Buras Ice Factory, Inc. v. Department of Highways

HAMITER, Justice.

As sole and absolute owner of the Battistella Canal situated in Plaquemines Parish one Louis Battistella, on October 7, 1947, granted in writing to the Department of Highways of the State of Louisiana a right of way over and through the canal for the purpose of making highway improvements. In keeping with the grant a dirt embankment (containing a twenty-four inch culvert) for supporting a paved road was constructed across the waterway, thereby effectively preventing navigation to and from the head of Battistella Canal at Empire where plaintiff (Buras Ice Factory, Inc.) and…