First Natl. Bank v. Hutto

121 So. 325, 10 La. App. 448, 1929 La. App. LEXIS 74
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 5, 1929
DocketNo. 2612
StatusPublished

This text of 121 So. 325 (First Natl. Bank v. Hutto) 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
First Natl. Bank v. Hutto, 121 So. 325, 10 La. App. 448, 1929 La. App. LEXIS 74 (La. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

STATEMENT OF THE CASE.

REYNOLDS, J.

By act, executed in the County of San Augustine in the State of Texas, on February 12, 1924, and filed for record the next day, the defendant, J. H. Hutto, mortgaged to the plaintiff, First National Bank of San Augustine, Texas, certain chattels, the proceeds of the sale whereof constitute the subject matter of this litigation, to secure the payment of certain indebtedness owing by him to it.

And by act, executed in the County of Sabine in the State of Texas, on September 23, 1924, and filed for record on October 9, 1924, the defendant, Hutto, mortgaged the same chattels to the intervener, First National Bank of Hemphill, Texas, to secure the payment of certain indebtedness owing by him to it.

Shortly prior to October 1, 1924, the mortgaged property was removed to Sabine Parish in the State of Louisiana, and, on October 23, 1924, the plaintiff caused its mortgage to be filed in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, and instituted suit against Hut-to there to obtain judgment against him for its debt and for the foreclosure of its mortgage. And under proper averments and on giving bond a writ of sequestration was issued and the mortgaged property sequestered. Service was had on Hutto and judgment was rendered against him and in favor of the plaintiff for its debt and sustaining the writ of sequestration.

Thereafter the intervenor, First Na[449]*449tional Bank of Hemphill, Texas, filed its intervention in the action and set up its debt and mortgage. It made Hutto a party defendant thereto and asked for judgment against him for its debt and recognition of its mortgage. It alleged that the lien of its mortgage on the mortgaged chattels was superior to the lien of plaintiff’s mortgage and asked that its debt be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of the property by preference over plaintiff. The grounds of priority alleged are:

“* * * that the property covered by appearer’s mortgage * * * was at the time of the granting of said mortgage and had been for twelve months prior thereto situated within the county of Sabine, state of Texas, and had not been removed therefrom and were not removed therefrom until they were brought to the state of Louisiana.
“* * * that the property * * * covered by its special mortgage was removed to the parish of Sabine, Louisiana, by the said J. H. Hutto, with the knowledge and consent of your appearer, and that on October 8, 1924, the said Hutto executed a certain chattel mortgage covering said property, in the parish of Sabine, which said chattel mortgage specifically refers to and recognizes on its face appearer’s prior mortgage, and that said mortgage in favor of R. L. Travis containing stipulation recognizing appearer’s mortgage, was duly filed for record among the mortgage records of Sabine parish, Louisiana, on October 8, 1924, and was recorded in Book 4 of chattel mortgages at page 143 and operated from that date as a recognition of appearer’s mortgage and notice to third persons of the existence thereof.”

Plaintiff answered intervener’s petition and denied the allegations thereof.

On these issues the case was tried and there was judgment in. favor of the plaintiff ' and against the intervener and the intervener appealed.

OPINION.

Both Louisiana and Texas counsel for plaintiff and Louisiana and Texas counsel for intervener insist that the rank of the mortgages of their respective clients is to be determined by the laws of the state of Texas and to that end proof of the laws of that state on the subject was duly made.

Intervener contends that at the time plaintiff’s mortgage was given the mortgagor was not a resident of San Augustine county, Texas, and that the mortgaged property was not then in that parish, and that therefore plaintiff acquired no mortgage on the chattels by reason of the execution and recordation of its alleged mortgage.

Intervener, in brief, says:

“The District Court took the position that the question to be decided was the application of the Texas law to ■ the two alleged mortgages, and held that the San Augustine bank had the prior mortgage. This finding of the court was based upon an erroneous statement of the facts, the court holding that the time the San Augustine bank took its mortgage the property was in the county of San Augustine and that the defendant, Hutto, then resided in San Augustine county, and that the property was removed from San Augustine county into Sabine county, Texas, without the knowledge and consent of the San Augustine bank.
“We submit that the evidence clearly shows that the property and the defendant moved into Sabine county in September, 1923, some six months before the San Augustine bank took its mortgage.”

The first question to be determined, therefore, is, whether Hutto was a resident of San Augustine county and whether the property was in that county at the time the mortgage to plaintiff was given.

On this question our learned brother of the District Court held:

“The only, question to be decided in this case is whether the plaintiff, the First Na[450]*450tional Bank of San Augustine, has a superior lien and privilege upon the stock seized herein, or whether the lien of the First National Bank of Hemphill outranks plaintiff’s upon said stock. It is necessary to decide said issue according to the law of the state of Texas, as the contracts were executed according to the laws of that state. At the time the mortgage was executed in favor of the First National Bank of San Augustine, Hutto was living, with his family, on his farm about seven miles from the town of San Augustine, and the stock were also located in said county. There is no question about the stock not being located in said county when the note and mortgage were given. However, when the mortgage was executed in favor of intervener, the said Hutto was doing work in Sabine county, and had the stock in this county some time before the mortgage was given, and it seems that he had also done some work in Jasper county. As stated before, it is necessary to decide' this case according to the laws of Texas. The statute of said state, which has been filed in the record of this suit, contains certain provisions, and in order to cite the construction placed upon said statute by the courts of Texas, said statute is copied herein in part as follows:
“‘Art. 6841 (4651). Titles to chattels, where recorded. Every deed, mortgage or other writing respecting the title of personal property hereafter executed, which by law ought to be recorded, shall be recorded in the clerk’s office of the county court of that county in which the property shall remain; and if afterwards the person claiming title under such deed, mortgage or other writing, shall permit any other person in whose possession such property may be, to remove with the same or any part thereof out of the county in which the same shall be recorded, and shall not, within four months after such removal, cause the same to be recorded in the county to which such property shall be removed, such deed, mortgage or other writing, for so long as it shall not be recorded in such last mentioned county, and for so much of the property as shall have been removed, shall be voided as to all creditors and purchasers thereof for valuable consideration without notice.’

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Bluebook (online)
121 So. 325, 10 La. App. 448, 1929 La. App. LEXIS 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-natl-bank-v-hutto-lactapp-1929.