Crowley Bank & Trust Co. v. Hurd

71 So. 128, 138 La. 978, 1916 La. LEXIS 1558
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedFebruary 7, 1916
DocketNo. 21735
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 71 So. 128 (Crowley Bank & Trust Co. v. Hurd) 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
Crowley Bank & Trust Co. v. Hurd, 71 So. 128, 138 La. 978, 1916 La. LEXIS 1558 (La. 1916).

Opinion

O’NIELL, J.

The plaintiff instituted ex-ecutory proceedings against the defendant on a mortgage note for $4,000. The note was held by the bank as collateral security for a debt of $2,750, represented by two promissory notes due by the defendant, on which he also owed interest at 8 per cent, per annum on $100 from the 27th of October, 1914, and on $2,650 from the 31st of December, 1914, and 10 .per cent, attorney’s fees.

Acknowledging the indebtedness of $2,750 and the interest and attorney’s fees due, and alleging that that was all he owed, the defendant sued for and obtained a writ of injunction, the effect of which was to prevent the collection of the excess claimed on the mortgage note. Instead of proceeding with the sale of the defendant’s property to collect the amount acknowledged to be due by him, the plaintiff moved to dissolve the injunction, and withheld the sale pending the trial of the motion to dissolve the writ. Judgment was rendered dissolving the injunction, and on appeal to this court the writ was perpetuated only in so far as it prevented the collection of more than the $2,750 and the interest and attorney’s fees acknowledged to be due by the defendant. See Crowley Bank & Trust Co. v. Hurd, 137 La. 787, 69 South. 175. A rehearing was de-nied, and the judgment became final on the 28th of June, 1915.

A certified copy of the mandate of this court was filed in the district court in which the judgment had been rendered, but it was not recorded.

Thereafter the property was readvertised to be sold on the 31st of July, 1915; and on the 30th of that month the defendant sued for and pbtained a second writ of injunction arresting the sale of his property.

In his petition for this second injunction the defendant alleged that the property had been seized and the sale enjoined on the ground that the writ had issued for a greater amount than was due; that the writ of injunction was dissolved and set aside by a judgment of the district court, from which he (defendant) prosecuted a suspensive appeal to the Supreme Court, where the injunction was reinstated and perpetuated in so far as to prevent the collection of moré than the $2,750 and the interest and attorney’s fees acknowledged to be due; that it was then ordered that the writ of seizure and sale be executed for the collection of the amount due to the bank; that the mandate of the Supreme Court was not recorded, as required by article 619 of the Code of Practice'; and that therefore the plaintiff had no right, and the sheriff no authority, to readvertise the property for sale under the writ of seizure and sale.

In the alternative, in the event the above contention should be overruled, the defendant alleged that the attempted sale was not advertised in the ’ newspaper required by law nor for the time required by law.

In the alternative, in the event both of the foregoing contentions should be overruled, the defendant alleged that he was not served with a notice to appoint an appraiser, and that he was entitled to have service of such notice 10 days before the sale.

The plaintiff filed a motion, to dissolve the injunction. In response to the defendant’s first complaint the plaintiff showed that the sheriff was proceeding, not under a mandate of the Supreme Court, but under the original order of seizure and sale issued from the district court. The plaintiff averred that the defendant’s first writ of injunction had [981]*981not at any time prevented the collection of the amount which the defendant acknowledged he owed; that the defendant’s suspensive appeal to the Supreme Court had had no greater effect than the injunction; and hence that the executory proceedings to collect the amount acknowledged to be due were not arrested or held in abeyance awaiting the registry of the mandate of the Supreme Court. In answer to the defendant’s second contention the plaintiff alleged that the notice of the proposed sale was published in a newspaper in the parish of Acadia once a week during a period exceeding 30 days, and that the defendant had not exercised his right to select the newspaper. As to the defendant’s third complaint, the plaintiff alleged, in the motion to dissolve the injunction, that the notice to appoint an appraiser had been served upon the defendant within the time required by law, and that whether the notice was or was not served was of no importance, since the defendant had taken cognizance of the proposed sale in ample time to have appointed an appraiser if he had seen fit. The plaintiff therefore prayed for the dissolution of the writ of injunction and for a judgment against the defendant for $3Q0 damages for attorney’s fees for dissolving the writ. °

As the motion to dissolve the injunction denied some of the allegations on which the writ had issued, it was properly referred to the merits. Judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff dissolving the injunction and condemning the defendant to pay ?100 damages for attorney’s fees. The defendant has appealed, and the plaintiff prays that the judgment for damages be increased to ?300.

Opinion.

[1] There is no merit in the defendant’s contention that the sheriff should not have proceeded with the executory process to collect the amount acknowledged to be due before the judgment of this court was recorded in the district court. Articles 618 and 619 of the Code of Practice provide that a judgment rendered by an appellate court, whether affirming or reversing the judgment appealed from, cannot be executed until it has been recorded in the inferior court which first had cognizance of the cause. But there was no attempt to execute the judgment rendered on appeal in this ease. The plaintiff had the right to proceed with the sale in the executory proceedings to' collect the amount acknowledged to be due, after being enjoined from collecting the excess called for on the mortgage note. C. P. 298 (No. 10), 739 and 743; Whitney-Central Trust & Savings Bank v. Sinnott, 135 La. 790, 66 South. 222; Crowley Bank & Trust Co. v. Hurd, 137 La. 787, 69 South. 175.

[2] The defendant’s contention that the notice of sale should have been published in the official journal of the parish in which the sale was to be made is also without merit. The law provides that such an advertisement shall be published once a week for a period of 30 days in a newspaper of the parish wherein the judicial proceedings are carried on or where the sale is tt> take place; and when there are two or more newspapers published in the parish, the defendant has the right, within 3 days after receiving notice of the seizure, to select the newspaper in which the advertisement shall be published. See sections 1 and 2 of Act No. 91 of 1876. In this case the advertisement of the proposed sale appeared in a daily newspaper published in the parish seat where the sale was to be made, in its issues of Wednesday, the 30th of June, and of Saturday, the 3d, 10th, 17th, and 24th of July. The writ of injunction issued on the 30th of July, and perhaps prevented the publishing of the notice of sale again on the morning of the 31st of July, the date of the proposed sale. The law regarding the advertisement of the proposed sale [983]*983wag therefore complied with up to the time the injunction issued.

The defendant’s complaint that he was not served with a notice to appoint an appraiser is well founded. It was admitted on the trial of this case that the defendant was never served with a notice to appoint an appraiser of his property.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
71 So. 128, 138 La. 978, 1916 La. LEXIS 1558, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crowley-bank-trust-co-v-hurd-la-1916.