THE FEUD


Chapter One - Title Work


This is all true. I will change the name of my neighbors with whom we have this feud however anyone who knows me will know who these people are. In other words, the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

I guess it all started around 1989. We, my wife and I, purchased a piece of land in the shape of a triangle more or less. I am a licensed surveyor and in 1979 I had surveyed four lots for Sidney B. Evans. He had acquired a strip of land between the four lots I surveyed and the road to Shorty Davis' home (now known as Ella Davis Road) and described as follows: All undivided interest in a certain triangle in the Southwest corner of the North Half of the Southwest Quarter of the Northwest Quarter, Section 12, Township 11 North, Range 8 West, running 660 feet along the South side of said tract, joined on the West by the Davis Springs Road and the North and East by a dirt road to Shorty Davis home.

Evans showed me a copy of my plat and outlined a portion of the map in yellow, stating he would sell that part to me. I had told him that I was interested in purchasing lots 1 and 2 at a later date. The description of the triangle tract of land he sold me is as follows:
A certain tract of land being a triangle lying in the SW corner of N1/2 of SW1/4 of NW1/4 Section 12, T11N, R8W, Natchitoches Parish, running 420' along South side, joined on the West by Davis Springs Road and on the North and East by a dirt road to Shorty Davis home.

As you can see the 420 feet on the south side of the tract adjoins and is the same as the 420 feet running along the north side of Lot 1. I have a notorized statement from Evans stating the following: It was my intention that the south boundary of the property described as joined by Davis Springs Road on the west and Ella Davis Road on the north which I conveyed to Mr. Billy D. Crow was to be adjacent to, abutting, and the same as the four hundred and twenty (420 feet) running along the north boundary of Lot 1 or a survey by Billy D. Crow for Sidney B. Evans, Jr. dated February 6, 1979.

Remember the four hundred and twenty feet and the part in my description where it says my property is joined on the west by Davis Springs Road and on the north by the road to Shorty Davis' home. These points are pertinent to some aspects of our feud. Also see the statute mentioned below

In 1991 the people with whom we have this feud, Raymond and White (she was a Rogers at the time) purchased the Shorty Davis Property. I think Shorty had passed away prior to the Whitemans acquiring the property. And herein lies the beginning of hell.

Their tract of land is described as follows:
Tract I:

North half of SW1/4 of NW1/4, Section 12, Township 11 North, Range 8 West, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, together with all buildings and improvements thereon.

Less and except:

There are several less and excepts but the only one we are concerned with is the one where Sidney Evans acquired the 660 feet mentioned above from John C. Davis, a/k/a Shorty Davis. I had acquired 420 feet of this tract from Evans at least two years prior to the White conveyance
.

I think Raymond acquired his property around December of 1991. The first time I saw him I knew he was not going to be a very good neighbor. He had some horses and a couple of them got out and came trotting down the gravel road from his house. My wife headed them off before they got to the blacktop and White was not far behind. He put a rope around their necks and headed back toward his place. No thank you, kiss my ass or anything. In fact he didn't even speak.

The Whites hired Glen Cannon to survey their property. This was done sometimes in 1992. When I saw his plat of survey, I knew that there would be problems. He surveyed the land and showed that the gravel road (Ella Davis Road) belonged to the Whites and showed the property line running along the back of the ditch on my side. I knew that this was an error because I had senior title and owned to the center of Ella Davis Road as per Revised Statute 2971 which states the following:

PART III. TRANSFER OF LANDS FRONTING
WATERWAYS, HIGHWAYS, ETC

It shall be conclusively presumed that any transfer, conveyance, surface lease, mineral lease, mortgage or any other contract or grant affecting land described as fronting on or bounded by a waterway, canal, highway, road, street, alley, railroad or other right of way, shall be held, deemed and cnstrued to include all of grantor's interest in and under such waterway, canal, highway, road, street alley railroad, or other right of way, whatever that interest may be, in the absence of any express provision therein particularly excluding the same therefrom; provided, nthat where the grantor at the time of the transfer or other grant holds as owner the title to the fee of the land situated on both sides thereof and makes a transfer or other grant affecting the land situated on only one side thereof, it shall then be conclusively presumed, in the absence of any express provision therein particularly excluding the same therefrom, that the transfer or other such grant thereof shall include the grantor's interest to the center of such waterway, canal, highyway, road, street, alley railroad, or other right of way; provided further, however, that no then existing valid right or way upon, across or over said property so transferred or conveyed or so presumed to be conveyed and no warranties with respect thereto shall be in any manner or to any extent impaired, prejudiced, or otherwise affected by any of the terms and provisions of this Part or because of the failure of such grantor or transferror to therein make special reference to such right of way or to include or exclude same therefrom.

My wife had talked to his live-in girlfriend, Judy, who indicated that they intended to put a gate on the gravel road at the blacktop and fence it off because they had horses. My wife told them the road was a parish road. The Whites were under the impression that the road was theirs and was a private drive.

