.’s heirs. The deeds recited that John had sold his interest to C.C., that C.C. paid for it, and that the deed was lost or destroyed and not recorded.
- C.C.’s heirs later executed and recorded a partition among themselves that treated the tract as fully owned by them.
- In 1950, the two children of John’s one child who did not sign a quitclaim deed (John’s two grandchildren) were told by a C.C. heir that John had sold his interest, the deed was lost, and the grandchildren had no ownership interest.
- Franks Petroleum, Inc. held gas leases affecting the property and faced competing demands for royalties.
- Franks Petroleum filed a concursus proceeding, deposited royalties into the registry of the court, and sought a judicial determination of who owned the mineral/royalty interests.
- The trial court ruled that C.C.’s heirs (Group A) owned the entire tract by thirty-year acquisitive prescription and that John’s grandchildren (Group B) had no interest; Group B appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether C.C.’s heirs proved acquisition of full ownership by thirty-year acquisitive prescription against record co-owners by showing exclusive, continuous possession as owners for the prescriptive period.
2. Whether the recorded 1937 judgment of possession and related recorded acts (including quitclaims and later partition), together with the circumstances, provided sufficient notice to the non-possessing co-heirs that possession was being held as owners and adverse to their claimed interests (rather than notice arising only in 1950).

## Decision

- The court of appeal affirmed the trial court’s judgments.
- The court upheld the finding that C.C. and his heirs exercised full, open, and exclusive possession of the property as owners from as early as 1900 through the filing of the litigation.
- The court accepted the trial court’s determination that John and John’s heirs did not prove any possession sufficient to interrupt or counter Group A’s possession.
- The court rejected Group B’s argument that adverse notice began only with the 1950 conversation, and affirmed that the recorded 1937 judgment of possession and other recorded assertions of sole ownership provided adequate notice for prescription to run more than 30 years before suit.
- Because Group A acquired full title by thirty-year acquisitive prescription, Group A (and those holding under them) were entitled to the mineral/royalty interests and to the funds deposited in the concursus.

## Legal Principles

- Thirty-year acquisitive prescription in Louisiana may vest ownership of immovable property in a possessor who proves continuous, uninterrupted, peaceable, public, and unequivocal possession as owner for the prescriptive period.
- When possession begins in co-ownership, a possessor must show a clear repudiation of co-ownership and notice to the other co-owners before prescription will run against them.
- Notice may be established by the totality of circumstances, including long-standing exclusive possession combined with recorded instruments that assert ownership of the whole interest (such as a recorded judgment of possession and recorded conveyances or partitions).
- Quitclaim deeds from most heirs on the non-possessing side acknowledging an earlier sale, along with record acts treating the possessor’s side as full owners, may support a finding that remaining heirs were on notice that possession was being held as owners, not merely as co-owners.

## Conclusion

The Louisiana Second Circuit affirmed that the heirs of C.C. Colvin acquired complete ownership of the tract by thirty-year acquisitive prescription because C.C.’s side possessed the land openly and exclusively as owners for decades and the recorded judgment of possession and related record acts provided sufficient notice to the remaining John Colvin descendants that the claim was exclusive and adverse, entitling Group A to the contested royalties deposited by Franks Petroleum.


Franks Petroleum, Inc. v. Babineaux, 446 So. 2d 862 (1984)