Facts
- MCI owned a buried fiber-optic cable running across private property later owned by Wayne Hagan.
- MCI’s right to keep the cable on the property arose from an agreement with a prior owner and was not a recorded servitude or other real right.
- Hagan and James Joubert used a backhoe to clear driftwood from a boat ramp on Hagan’s land.
- During the clearing, Joubert accidentally struck and severed MCI’s underground cable.
- MCI sued Hagan and Joubert in federal court, asserting negligence and a “trespass” theory for damage to its movable property (the cable).
- MCI sought a jury instruction stating that a defendant may be liable for an inadvertent trespass to a movable caused by an intentional act (operating the backhoe); the district court refused the instruction and the jury found no liability.
- The Fifth Circuit certified to the Louisiana Supreme Court whether Louisiana law recognizes such a trespass-to-movables theory and whether the proposed instruction accurately stated Louisiana law.
Issues
- Whether Louisiana law recognizes an independent tort of “trespass to movables” (trespass to chattels) based on inadvertent interference with a movable resulting from an intentional act.
- Whether a jury instruction premised on such a distinct trespass-to-movables tort is a substantially correct statement of Louisiana law.
Decision
- The Louisiana Supreme Court answered the certified question in the negative.
- The court held Louisiana does not recognize a free-standing tort of “trespass to movables” distinct from general delictual liability under La. Civ. Code art. 2315.
- Because the requested instruction assumed a separate trespass-to-movables doctrine and did not center the analysis on fault under article 2315, it was not a substantially correct statement of Louisiana law.
Legal Principles
- Liability for damage to movable property in Louisiana is analyzed under La. Civ. Code art. 2315 through proof of fault (intentional or negligent), causation, and damages.
- Louisiana courts generally do not import common-law nominate torts where the Civil Code’s delictual framework supplies the governing rule.
- The intentional nature of an underlying act (e.g., operating equipment) does not, by itself, establish liability for accidental damage absent fault under article 2315.
- Where a plaintiff lacks a servitude or possessory interest in land, land-based trespass remedies are unavailable; claims for physical damage to the plaintiff’s property proceed, if at all, under delictual fault principles.
Conclusion
The Louisiana Supreme Court held that Louisiana law provides no independent cause of action for “trespass to movables”; claims for damage to chattels must be evaluated under Civil Code article 2315’s general fault-based delictual framework, making MCI’s proposed trespass instruction legally incorrect.