The Louisiana Good Faith Purchaser Doctrine: Codified Confusion

Comment by Spencer C. Sinclair

When a nonowner sells a piece of movable property to a person who is unaware that the seller is not the owner, who should the law protect: the true owner of the property or the purchaser who was in good faith? The Louisiana legislature attempted to pass a comprehensive solution to this dilemma in a series of Civil Code articles, collectively called the good faith purchaser doctrine. Before the doctrine was operational, however, the legislature repealed the doctrine’s central article. What remains is an incomplete set of rules to guide courts in these troubling circumstances. In light of the resulting case law, this Comment considers the deficiencies of the doctrine in its incomplete form and calls on the Louisiana legislature for a cure.


Citation

89 Tul. L. Rev. 517 (2014)