Art. 3663.Sequestration; Injunctive Relief

A real action can take time to litigate, and Article 3663 supplies two provisional tools to protect the property, or the plaintiff's possession of it, while the case is pending. Sequestration — a court order impounding the property so no one can dispose of it or alter its condition before judgment — is available for immovable property or a real right in it caught up in a possessory or petitory action, under the general attachment-and-sequestration provisions found in Chapter 1 of Title I of this Book.

Injunctive relief, drawn from the general injunction provisions in Chapter 2 of that same Title, is available more broadly than sequestration is. It reaches a possessory-action plaintiff during the pendency of that action, protecting the possession the suit is meant to vindicate. It also reaches someone who has not yet filed suit at all: a person disturbed in a possession that the person and predecessors in title have held for more than a year, where that person claims ownership, possession, or enjoyment of the property or real right.

Together, these tools let a court freeze the practical situation on the ground — who holds the property, and in what condition — while the underlying dispute over possession or ownership works its way to judgment.