Naturally, this pissed them off. They found out Ella Davis Road was maintained by the parish and was not their private drive.

While Shorty lived at the end of the road we used to park our car on the shoulder of the road and did so with no problems. After the Whites acquired the property, they called the police out on us. The police didn't say we could not park on the road but eventually over a period of time we purchased four culverts and put in four driveways.

Chapter Two - See you in court


Several months later my wife, Mildred, bought a poodle from her sister. It was about a year old I guess. I was out in the yard and had let the poodle out to do its job. I didn't know it at the time but White's rottweiler was behind my mobile home. I heard a yelp and ran around the trailer to see my wife's poodle in the rottweiler's mouth. I grabbed a golf club from under the porch and started chasing the rottweiler. It released the poodle and ran down the gravel road back toward Whites. The poodle's side was ripped open. My wife got a towel and wrapped around the poodle putting pressure on the wound and my daughter drove her to the vet in Natchitoches. The vet did surgery but the next morning the poodle died.

I sued the Whites in small claims court for the vet bills and the cost of the poodle. In court the Whites claimed that their two rottweilers were at work with him the day of the attack. Two of his co-workers signed statements to this effect. The Judge didn't buy it, but it shows perjury doesn't bother them a bit. Raymond, Judy and all her children will lie in a heartbeat which I will explain later. None the less, I won my suit.

Chapter Three - Driving lessons


Both of them drive as close to our side of the road as they can when leaving or returning to their home. They have done so since 1992 and by doing so have widened the road surface by at least three or four feet. I have reported this to the police but they say there is nothing that they can do about it unless there is an accident.

That part doesn't bother me so much because in 1992 I surveyed my lot and put my corners in the center of the road as it was at that time so if the road ends up being taken out of the police jury system and we end up putting a fence down the center of the road it should be a little wider on my side.

Chapter Four - Buster


And then we come to Judy's children, two sons and two daughters, none of whom are Raymond's, although I think she does have a baby by him now. I will not use the real name of the children. Actually, I only know the name of one of them. Lets call him Buster.

We had a ramp from the top of our ditch down to the shoulder of the road at our mailbox. It was made of four or five two by six treated boards. One afternoon, after the lawsuit, there is Buster riding his bicycle up the ramp, into our yard, back through the ditch , into the yard and down the ramp. He keeps doing this and I tell him to stop. He says he doesn't have to, that they own the road and we are not supposed to have that ramp there. Now we are talking about a boy who is between ten and twelve. Where do you think he hears this kind of stuff? At any rate I keep telling him to stop and he says I can't make him so I tell him I am going to call the police. He says "Go ahead." So I do. By now it is getting dark. Buster keeps it up until the police show up. The patrolman talks to him in private and takes him to his house.

On a couple of other occasions, Buster and his brother take the boards on the ramp and throw them up in the yard. On one occasion we even video taped them doing it and it didn't even phase them. At other times the children have thrown rocks and knocked out the street lights, stolen mailboxes and took down posted signs that we had up. Raymond was seen driving by and hitting our mailbox with some object. He has stopped his truck and dumped dead animals across the road directly in front of the mobile home we lived in at the time. He has dumped crawfish heads, beer cans, etc on our property. On many of these occasions, the police were called out. They say he dumped the dead animals on his land, that we didn't see them dump the crawfish heads, that we didn't have proof that their children were the ones who knocked out the streetlights. They are the only ones who live down the road. Who else would do it? Funny how when you need help by the law, you can't get it.

Chapter five - Blue eyes


Then there is the blue eyed rottweiler. I had a female huskie and the White's male rottweiler got with it. One of the puppies turned out looking like a rottweiler, only both eyes were blue. We always kept it chained up because we knew the dog was unique and if it strayed off, someone would take it.

Buster and his brother would throw rocks at it and tease it when they would walk down the road to catch the school bus and return home. The dog must have been two or three years old when Buster told our neighbor's son, who lives next door, that he was going to kill it. A week or two after that, the dog is dead with its head almost cut off and many, what looked to be knife wounds. Again, we didn't see it happen so there is nothing the police can do.

Not long before that, my wife had bought a goat and had it tied to a tree behind our mobile home. She had the goat about two weeks before almost the same thing happened to it. Its head was cut slap off.

I can't prove it but I guarantee Buster is the one who killed both animals. This is to show you just what kind of people we are dealing with here.

Chapter six - Batters up


Then there was the time when we were living in our old mobile home. It was in the winter of 1993. We continually had problems with Judy's kids, especially Buster. One morning my daughter Ella, was awakened by Jodie's kids. Apparently they were in our yard and my wife had told them to get off our property. Ella heard Buster say, "F... you bitch, I don't have to do anything you say." He told my wife to shut up and continued with his foul language.

