LSU Law: Digest of 1808

BOOK II - OF THINGS AND OF THE DIFFERENT MODIFICATIONS OF PROPERTY

TITLE I - OF THINGS OR ESTATES

CHAPTER I - OF THE DISTINCTION OF THINGS OR ESTATES

Art. 1. The word estate in general, is applicable to any thing in which the riches or fortunes of citizens may consist. This word is likewise relative to the word thing which is the second object of jurisprudence whose rules are applicable to persons, things and actions.

Art. 2. Things are either common or public, they either belong to corporations, or they are the property of each individual.

Art. 3. Things which are common are those whose property belongs to nobody, and which all men may freely use, conformably to the use for which nature has intended them, such are air, running water, and the sea and its shores.

Art. 4. By sea shore, we understand the space of land upon which the waters of the sea, are spread in the highest water, during the winter season.

Art. 5. From the public use of the sea shores, it follows that every one has a right to build there a cabin, to retire to, and likewise to land there, either to fish or to shelter themselves from the storm, to moor ships, to dry nets, and the like, provided, no damage arise from the same to the buildings or monuments erected by the owners of the adjoining property.

Art. 6. Public things are those the property of which belongs to a whole nation, and the use of which is allowed to all the members of the nation: Of this kind, are navigable rivers, sea ports, roads, harbours, high ways, and the bed of rivers as long as the same is covered with water.
Hence it follows that every man has a right freely to fish in the rivers, ports, roads, and harbours.

Art. 7. In the number of public things are likewise reckoned such as are for the common use of the inhabitants of a city, or of another place, and on which individuals cannot exercise any right of property, such as the walls, the ditches, the gates, the streets, and the public squares of a city.

Art. 8. The use of the shores of navigable rivers or creeks, is public; accordingly every one has a right freely to bring his ships to land there, to make fast the same to the trees which are there planted, to unload his vessels, to deposit his goods, to dry his nets, and the like.
Nevertheless the property of the river shores belong to those who possess the adjoining lands.

Art. 9. Things which belong to bodies or corporations are of common use to all those who compose said bodies or corporations respectively: such are the commons of cities, the churches of the different religious congregations and the like.
Even strangers may enjoy the use of things which belong to bodies or corporations, as in the case of the commons of cities, provided the members who compose those bodies or corporations do not object to it.

Art. 10. Things which belong to each individual respectively, form private estates and riches.

Art. 11. Things are divided in the second place into corporeal and incorporeal.
Corporeal things are such as are made manifest to the senses, which we may touch and take, which have a body whether animate or inanimate. Of this kind are fruits, corn, gold, silver, clothes, furniture, lands, meadows, woods and houses.
Incorporeal things are such as are not manifest to the senses, and those which are conceived only by the understanding, such as the rights of inheritance, services and obligations.

Art. 12. The third and last division of things or estates, is into moveable and immoveable.

CHAPTER II - OF IMMOVEABLES

Art. 13. Real estate or immoveable things are in general such as cannot be carried from one place to another, or such as those which cannot move.
But this definition strictly speaking is applicable only to such things as are immoveable by their own nature and not to such as are so only by the disposition of the law.

Art. 14. There are things immoveable by their nature, others by their destination, and others by the object to which they apply.

Art. 15. A tract of land and buildings are immoveable by their nature.

Art. 16. Wind and watermills fixed upon posts, and being a part of the building are likewise immoveable, by their nature.

Art. 17. Standing crops and the fruits of trees not yet gathered, are likewise immoveable.
As soon as the corn is reaped and the fruits gathered, although not yet carried off, they are moveable.
If a part only of the crop be reaped, that part only is moveable.

Art. 18. The pipes made use of for the purpose of bring water to a house or other inheritance, are immoveable and are a part of the tenement to which they are attached.

Art. 19. Slaves in this territory are considered as immoveable by the operation of law, on account of their value and utility for the cultivation of the lands, and therefore they may be mortgaged.

