## Facts

- Tenneco operated an oil refinery and bulk terminal in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, with the Mississippi River forming its southern boundary, including a levee area on its property.
- The Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union, Local 4-522 represented Tenneco’s refinery employees.
- After the collective-bargaining agreement expired, the union began a strike on January 5, 1970.
- Picketing during the strike included mass picketing and conduct described as involving violence, intimidation, and obstruction.
- Tenneco filed suit seeking a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief to prevent picketing on its property and to restrain intimidation and interference with access.
- The trial court issued a temporary restraining order and later entered a preliminary and permanent injunction barring picketing on Tenneco’s property and barring obstruction and intimidation.
- The trial court carved out an exception allowing picketing on the Mississippi River levee portion of Tenneco’s property, reasoning that picketing there was a “public use” under Louisiana Civil Code article 455.
- Tenneco appealed the levee exception; the union argued the appeal was moot because the strike had ended.

## Issues

1. Whether the appeal was moot because the strike ended before appellate decision.
2. Whether labor picketing on a Mississippi River levee located on private property is a “public use” under Louisiana Civil Code article 455’s public servitude on the banks of navigable rivers, thereby limiting injunctive relief.

## Decision

- The court held the appeal was not moot and reached the merits.
- The court reversed the judgment insofar as it exempted the levee area from the injunction.
- The court held picketing on the levee was not a “public use” within the meaning of Civil Code article 455.
- The court ordered the injunction to extend to all of Tenneco’s property, including the levee, thereby permitting the company to enjoin picketing there.

## Legal Principles

- The public servitude on the banks of navigable rivers under Louisiana Civil Code article 455 is limited to uses incidental to the waterway’s navigable character (e.g., navigation and commerce).
- Activities unrelated to navigation and commerce, including labor picketing, do not fall within the article 455 “public use” and may be excluded by the riparian landowner.
- A levee situated on private property along a navigable river is not converted into a general public forum by article 455; private property rights remain enforceable outside the narrow scope of the servitude.

## Conclusion

The court concluded that the riverbank public-use servitude in Civil Code article 455 is confined to navigation- and commerce-related purposes and does not authorize labor picketing on a levee located on private property; therefore, the injunction properly could bar picketing on the levee as well as the rest of Tenneco’s property.


Tenneco, Inc. v. Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union, Local 4-522, 234 So. 2d 246 (La. Ct. App. 4th Cir. 1970)