Upon hearing all of this Ella went outside and told them to go on down to the end of the road and wait on the school bus, whereon Buster says, "Shut up you big fat cow." (Ella was pregnant at this time with her first child, Nicholas.)

Ella then went and got the hose and started spraying water in our roadway ditch and the kids went on down to the end of the road and waited for the school bus. She said she couldn't reach them with the water.

About a week later, Ella was arrested for simple battery. Buster had bruises on his arm and they claimed that Ella had hit him.

Even though I work away from home and was not there for the so called attack, I knew my wife and Ella were telling the truth and I also knew who the liars were. So I didn't hire an attorney. I defended her myself. We talked to one of his teachers and learned that he had a fight at school during the week in question and more than likely acquired his wounds at that time. His teacher signed a statement to that effect.

But, sure enough, at her trial, Judy marched all her kids up on the stand to say that Ella had attacked Butch. Now remember, this is a kid who wouldn't even back down from a policeman. We also had vidio of Buster and his brother throwing the boards to our ramp into the yard.

Finally, the judge just said for us to leave all our evidence and he would review it. That was the last we ever heard anything about the simple battery case. Guess we won by default.

Chapter seven - Take it out


Three years ago we bought a new mobile home. It is situated on lot one of my plat. No one lived in the old mobile home and we only used one of the driveways on Ella Davis Road. The new mobile home faced the blacktop road so we didn't travel Ella Davis Road as we once did.

So earlier this year Judy contacted the Natchitoches Parish Police Jury intending to have Ella Davis Road taken out of the system and closed. The portion of Ella Davis Road past the end of my property had been closed earlier and the Blackmans had erected a gate there. I knew that if the road was taken out of the system and closed , the Blackmans's intent was to move their gate to the blacktop and fence along the top of my ditch.

My wife and I attended the Police Jury meeting. I told them we did not want the road closed and what the White's intent was in regard to the gate. Judy said it was true that they would move the gate to the blacktop and fence the road in. I brought up the fact that I owned fee title to the center of Ella Davis Road as per the statute previously mentioned. Judy was then asked whether they still wanted the road closed even though it might be fenced down the center. She said she still wanted it closed.

The police jurors then said that this was the wrong forum for this discussion and that we would have to bring it up at the Traffic Planning Committee which was to meet about three weeks from then.

My wife and I went to the Traffic Planning Committee meeting. Judy did not show so I though perhaps she had dropped he plan to have the road closed. I had showed up planning to give my side of things whereon one of the jurors made a motion that the road be kept open and another one seconded the motion. My wife and I left. We learned later on that evening that after we left Judy showed up and raised all kinds of hell.

At the next police jury meeting Judy showed up again, still wanting to have the road closed. We were not at this meeting. She was told that for them to follow proper procedure, there would have to be a public hearing and the proposed closure would have to be published in the local newspaper three times.

The hearing was scheduled for May 4, 1998. Things went pretty much as I expected. We showed up with a neighbor and the lady who is renting our old mobile home. Raymond, Judy, Buster and a couple who are friends to them showed up, which really amazed me because I didn't think they had any friends. Judy had called our police juror earlier that trying to postpone the hearing, saying that there had been a death in the family. The juror would not postpone it. I heard that Buster and his brother had been arrested for breaking into a local store and Judy was trying to tend to that.

Judy got up first at the meeting talking about saving tax payers money by closing the road. Then Raymond got up and said that he had a survey showing the road was his and that I had surveyed my property to the center of the road and was trying to take his land. He said I had access from the backtop and the road was his.

Then it was my turn. I said I could understand him thinking he owned the road when his surveyor showed that he did but that the survey was in error. I said several surveyors had read my title, Raymond's title and the revised statute and they all agree that I own fee title to the center. I told about calling Cannon on the phone about three weeks previously and asking him just what law he used to determine that the Whitemans owned the road. Cannon had stated that he would research his records and would get back with me. I had not heard from him so the Friday prior to the hearing I went by his office and showed him the stature and asked him if he had found anything. He said he had not. I asked him to read the statute and see what he thought. He read it and said, "You might be right." I then told the jurors that Cannon would not find a law to explain how he determined that the Whites owned the road because no such law exist. Whereon I tore the map in half and said, "That's what this map is worth." I stated that my son had been donated a lot down the road and that my son and my renter both need the road for access and wanted to keep it open.

Raymond returned to the podium and said that Evans, who I bought from, signed a statement saying that he did not buy the road when he acquired the 660 foot strip from Shorty Davis. (What is apparent to me is that Evans did not know about the statute or he would have known, with the property described as it was, he owned fee title to the center of Ella Davis Road.)

At any rate the police jurors voted. It came out in my favor. Only one juror voted to have the road closed. On the way out of the police jury room, Raymond glared at me with such rage and hate I thought he was going to explode. He stopped at the door and turned to me saying, "This is not over." With a slight smile I replied, "Go for it."

So.......What comes next? Probably see him in court.

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