Art. 20. The things which the owner of a tract of land, has placed upon it, for its service and improvement, are immoveable by destination.
Thus are immoveable by destination, when they have been placed by the owner for the service and improvement of a tract of land; to wit:
The cattle intended for cultivation;
The implements of husbandry;
The seeds, plants, fodder and manure;
The pigeons in a pigeon house;
Bee hives;
The mills, kettles, alembics, tubs, barrels and other machinery made use of in carrying on works;
The utensils necessary for working cotton and saw mills, taffia distilleries, sugar refineries and other manufactures;
Are likewise immoveable by destination all such moveables as the owner has attached to the tenement or to the building for ever.

Art. 21. The owner is supposed to have attached to his tenement or building for ever, such moveables as are affixed to the same with plaister or plaister and lime.
Or such as cannot be taken off without being broken or injured, or without breaking or injuring the part of the building or tenement to which they are attached;
Such are the wainscots, pictures and looking glasses affixed to a chimney.
With respect to statues placed by the owner in niches made on purpose in buildings, they are thereby considered as placed there for ever.

Art. 22. Are immoveable by the object to which they apply.
The usufruct of immoveable things;
The servitude or services due on a tract of land;
The actions the end of which is to claim an immoveable thing.

CHAPTER III - OF MOVEABLES

Art. 23. Estates are moveable by their nature or by the disposition of the law.

Art. 24. Things moveable by their nature are such as may be carried from one place to another, whether they move by themselves, as cattle, or cannot be removed without an extraneous power, as inanimate things.

Art. 25. Things moveable by the determination of the law, are obligations and actions, the object of which is to recover money due or moveables shares or interest in banks or companies of commerce or industry, or other speculations, although said companies be possessed of immoveables depending upon said enterprises; said shares or interest are considered as moveables with respect to every associate as long only as the society is in existence.
In the class of things moveable by the determination of the law, are also considered perpetual rents and annuities.

Art. 26. Every perpetual rent charge, as the consideration of the sale of immoveable property, or as the condition of the transfer of immoveable property, whether on a gratuitous or onerous title, is essentially redeemable.
The creditor has nevertheless a right to regulate the clauses and conditions of the redemption.
He may likewise stipulate that the rent shall not be reimbursed till after a certain time, which can never exceed thirty years; every other stipulation is null.

Art. 27. Boats, flat boats, ships, mills erected on boats, and generally every machine not resting upon pillars, and not being part of a house, are moveables.

Art. 28. Materials arising from the demolition of a building, those which are collected for the purpose of raising a new building, are moveables until they have been made use of by the workmen in raising a new building.

Art. 29. The word moveable furniture made use of within the provision of the law or the disposition of man comprehends only such furniture as is intended for the use and ornament of apartments, as tapestry, bed steads, chairs, looking glasses, time pieces, china and the like.
Pictures and statues which are a part of the furniture of an apartment, are likewise included, but not libraries which may happen to be there, nor plate.

Art. 30. The expression of moveable goods, that of moveables, or moveable effects, comprehend generally all that is reckoned to be moveable according to the rules before laid down.

Art. 31. The sale or gift of a house ready furnished, includes only such moveables as are the furniture of the house.

CHAPTER IV - OF ESTATES CONSIDERED IN THEIR RELATION TO THOSE WHO POSSESS THEM

Art. 32. Individuals have the free disposal of the estates which belong to them under the restrictions established by law.
But the estates, the property of the nation, of bodies or corporations, are administered according to laws and regulations which are peculiar to them; and it is likewise according to said laws and regulations, that the nation and corporations may sell their estates or otherwise dispose of the same.

Art. 33. The national domain properly speaking, comprehends all the landed estate, and all the rights which belong to the nation, whether the latter be in the actual enjoyment of the same or have only a right to re-enter on them.

Art. 34. Different sorts of rights may be exercised on estates;
Some have a full and entire property in an estate;
Others have simply the enjoyment of it;
Others, in fine, have only a claim to certain services due by the estate.

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