Givens v. Arcadia Cotton Oil Mill & Mfg. Co.

160 So. 845, 1935 La. App. LEXIS 269
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 2, 1935
DocketNo. 4949.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 160 So. 845 (Givens v. Arcadia Cotton Oil Mill & Mfg. Co.) 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
Givens v. Arcadia Cotton Oil Mill & Mfg. Co., 160 So. 845, 1935 La. App. LEXIS 269 (La. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

DREW, Judge.

The defendant herein, Arcadia Cotton Oil Mill & Manufacturing Company, obtained a writ of executory process against E. C. Givens et al., plaintiffs herein, in suit No. 9735 on the docket of the Third judicial district court of Lincoln parish, La. The mortgage and note sued on is for $2,000 and covered the E. ‘½ of the N. W. ½, N. E. ⅛ of S. W. ½; and S. E. ⅛ of section 23, township 18 north, range 5 west, and was for a balance due-of $764, with 8 per cent, per annum interest from October 15, 1931, and 10 per cent, additional as attorney’s fees. The mortgage note was made payable to the order of “myself” and signed and indorsed in blank by Mrs. C. A. Givens.

The mortgage contained the usual clause to the effect that defendant 'binds herself not to alienate, deteriorate, or encumber the property mortgaged to the prejudice of said mortgage, waived the benefits of appraisement, and confessed judgment on same.

At the time these proceedings were started, Mrs. Givens was dead and the suit was brought against all of her heirs. The land described was advertised for sale in due course by the sheriff of Lincoln parish, and the sale date fixed for Saturday, September 30, 1933.

The plaintiffs herein, who were defendants in the foreclosure procedure, filed suit on September 23, 1933, praying for a writ of injunction to issue, and rule was issued ordering the defendant herein to show cause why a writ of injunction should not issue without bond. The sole and only ground alleged for the writ of injunction by plaintiffs is that the note sued on had been fully paid and discharged. They did not allege that a writ was necessary or that any injury would result to them if the writ did not issue.

Defendant in injunction filed the following exceptions:

1. Exception of no right or cause of action ;
2. Plea of res judicata; and
3. Plea of estoppel.

*846 After reserving all of its rights under the above exceptions, defendant filed answer admitting that the plaintiffs were the children and legal heirs of Mrs. C. A. Givens, deceased. It denied that the note sued on had been paid, and admitted that the property had been seized and advertised for sale. It denied the right of plaintiffs to an injunction or rule nisi.

Defendant further answered, alleging that the note sued on was deposited with the First National Bank of Arcadia for a line of credit for R. W. Givens in the amount of $2,500, exclusive of interest. Defendant then alleged that none of the plaintiffs has any interest whatever in this proceeding, except Earl G. Givens; that the plaintiffs’ mother, Mrs. C. A. Givens, pretended to sell the land in controversy herein to her son, Earl C. Givens; and that a deed of same was made and placed of record, with the full knowledge and consent .of the other heirs herein, as is shown by the pleadings and evidence taken in the case of “Earl 0. Givens v. First National Bank of Arcadia,” No. 8757 on the docket of the Third judicial district court in and for the parish of Lincoln, which it made a part of its answer to show rem ipsam, and for the specific purpose of showing that none of the plaintiffs, except Earl 0. Givens, had any interest whatever in this suit.

Defendant further alleged that the joining of the other plaintiffs in this suit was a fraud and a subterfuge attempted to be perpetrated upon the defendant. Further alleged that the same identical allegations as are made in this suit were made by Earl 0. Givens in suit No. 8757, which was tried and the demands of plaintiff rejected. Further alleged that the trial of said suit and the decision therein on the same issues had become res judicata, and that the other plaintiffs, other than Earl 0. Givens, were joined in this suit for the purpose of avoiding.said plea, and same was .an attempt of fraud on the pa.rt of the plaintiffs against the court and the defendant.

There were further allegations in said answer which aré unnecessary to a decision in this case. ■ •

At the trial of the rule nisi, a temporary writ of injunction was issued without bond, and the sale of the property stayed. The case was then tried on the merits and a writ of injunction granted and-perpetuated.

From that judgment defendant has prosecuted this appeal: :

On January 10, 1931,-Earl 0. Givens, who w as then the owner "ofthe property mortgaged by Mrs. 0. A. Givens, proceeded by rule against the First National Bank of Arcadia, La., praying that a collateral mortgage note executed by his mother, Mrs. 0. A. Givens, be surrendered by said bank and that the mortgage be cancelled from the records for the reason that the note signed by R. W. Givens and Mrs. G. A. Givens, as surety, representing the principal obligation against which the mortgage note was deposited as collateral, had been paid in full. Defendant bank answered and alleged that the $2,000 mortgage note executed by Mrs. G. A. Givens was deposited with it as collateral for a line of credit for R. W. Givens, which amount was understood and agreed to be $2,500‘, plus interest ; that the note represented by plaintiff to be the principal obligation was only a part of the credit extended to R. W. Givens, which entire credit, up to $2,500 and» interest, was to be protected by the collateral mortgage note executed by Mrs. 0. A. Givens for $2,000 and a mortgage note executed by R. W. Givens for $2,000 which was likewise deposited as collateral. It admitted it had refused to surrender the mortgage note executed by Mrs. O. A. Givens until the balance due it by R. W. Givens, amounting to $630.50, had been paid.

The case went to trial on these issues and there was judgment rejecting plaintiff’s demands and sustaining the contentions of the defendant bank. From this judgment plaintiff in rule appealed to this court; and counsel for plaintiff appeared here in open court to argue the appeal and asked that the judgment of the lower court be affirmed, which was done by us on December 9,1931.

On January 8, 1932, the Arcadia Cotton Oil Mill & Manufacturing Company, the defendant herein, purchased from said bank the notes it held against R. W. Givens, being the same notes for which the bank had successfully contended in court, for which the $2,000 mortgage note was deposited as collateral. The bank therefore transferred the collateral note with the principal notes. Some time thereafter, the defendant herein, Arcadia Cotton Oil Mill & Manufacturing Company, filed foreclosure proceedings by executory process on the $2,000 mortgage note which it held as collateral. For reasons unknown to us, it made defendants in said proceedings all the children and legal heirs of Mrs. 0. A. Givens, deceased. Five of the children, including Earl G. Givens, came into court and made the same identical allegations as were made in the rule filed by Earl C. Givens against the First National Bank of Arcadia, in suit.No. 8757, which had been determined *847 against him and which judgment had long sin-ce become final. On these allegations they prayed for an injunction against the sale of said property covered by the mortgage, and finally, that the $2,000 mortgage note executed by Mrs. C. A. Givens be declared extinguished, and the mortgage cancelled from the records.

The plea of res judicata as to Earl O. Givens should have been sustained.

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273 So. 2d 863 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1973)
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184 So. 2d 37 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1966)
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175 So. 91 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1937)

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Bluebook (online)
160 So. 845, 1935 La. App. LEXIS 269, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/givens-v-arcadia-cotton-oil-mill-mfg-co-lactapp-1935.