from: commongroundlegal@gmail.com
Subject: letter for the police captain
and to carry with, and keep at the house.
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Common Ground Legal Advocacy
215 N. Jefferson Davis. Pkwy
New Orleans, LA 70119
Thursday, March 8, 2007
To whom it may concern:
The current residents of 1825 Duels St., New Orleans, LA 70119 are within their legal rights by physically inhabiting the property during the ongoing process of obtaining full ownership under the statutory New Orleans blighted property program: LSA R.S. 9:5633. That program guarantees the right to corporeally possess a blighted property after obtaining a mortgage and implies the right to corporeally possess the property to make repairs and improvements prior to obtaining a mortgage. Implied authority is a complete defense to a charge of criminal trespass. LSA-R.S. 14:63 § D.
Furthermore, the right to possess property is fundamentally rooted in the nation’s history, the U.S. Constitution and the Louisiana State Constitution. The Louisiana State Constitution definitively states that “[e]very person has the right to acquire, own, control, use, enjoy, protect, and dispose of private property.” LSA Const. Art. 1, § 4 cl. A.
A trespass action cannot be maintained against someone who has a superior right to the property in question. In fact, the Louisiana Court of Appeals has recognized a right to bring a trespass suit for a disturbance of possession if the possessor has had corporeal possession of the property for more than one year. Harvey v. Havard, 287 So.2d 780, 782 (La. 1974). This right exists regardless of title. Id. The Louisiana Court of Appeals has stated: “It is well settled that, even against the lawful owner, one who has been in possession of property for over one year has a cause of action to prevent an illegal disturbance of that possession and to recover damages resulting from such disturbance, and that, consequently in such actions title is not at issue . . . .” Loeblich v. Garnier, 113 So.2d 95, 98 (La. Ct. App. 1959) (citing Esmele v. Violet Trapping Co., 166 So. 477, Grant Timber & Mfg. Co. v. Gray, 60 So. 374). Such a possessor may protect his possession by injunction, even against the owner. Loeblich v. Garnier, 113 So.2d 95, 98 (La. Ct. App. 1959).
For over 150 years, the Louisiana Supreme Court has recognized a trespass in the seller of a property if the seller impedes the buyer from taking corporeal possession of the property. Liles v. Pitts, 82 So. 735, 741 (La. 1919) (“The law considers the tradition or delivery of immovables, as always accompanying the public act, which transfers the property. Every obstacle which the seller afterwards interposes to prevent the taking of corporeal possession by the buyer, is considered as a trespass.”). Since the seller of blighted properties is the City of New Orleans, and the police interfering with the residents’ possession are also part of the City of New Orleans, it follows that in this instance, the seller – the City of New Orleans - is interfering with the buyers’ taking corporeal possession of the property, and thus trespassing upon the possessor’s property.
To deny these inhabitants the right of possession would be inequitable. The New Orleans blighted property statute is designed to promote economic development and urban rejuvenation by providing a mechanism through which proactive individuals can obtain and improve otherwise neglected and abandoned properties. The blighted property possession law rewards those New Orleans residents who, through hard work and personal motivation, seek to improve their neighborhoods by rehabilitating scarred, dangerous properties into inhabitable, functional homes. To legally constrain such positive persons from improving the surrounding community would be counterintuitive to the spirit of the law and therefore inequitable.
Sincerely,
Common Ground Legal Advocacy
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