Le Deuxième Grand Dérangement: Expelling Louisiana's Taking of Private Property Through Article 450

• Author: Michael C. Schimpf
• Position: J.D./D.C.L., 2020, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University
• Pages: 1564-1606

Louisiana Law Review Louisiana Law Review

Volume 80

Number 4

Summer 2020

Article 13

11-11-2020

Le Deuxième Grand Dérangement: Expelling Louisiana’s Taking of Le Deuxième Grand Dérangement: Expelling Louisiana’s Taking of

Private Property Through Article 450 Private Property Through Article 450

Michael C. Schimpf

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Repository Citation Repository Citation

Michael C. Schimpf,

Le Deuxième Grand Dérangement: Expelling Louisiana’s Taking of Private Property

Through Article 450

, 80 La. L. Rev. (2020)

Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol80/iss4/13

This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital

Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital

Commons. For more information, please contact kreed25@lsu.edu.

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Le Deuxième Grand Dérangement:1

Expelling

Louisiana’s Taking of Private Property Through

Article 450

Michael C. Schimpf 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................ 1558

I. Louisiana’s Historical Classification of Things:

Public and Private Water Bottoms ............................................. 1562

A. Things Out of Commerce: Public Water Bottoms............... 1563

1. Natural Navigable Water Bodies................................... 1564

2. Territorial Sea and Its Shores........................................ 1567

B. Things in Commerce: Private Water Bottoms

and the Protection of Private Property................................. 1569

C. Louisiana Takings Law........................................................ 1571

II. The Implied Reversion: Submerged Land

Abutting Historically Navigable Water Bodies

or the Territorial Sea .................................................................. 1572

Copyright 2020, by MICHAEL C. SCHIMPF.

 J.D./D.C.L., 2020, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University.

The author would like to specially thank Professor N. Gregory Smith, Professor

Heidi Thompson, and Christopher Handy for their excellent guidance, suggestions,

and knowledge throughout the writing and editing process. Additional thanks go to

Jacques Mestayer for his insightful article and mentorship during summer

employment. Final thanks go to the author’s family for their continual support and

encouragement.

1. “Deuxième” is French for “second.” To briefly summarize, Le Grand

Dérangement was a period in the 18th century when the British expelled the

Acadians from their homes in l’Acadie, present-day Nova Scotia. The British

claimed their property for the crown. The Acadians ended up in various places;

eventually, groups came to Louisiana. Many settled on the Louisiana coast and

swamplands, becoming the Cajuns. Some Cajun descendants and all private

landowners of coastal property potentially face losing their property to the State

as the Louisiana coast changes. See Katy Reckdahl, Mixing Oil and Water: An

Inside Loo k at What Happens When Land Sinks and Oil Money Is on the Line,

WEATHER CHANNEL, http://stories.weather.com/mixingoilandwater [https://perm

a.cc/45SH-LAPQ] (last visited Sept. 21, 2018).

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1558 LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 80

A. Blending Private Law and Public Law

with the Implied Reversion.................................................. 1573

B. Tracing the Validity of the Implied Reversion

of Naturally Navigable Water Bodies.................................. 1574

C. The Implied Reversion Encompasses the

Territorial Sea and the Arms of the Sea............................... 1576

D. Alternate Theory to the Implied Reversion:

The Landowner’s Theory .................................................... 1577

III. Takings or Not: Submerged Land and Newly

Navigable Water Bodies............................................................. 1580

A. Argument to Expand the Implied Reversion ....................... 1581

B. The Landowner of a Newly Navigable

Water Body Maintains the Property Right

until Expropriation............................................................... 1582

1. Change in Navigability Should Not Be

Used to Alter Ownership............................................... 1584

2. No Implied Reversion ................................................... 1587

3. Inequities of “Instantaneous Prescription”.................... 1588

IV. The Fair Solution or an Expansion to Inaction Takings............. 1592

A. The Gratuitous Amendment................................................. 1592

B. Expansion to Inaction .......................................................... 1594

Conclusion.................................................................................. 1597

INTRODUCTION

Over 200 years ago, the Thibodeaux family settled in South Louisiana

where they lived, hunted, and fished on the Louisiana coast.2 Eventually,

the Thibodeauxs purchased a piece of land in close proximity to Vermilion

Bay.3 They paid—and continue to pay—property taxes on the coastal tract

of land, which the State required.4 In 2012, the Thibodeauxs authorized an

oil company to open an oil well on their property in exchange for

Thibodeauxs that 40 acres of their land, including the oil well, now

belonged to the State because the land submerged below navigable

royalties.5 Right before the oil lease officially started, the State notified the

2. Id.

3. Id.

4. Id.

5. Id.