State ex rel. Atchafalaya Basin Levee Board v. Capdervielle
State ex rel. Atchafalaya Basin Levee Board v. Capdervielle
Opinion of the Court
It is said that the grant to relator did not vest title until supplemented by acts of conveyance, to be executed by the auditor and register. It has, however, several times been held by this court that such grants, at least operate to withdraw the lands affected by them from the market. McDade v. Bossier Levee Board, 109 La. 627, 33 South. 628; Hall v. Levee Board, 111 La. 913, 35 South. 976; Hartigan v. Weaver, 126 La. 492, 52 South. 674.
“All lands, now belonging, or that may hereafter belong, to the state of Louisiana, and embraced within the limits of the levee district as herein constituted, shall be, and the same hereby are, given, granted, bargained, donated, conveyed and delivered unto said board of levee commissioners”
—and, after providing that a delay of six months should be allowed for the redemption of lands which may have been acquired by the state at tax sales, further declared that:
“After the expiration of said six months, it shall be the duty of the auditor and the register * ® * to convey to the said board, by proper instruments of conveyance, the lands hereby granted or intended to be granted to said board, whenever, from time to time, said auditor and said register * * * or either of them, shall be requested to do so by said board * * * or by the president thereof, and, thereafter, said president * * * shall cause said conveyances to be properly recorded in the * * * respective parishes where said lands are or may be located, and, when said conveyances are so recorded, the title to the said land, with the possession thereof, shall, from thenceforth, vest absolutely in said board,” etc.
It was therefore within the contemplation of the act that the donation should stand and remain open to acceptance and confirmation indefinitely and the request which the board now makes of the auditor and register is as well within the law as though it had been made immediately upon the expiration of the six months allowed the former owner and tax debtor within which to redeem.
Tile judgment appealed from is therefore
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE ex rel. ATCHAFALAYA BASIN LEVEE BOARD v. CAPDERVIELLE, State Auditor
- Cited By
- 28 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- (Syllabus by the CourtJ 1. Public Lands Whether the state of Louisiana disposes of lands acquired by grants from the United States in accordance with the purposes for which the grants may be thought to have been made is a matter that lies between the state and the United States, and is not to be raised by an officer upon whom the state imposes the ministerial duty of conveying the lands to a particular state , agency created for a particular purpose. 2. Mandamus Act No. 97 of 1890 contemplates that the donation of land to the Atchafalaya basin levee board therein contained should stand open, indefinitely, for acceptance, and that the land should be conveyed to the board, from time to time, as requested by it, and that act is unaffected by Act No. 215 of 1908; hence the request which the hoard now makes of the state auditor and register of the state land office to. execute conveyances of the land so donated is as well within the law as it has ever been, and, as the ministerial duty rests upon those officers to comply with that request, mandamus will lie to compel such compliance.