Abbott v. Heald

55 So. 28, 128 La. 718, 1911 La. LEXIS 620
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 10, 1911
DocketNo. 18,022
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 55 So. 28 (Abbott v. Heald) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abbott v. Heald, 55 So. 28, 128 La. 718, 1911 La. LEXIS 620 (La. 1911).

Opinion

LAND, J.

Plaintiff sued out executory process on a mortgage for $3,000, executed by the defendant. The latter enjoined the execution on the ground of partial payments not credited on the mortgage note. Defendant subsequently dismissed tbe injunction suit, and filed a third opposition, claiming as a homestead $2,000 out of the proceeds of the sale of the property. The United Irrigation & Rice Milling Company also filed an intervention and third opposition, claiming $2,000 of the proceeds by virtue of a special mortgage executed by tbe defendant, in February, 1907, with a waiver of homestead rights by the husband and wife.

The mortgage from the defendant to the-plaintiff, was executed in December, 1902,. and contained no such waiver.

The mortgaged property was sold at sheriff’s sale for $4,20,0. It appears that after' the seizure the defendant transferred certain movables attached to tbe premises totbe intervener and third opponent.

There was judgment in favor of tbe United Irrigation & Rice Milling Company for $2,000, to be paid by preference out of tbe proceeds of tbe sale, less the pro rata of taxes and costs of sale, and less $445, the value of the said movables disposed of after the seizure of the rest of the homestead.

Plaintiff has appealed, and has filed in this court a motion to vacate the judicial sale-on several grounds. The intervener has prayed for an amendment of the judgment by rejecting the item of taxes, and by allowing an additional credit of $286.17 on the mortgage note and coupons sued on by the plaintiff.

On December 12, 1899, an agreement was made between George Cox and H. E. Heald, by which the former agreed to sell to the latter a certain tract of land containing about 162 acres for the price of $2,030.25, for which notes were given by the purchaser, who further agreed to put the premises in a suitable condition for raising rice thereon, and to cultivate the land, except 10 acres thereof, in rice, and to deliver one-half of the crops of rice from year to year, until the price of the land and such other sums as might he advanced by said Cox for sink[721]*721ing a well on the premises should he fully-paid. It was stipulated that the failure of Heald to comply with the requirements of the agreement, or any of them, should work a forfeiture of the contract, and that he should thereupon surrender the premises upon receiving 30 days’ notice to quit, and that Heald should pay all the taxes assessed against said land.

This agreement was executed by Heald’s. taking possession of the premises, building a dwelling house, and making other improvements thereon, and by raising crops, of rice, portions of which were delivered to Cox. In December, 1902, Heald owed Cox a balance of $1,650. On the 22d of said month, Heald borrowed from the plaintiff, who was a money lender, the sum of $3,000, at 8 per cent, interest, and to secure the payments of the same specially mortgaged his tract of land in the usual form, without waiving his homestead.

On December 17, 1902, Cox executed in Iowa a warranty cash deed to Heald, which he sent to his agent in Calcasieu, to be delivered upon the payment of $1,650, the balance due by Heald on the purchase price, pursuant to the agreement of December 12, 1809. Heald paid this amount on December 22, 1902, out of the sum of $3,000, borrowed from the plaintiff on that date.

The first question in the case is that of the homestead rights of Heald as against the plaintiff. Heald had a wife and children dependent on him for support, and was therefore entitled to a homestead. He moved on the land in December, 1899, built his dwelling thereon, and occupied the premises as owner, until the property was sold at sheriff’s sale in March, 1909.

The agreement of sale, executed on December 12, 1899, transferred the title to Heald, subject to the condition of the payment of the price as stipulated in the contract. The warranty cash deed of December 17, 1902, was a confirmation of the title previously conveyed. ■ Hence, when Heald executed a special mortgage in favor of the plaintiff on December 22, 1902, he had a title to the-property, and his homestead rights thereon had accrued.

As shown by the records, the warranty cash deed antedated the mortgage in favor of the plaintiff, and was filed for registry before the mortgage was recorded. Hence,, as to third persons, the mortgage was executed after the legal title had passed to the defendant. The contention that both were of the same date rests on facts in paiswhich cannot affect the rights of the milling company.

[1] On this state of facts, it is well settled that the plaintiff acquired no right or mortgage against the homestead, except on the surplus of the price above the sum of $2,000. See Glenn v. Bresnan, 123 La. 1014, 49 South. 690; Lear v. Heffner, 28 La. Ann. 829.

In Glenn v. Bresnan, it was also held that a mortgage executed by the husband and wife, with a waiver of their homestead rights in accordance with the statute, primes-prior mortgages executed by the husband alone. We see no good reasons for reversing the doctrine so enunciated in that ease.

[4] The contention of the plaintiff that there was some kind of fraud or deception practiced on him by the defendant and intervener concealing their intention to claim the homestead until after the sheriff’s sale had been made, thereby inducing the plaintiff not to bid over the sum of $4,200, the price at which the property was adjudicated, is without any legal foundation. In. Johnson v. Agurs, 116 La. 634, 40 South. 923, 114 Am. St. Rep. 562, this court held that the debtor can claim the $2,00,0 reserved to him, in ease of a judicial salé of the homestead, as long as the proceeds remain in the hands of the sheriff or of the pur[723]*723chaser. The' exercise of a legal right cannot work a legal injury.

[3] Plaintiff paid, the taxes on the land to the amount of $127, and by so doing was subrogated to the privilege of the taxing authorities by operation of law. Dickson v. Hynes et al., 36 La. Ann. 684; C. C. 2161. The taxes primed the homestead, and the judge a quo properly charged such claim with its proportion of the taxes. Section 89 of Act No. 170 of 1898 provides for the conventional subrogation of any person who may pay the taxes of another, and is not inconsistent with the legal subrogation, which takes place for the benefit of a creditor who pays another, whose claim is preferable to his by reason of privilege or mortgage. C. C. 2161.

Appellee’s contention that the mortgage claim of the plaintiff should be credited with the further sum of $286.17 was rejected by the judge a quo, and on the conflicting evidence in the record we cannot say that the ruling was clearly erroneous.

The movables of the premises were not seized under the executory process sued out by the plaintiff, and a few days after the seizure of the land, with the buildings and improvements thereon, the defendant transferred all of said movables to the United Irrigation & Rice Milling Company, the holder of the second mortgage. [2] The judgment below deducts from the homestead claim certain of these movables to the amount of $445, on the theory that the same constituted a part of the homestead exemption of $2,000 in amount, and should be credited on the homestead claim.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Lamar Life Insurance v. Babin
163 So. 2d 81 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1963)
First Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n of Shreveport v. Blanchard
197 So. 277 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1940)
Federal Land Bank of New Orleans v. Jordan
160 So. 176 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1935)
Blanco v. Pérez Pierret
46 P.R. 788 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 1934)
Reymond v. Louisiana Trust & Savings Bank
148 So. 663 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1933)
Sitges v. St. Bernard Syndicate
125 So. 850 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1929)
Timken v. Wisner Estates, Inc.
95 So. 711 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1923)
Jackson v. Hodges
76 So. 174 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1917)
Bank of Napoleonville v. Delaune
75 So. 840 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1917)
Coleman v. Continental Bank & Trust Co.
72 So. 742 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1916)
State ex rel. Union Cent. Life Ins. v. Dunn
62 So. 639 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1913)
Hardesty v. Warner
58 So. 527 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1912)
Ridgell v. State
55 So. 327 (Alabama Court of Appeals, 1911)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
55 So. 28, 128 La. 718, 1911 La. LEXIS 620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abbott-v-heald-la-1911.