La. Civ. Code art. 3419

This is the official text of La. Civ. Code art. 3419, part of Louisiana’s Civil Code — louisiana's civil law tradition codifies persons, property, obligations, and family relations here rather than in a separate statutory code.

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Lost things

Official statutory text

One who finds a corporeal movable that has been lost is bound to make a diligent effort to locate its owner or possessor and to return the thing to him.

If a diligent effort is made and the owner is not found within three years, the finder acquires ownership.

Acts 1982, No. 187, ยง1, eff. Jan. 1, 1983.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.