LSU Law: Digest of 1808

CHAPTER III - OF SERVICES IMPOSED BY LAW

Art. 12. Services imposed by law are established either for the public or common utility or for the utility of individuals.

Art. 13. Services imposed for the public or common utility relate to the space which is to be left for public use by the adjacent proprietors on the shores of navigable rivers and for the making or repairing of levees, roads and other public or common works.
All that relates to this kind of service is determined by laws or particular regulations.

Art. 14. The law imposes upon the proprietors various obligations towards one another independent of all agreements; and those are the obligations which are prescribed in the following articles.

Art. 15. Although a proprietor may do with his estate whatever he pleases, still he cannot make on it any work which may deprive his neighbor of the liberty of enjoying his own, or which may be to him the cause of any damage.

Art. 16. Although one be not at liberty to make any work by which his neighbor's buildings may be damaged, yet every one has the liberty of doing on his own ground whatsoever he please, even although it should occasion to his neighbor some other sort of inconvenience.
Thus he who is not subject to any service originating from a particular agreement in that respect, may raise his house as high as he please, altho by the said elevation he should darken the lights of his neighbor's house; because there results from this act only an inconvenience, but not a real damage.

Art. 17. The works or other things which every one may make or have in his own grounds, and which send into the apartments of others who dwell in the same house, or into the neighboring houses, a smoke or smells that are offensive, such as the works of tanners and diers, and the other different inconveniences which one neighbor may cause to another, ought to be borne with, if the service of them is established, or if there be no service settled, the inconvenience shall either be borne with or hindred, according as the rules of the police or usage may have provided in said matters.

Art. 18. Every one is bound to keep his buildings in repairs, so that their ruins, or the materials which may fall from them, may not hurt the neighbors or the passengers, under the penalty of all losses and damages which may result from the neglect of the proprietor in that respect.

Art. 19. When a building threatens ruin, the neighbor has a right of action against the proprietor to compel him to cause said building to be demolished or propped up. In the mean time if he be likewise to receive any damage by its fall, he may petition to be authorised to make the necessary proppings for which he shall be reimbursed out of the thing, after the danger shall have been ascertained by persons of the art.

Art. 20. Should a conflagration take place in the cities, towns and suburbs of this territory, the mayor or any justice of the peace of the place, may, by and with the advice of six proprietors of houses, situated within the city, town or suburb in which such conflagration has taken place, order to be pulled down the house or houses where the fire shall have made its appearance, and even the adjacent house or houses, although not yet injured by the fire, if a majority of said proprietors be of opinion that this measure is necessary to stop the progress of the conflagration.
In such case the proprietors whose houses have been thus pulled down, without being at the time injured by fire, shall have a right to an indemnification in proportion to their loss, which indemnification shall be paid by the corporation of the city or town where the conflagration has taken place, according to a proportional tax which shall be laid to this effect, upon all proprietors of houses of the said place.

Art. 21. He who builds either above or below his soil adjoining the property of his neighbor, is bound to build in a perpendicular line.

Art. 22. The other particular services imposed by law relate to the following objects:
To walls, fences and ditches in common,
To cases when it is necessary to have double or counter walls,
To the right of lights on the property of a neighbor,
To carrying off water from roofs, and to the right of passages.

SECTION I - OF WALLS, FENCES AND DITCHES IN COMMON

Art. 23. He who builds first in the cities, towns or suburbs of this territory, in a place which is not surrounded by walls, may rest one half of his wall on the land of his neighbor, provided he builds with stones or bricks at least as high as the first story, and not in frame or otherwise; and provided the whole thickness of this wall do not exceed eighteen inches, not including the plaistering which must not be more than three inches.
But he cannot compel his neighbor to contribute to the raising of this wall.

Art. 24. If the neighbor be willing to contribute for his half to the building of the wall thus raised, then this wall is a wall in common between the two proprietors.
The neighbor who has even refused to contribute to the raising of this wall, preserves still the right of making it a wall in common, by paying to the person who has made the advance, the half of what he has laid out for its construction, according to the rules hereafter established.

Art. 25. Every wall being a separation betwixt buildings as high as the upper part of the first story, or betwixt the yard and garden in the cities, towns and suburbs of this territory, and even any other enclosure in the fields, shall be presumed to be in common, if there be no title, proof or mark to the contrary.

Art. 26. The repairs and building of walls in common, are to be made at the expence of all who have a right to the same and in proportion to their interest therein.

Art. 27. Nevertheless every co-proprietor of a wall in common, may be exonorated from contributing to the repairs and rebuilding, by giving up his right of common, provided no building belonging to him be actually supported by the wall thus held in common.

Art. 28. Every co-proprietor may build against a wall held in common, and cause beams or joists to be place within two inches of the whole thickness of the wall, saving to the neighbor the right of diminishing with the chisel the length of the beam, till it do not exceed the half of the thickness of the wall, in case he himself should wish to fix beams in the same place or to build a chimney against it.

Art. 29. Every co-proprietor is at liberty to raise higher than the wall in common, but he is to be alone at the expence of raising it, and of repairing and keeping in good order, the part above the height of the wall in common, and besides he is alone liable for all expences arising from its being raised higher and according to its value.

Art. 30. If the wall held in common cannot support the additional weight of raising it, he who wishes to have it made higher, is bound to rebuild it anew entirely, at his own expence, and the additional thickness must be taken from his property.

Art. 31. The neighbor who did not contribute to the raising of the wall held in common, may cause the raised part to become common, by paying one half of the expence of such raising, and the value of the half of the soil employed for the additional thickness, if there is any.

Art. 32. Every proprietor adjoining a wall, has in like manner the right of making it a wall in common, in whole or in part, by reimbursing to the owner of the wall, one half of its value, or the half of the part which he wishes to hold in common, and one half of the value of the soil upon which the wall is built, if the person who has built the wall has laid the foundation entirely upon his own estate.

Art. 33. Neither of the two neighbors can make within the body of the wall held by them in common, any cavity, nor can he affix to it, any work without the consent of the other, or without having on his refusal, caused to be ascertained by persons of the art, the necessary precaution to be used so that the new work be not an injury to the rights of the other.

Art. 34. Every one has a right to compel his neighbor within the cities, towns and suburbs of this territory, to contribute to the making and repairing of the fence held in common by which their houses, yards and gardens are separated, which inclosure shall be made with piuex ten feet high in the manner which is in use within this territory, or which is or may be prescribed by the regulations of the police on that subject.
And if one of the proprietors has been alone at the expence of making the inclosure held in common, he may compel the other to make it in his turn, and the presumption shall be that the inclosure was made by him on whose side it is nailed, unless there exists a voucher or proof to the contrary.

Art. 35. In the country the inclosures held in common are made in the manner which is or shall be prescribed by particular regulations in this respect.

Art. 36. Every ditch between two estates, shall be supposed held in common, unless there be a voucher or proof to the contrary.

Art. 37. A ditch held in common is to be kept up at a common expence.

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