Collins v. McCook

136 So. 204, 17 La. App. 415, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 251
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 16, 1931
DocketNo. 3445
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 136 So. 204 (Collins v. McCook) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Collins v. McCook, 136 So. 204, 17 La. App. 415, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 251 (La. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

STEPHENS, J.

The defendant, A. J. McCook, a resident of Caddo parish, La., ■ instituted suit No. 18723 on the docket of the Tenth district court, parish of Natchitoches, against J. T. Collins, plaintiff herein, a resident of Union county, Ark., for the sum of $659.40. In said suit, a writ of attachment was sued out, and certain property of Collins seized, upon the ground that he was a'’non-resident of .the state. Judgment was rendered for the sum sued for, and maintaining the writ of attachment. Subsequently, the judgment was executed against the property, and McCook, defendant herein, purchased the same at sheriff’s sale for $184. The sheriff deducted $71.80, the costs of the proceeding, and returned the writ as satisfied to the extent of the difference, which Ls $112.82.

The purpose of this suit is to annul that judgment and the sale resulting therefrom, because of certain alleged irregularities in the proceeding by which the judgment was obtained.

The defendant filed an exception of no cause or right of action, founded on the proposition that plaintiff’s exclusive remedy was by appeal. The exception was- overruled, and the defendant answered, denying the existence of the alleged irregularities, and asserting the legality of the judgment and subsequent proceedings, but in the alternative praying that, if it be held that the judgment attacked be a nullity, he should recover against the plaintiff the sum of $659.41 (which was the amount sued for in the attachment proceeding), in reconvention.

Judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff by the district court, annulling the judgment formerly rendered, and in favor of the defendant on his. recqnventionai demand for the sum of $112.85. The defendant appealed and the plaintiff answered the appeal, praying that the judgment upon the reconventional demand be reversed and rejected, and that otherwise the judgment be affirmed.

[417]*417Plaintiff urges a number of grounds of nullity of the judgment, among which are the following:

(1) That the judgment rendered is not one in rem, but a personal judgment.

(2) The cause of action arose in another state where both plaintiff and defendant were domiciled; and that the trial court was without authority to entertain jurisdiction.

(3) The curator ad hoc was appointed before the sheriff executed the writ of attachment and before return was made thereof.

(4) That the service was invalid, null, and void.

It is only necessary to discuss the last stated of these grounds of nullity, as the record discloses that the service of process was fatally defective. The law governing procedure against a non-resident, as it relates to the service of process when writs of attachment are caused to be issued, is found in articles ,254 and 255 of the Code of Practice.

“Art. 254 (as. amended by Act 9 of 1926). If, on the contrary, the defendant has no known place of residence, conceal his person, be absent or reside out of the State, in such case the sheriff shall serve the attachment and citation by affixing copies of the same on the door of the room where the court in which suit is pending is held; or on a bulletin board located near the entrance to the said court room.”
“Art. 255. In the latter case, the sheriff must keep the copy of the petition, in order to deliver the same to such party, should he appear, or to the advocate appointed to defend him, in his absence.”

The return of the sheriff on the citation reads as follows:

“Served certified copies of the within Citation, and the Petition A. J. McCook thereto annexed, in person upon Henry Breazeal, Curator ad hoc in the Parish of Natchitoches no miles from the Court House on the 26th day of January. 1927.
“H. H. Hathorn, Deputy Sheriff.”

The sheriff’s return oh the writ of attachment -reads:

“I do hereby certify that I served a true copy of the within writ by delivering same to H. H. Breazeale and curator in person on the 26th day of January 1927.”

It -will thus be seen that none of the requirements of the law have been complied with, except that the petition was properly served on the curator ad hoc, and even in this respect, as. contended by counsel for the plaintiff, the service was prematurely made. The citation and the writ of attachment should have been posted in accordance with the law “on the door of the room where the court in which suit is pending is held; or on a bulletin board located near the entrance to the said court room.”

The failure of the sheriff to post the citation and writ renders the service and seizure invalid; and, as the jurisdiction of the court is founded on the validity of the seizure in an attachment proceeding against a non-resident, .the judgment and resulting sheriff’s sale is likewise invalid, null, and void.

In Pugh v. Flannery, 151 La. 1063, 92 So. 699, 701, it was held:

“It is the established law of this, state that a writ of attachment in the case of a non-resident is not merely a conservatory writ, but is the basis and foundation of jurisdiction, which cannot be acquired except under the very letter of the law allowing process.”

[418]*418The following excerpt from Putnam v. President, etc., of Grand Gulf R. & Banking Co., 3 Rob. 232, has been quoted approvingly in many cases since decided:

‘‘We have repeatedly held that' the formalities prescribed by article 254 of the Code of Practice, stand .in lieu of a citation, and that they form the basis on which all the subsequent proceedings in the cause must rest. * * * This could not, in our opinion, cure the radical defect, which rendered null and void all that had been done in the suit, after the filing of the petition.”

An attempt was made during the trial of this case to show by parol that a proper legal service had been made. The testimony tendered was objected to on the ground that the only evidence of service that should be admitted is the sheriff’s returns on the citation and writ. The court, in effect, admitted the evidence subject to the objection. We are of the opinion that the legality of the service, the jurisdiction of the court, and the validity of the judgment and sale, must be determined solely upon what is contained on the face of the sheriff’s returns on the citation and writ of attachment. Evidence of the service of process aliunde should have been excluded. Leblanc v. Perroux, 21 La. Ann. page 26; Harris v. Alexander, 1 Rob. 30.

However, we may state in this connection, that if the parol evidence which was ■thus admitted be considered, it does not establish that legal service was made, but tends to show the contrary.

We think the district court correctly overruled the exception of no cause or right of action. The plaintiff Collins’ right of appeal on tne judgment rendered in the attachment proceeding was not his exclusive remedy. He was entitled to assert his •right .in an acción of nullity. The case falls clearly within the provisions, of article 606 of the Code of Practice, which authorizes actions of nullity ■ for vices of 'form. As Collins, the defendant in the attachment proceeding, was not legally cited, the seizure was invalid, and the court was without jurisdiction of the subject-matter.

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

Related

Beebe v. Larche
218 So. 3d 1114 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)
Eden v. Johnson
176 So. 2d 476 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1965)
Jacobs v. Calcasieu Frozen Foods, Inc.
103 So. 2d 99 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1958)
Glenn v. Ferrell
304 P.2d 380 (Utah Supreme Court, 1956)
Adams v. Ross Amusement Co.
158 So. 38 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1934)
Davis v. Southland Inv. Co.
149 So. 303 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1933)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
136 So. 204, 17 La. App. 415, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 251, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/collins-v-mccook-lactapp-1931.