## Facts

- The Morgan family owned two adjacent tracts totaling about 100 acres; the Roberts family owned the tract immediately to the south.
- Although a recorded boundary separated the properties, an east–west fence had stood for more than 30 years south of the recorded boundary, within the Roberts record tract.
- The approximately 15-acre strip between the recorded boundary and the fence was continuously possessed and used by the Morgans as part of their property for over 30 years.
- In 2002, the Morgan succession sold the Morgan tracts to Loutre by full-warranty deed, conveying the described land plus “all rights of prescription, whether acquisitive or liberative,” without separately describing the 15-acre strip.
- After purchase, Loutre treated the land up to the fence as its own and planted pine seedlings on the disputed strip.
- In 2003, Edward Roberts obtained and recorded a quitclaim deed from the Morgan succession, specifically describing the disputed strip, and later entered the tract, destroyed Loutre’s seedlings, and damaged the land while attempting to build a new fence.
- Loutre asserted ownership by thirty-year acquisitive prescription (including tacking) and sought damages for trespass and destruction; Roberts asserted record title and relied on the public records doctrine.

## Issues

1. Whether the Morgan family had acquired ownership of the disputed 15-acre tract by thirty-year acquisitive prescription based on long-term possession to the fence line.
2. Whether the 2002 sale to Loutre, including a transfer of “all rights of prescription,” conveyed ownership of the disputed tract even though it was not specifically described.
3. Whether Roberts’ later recorded quitclaim deed, with a specific legal description, controlled ownership under the public records doctrine.

## Decision

- The Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the court of appeal and reinstated the trial court’s determination that Loutre owned the disputed tract.
- The Court held the Morgans had already acquired ownership of the strip by thirty-year acquisitive prescription before the 2002 sale.
- The Court held the 2002 deed transferred that ownership and associated prescriptive rights to Loutre.
- The Court held the 2003 quitclaim deed could not convey the disputed tract because the grantor no longer owned it.
- The case was remanded for the court of appeal to address remaining issues it had not reached (including damages-related assignments of error).

## Legal Principles

- Thirty-year acquisitive prescription in Louisiana vests ownership upon continuous, open, and adverse possession for thirty years; just title and good faith are not required.
- Long-standing physical markers (such as fences) and consistent use to that line are strong evidence of the extent and continuity of prescriptive possession.
- A deed transferring land together with broad “all rights of prescription” language can pass ownership previously perfected by acquisitive prescription, even if the prescriptive tract is not separately described.
- The public records doctrine does not allow a later purchaser to obtain ownership from a grantor who has already lost or transferred ownership; a grantor cannot convey what it does not own.

## Conclusion

The court recognized Loutre as owner because the Morgans’ decades-long possession to the fence vested ownership by thirty-year acquisitive prescription before the Morgan succession’s sale, and the later recorded quitclaim to Roberts could not defeat title already acquired and transferred.


Loutre Land & Timber Co. v. Roberts, 63 So. 3d 120 (La. 2011)