Hurst v. Ricard

WATSON, Justice.

This is a suit to fix the boundary1 between contiguous tracts2 in the Parish of Pointe Coupee, Louisiana. The issue is whether sales of land slices from a trapezoid shaped waterfront tract must follow the contours of the parent tract when the deed is silent on that question, i.e., are the side lines, as a matter of law, angled rather than parallel?

Both sets of owners trace their title to a common ancestor, Gatien Decuir. The property is located on False River, which is an ox bow lake created by the Mississippi River in the 1700’s.

Joseph Decuir owned irregular Section 49 on…