LA Bar Property Law 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under Louisiana Civil Code, which of the following is a component part of a tract of land?
- A mobile home on a temporary foundation
- A boat moored at a private dock
- A building permanently constructed on the land by the landowner (Correct answer)
- A crop already harvested and stored in a warehouse
Correct answer: A building permanently constructed on the land by the landowner
La. C.C. art. 462-463 provides that things permanently incorporated into land, such as buildings belonging to the landowner, are component parts of the tract.
Question 2: In Louisiana, 'fruits' of property are best defined as:
- Only agricultural products grown on the land
- Revenues and products derived from a thing without diminishing its substance (Correct answer)
- The proceeds received upon sale of the property
- Damages awarded for trespass on the property
Correct answer: Revenues and products derived from a thing without diminishing its substance
La. C.C. art. 551 defines fruits as revenues or products derived from a thing that do not diminish its substance, such as rents or natural harvests.
Question 3: Under Louisiana law, co-ownership of immovable property gives each co-owner:
- Exclusive control over a physically divided portion
- An undivided interest in the whole property (Correct answer)
- The right to partition only with all co-owners' consent
- No right to alienate any share without unanimous agreement
Correct answer: An undivided interest in the whole property
La. C.C. art. 797 provides that ownership shared by two or more persons is co-ownership, each holding an undivided share in the whole.
Question 4: A Louisiana landowner discovers a neighbor's fence encroaches 2 feet onto his property. The most appropriate Civil Code remedy is to:
- Wait 10 years and claim acquisitive prescription has not run
- File a boundary action to fix the boundary and demand removal of the encroachment (Correct answer)
- Accept the encroachment as a natural servitude of boundary
- Demand that the neighbor pay rent for the encroached strip
Correct answer: File a boundary action to fix the boundary and demand removal of the encroachment
La. C.C. arts. 784-796 provide boundary actions allowing an owner to demand judicial fixing of the boundary and removal of any encroachment.
Question 5: Under Louisiana law, a person who acquires immovable property by inheritance:
- Must file a judgment of possession before obtaining any property rights
- Must record a deed to protect the interest against the decedent's creditors
- Acquires ownership at the moment of the decedent's death (Correct answer)
- Must wait for the succession to be accepted before ownership transfers
Correct answer: Acquires ownership at the moment of the decedent's death
La. C.C. art. 940 provides that universal successors acquire ownership of the estate from the moment of the decedent's death by operation of law.
Question 6: Which of the following is classified as a movable under Louisiana law?
- Standing timber belonging to the landowner
- A building permanently affixed to land by the landowner
- A predial servitude over neighboring land
- An automobile (Correct answer)
Correct answer: An automobile
La. C.C. art. 471 classifies corporeal movables as things that can be moved from place to place without altering their nature, such as automobiles.
Question 7: Under Louisiana Civil Code Article 490, ownership of a tract of land extends:
- Infinitely upward and downward with no legal limits
- Above and below the surface within the limits fixed by law (Correct answer)
- Only to the surface itself, with separate ownership required for subsurface
- Only to the height of structures already built on the property
Correct answer: Above and below the surface within the limits fixed by law
La. C.C. art. 490 provides that land ownership carries with it ownership of everything directly above or below the surface within the limits fixed by law.
LA Bar Property Law 2
Under Louisiana Civil Code, which of the following is a component part of a tract of land?