## Facts

- Oliver Liner and his family claimed to have possessed certain Terrebonne Parish marshlands as owners for generations, asserting the western boundary as the easterly bank of Bayou Dufrene (Ash Point Bayou).
- Louisiana Land and Exploration Company (LLEC) held record title to adjacent marshlands and claimed Liner’s western boundary was the range line dividing Ranges 15 and 16, making the tract between the range line and Bayou Dufrene belong to LLEC.
- The disputed tract consisted of marshland located between the range line and the bayou bank.
- In 1956, Tennessee Gas Transmission Company constructed and thereafter operated a 24-inch gas pipeline across the disputed tract.
- Evidence supported that the pipeline was built with Liner’s consent and that Liner continued outward acts consistent with possession as owner (including marking boundaries and continuing use typical for marshlands), despite later boundary-related interference and competing assertions.

## Issues

1. Whether construction and continued operation of a pipeline across the disputed land, when undertaken with the possessor’s consent, constitutes a “usurpation” that interrupts or terminates possession under Louisiana Civil Code article 3449.
2. Whether permitting such a purported usurpation for more than one year bars a possessory action under Louisiana Civil Code article 3490.
3. Whether Liner retained sufficient corpus and animus of possession to maintain a possessory action over the disputed tract.

## Decision

- The Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the court of appeal and reinstated the trial court’s judgment in favor of Liner.
- The Court held the pipeline’s construction and operation, undertaken with Liner’s permission, did not constitute a usurpation under Civil Code article 3449.
- Because there was no usurpation, article 3490’s one-year loss-of-possession consequence for tolerated usurpation did not apply.
- The Court concluded Liner’s possession was not destroyed; he remained in possession adequate to support a possessory action.

## Legal Principles

- A “usurpation” under Louisiana Civil Code article 3449 requires a disturbance of possession by another who, without the possessor’s consent, claims possession of the same thing.
- Consensual third-party use of land (including pipeline construction/operation authorized by the possessor) does not, by itself, displace the possessor or terminate possession.
- For purposes of a possessory action, continued outward acts showing physical control (corpus) and intent to possess as owner (animus) can sustain possession despite competing title claims and non-dispossessory interference.
- Article 3490’s loss-of-possession consequences depend on a qualifying usurpation; permissive entry and use do not satisfy that predicate.

## Conclusion

The court held that permissive pipeline construction and operation across marshland did not amount to a nonconsensual usurpation terminating possession; because Liner’s possession remained intact, he could maintain a possessory action and the judgment recognizing his possession was reinstated.


Liner v. Louisiana Land & Expl. Co., 319 So. 2d 766 (La. 1975)