Harman v. Legrande

91 So. 726, 151 La. 253, 1922 La. LEXIS 2700
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedFebruary 27, 1922
DocketNo. 22407
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 91 So. 726 (Harman v. Legrande) 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
Harman v. Legrande, 91 So. 726, 151 La. 253, 1922 La. LEXIS 2700 (La. 1922).

Opinions

PROVO STY, C. J.

In November, 1900, the principal defendant, P. A. Legrande, during the existence of his marriage and of the community of acquets and gains between him and his deceased wife, purchased a tract of land; and for the credit part of the purchase price executed a series of notes secured by mortgage and vendor’s privilege on the property. The land became community property, and the debt a community debt.

From the beginning of the year 1901 to the end of the year 1907, Legrande ran an open account with the store of the plaintiffs. Those of the said purchase price notes that matured during this time were paid by plaintiffs, and were charged as debit items on said open account.

Mrs. Legrande died on November 20, 1909. She left as her heirs the following children, issue of her marriage, namely: Julia, Lucy, A. G., J. N., Mary E-., J. Weaver-, G. Minter, Sylvester, and Alfred, Legrande.

On July 16, 1910, some 8 months after the death of his wife, Legrande executed in favor of plaintiffs a note of $1,884.40 for the balance due on said open account plus another community debt of $114 for a payment made after 1907 and interest, and, to secure the payment of this note, gave a mortgage on said property. On this note he paid $191.04 on January 14, 1911, $200 on February 12, 1912, and $250 in December, 1912.

In 1909 plaintiffs paid the taxes on said property, amounting to $23.71.

In January, 1912, plaintiffs acquired two of the said purchase price notes, each being for $226 and interest at 8 per cent, from May 5, 1900, and 10 per cent, attorney’s fees. On one of them is a credit of $245.68, as of date November 1, 1909.

On January 1, 1914, plaintiffs paid the taxes of 1913, on said property, amounting to $23.71.

The present suit is on the said notes, and for the reimbursement of said taxes. The heirs of Mrs. Legrande are made defendants with Legrande; and judgment is prayed in solido against all the defendants, with recognition and enforcement of the said mortgages and vendor’s privilege.

In the event the said $1,884.40 note is held not to be binding on the codefendants of Legrande, plaintiffs allege that the debt for which the note was given is due and is a community debt, and, as such, entitled to be [257]*257satisfied out of the community property, and they pray for judgment accordingly.

They allege, further, that the balance due on said open account was for the amounts disbursed by them in satisfaction of the notes paid by them for Legrande, as aforesaid, and that the said $1,884.40 debt is to that extent secured by the same vendor’s privilege which secured the notes then paid.

The judgment below was in solido for the full amount alleged, and recognized and or-, dered enforced the mortgages in question, and decreed the said debts entitled to be paid by preference out of the community property.

Legrande has not appealed, and, hence, as against him, the said judgment is final. The other defendants alone have appealed.

A. G. Legrande and Julia Legrande (Mrs. Alex Prudhomme) having died, leaving each one child, these children namely, K. G. Le-gran'de and Gurtrude Prudhomme, who stand in the place of their said parents, by representation, have been made defendants. They and Lucy, Sylvester, and Alfred Legrande are minoras, and, having no tutor, are represented in this suit by a curator ad hoc, duly appointed.

There is no denial of the debts, or of their being of the community. The two purchase price notes are said to have been paid; and, if still due, that the mortgage and privilege securing same are prescribed, by reason of 10 years having elapsed since their original recordation without a renewal of the registry. The note of $1,884.40 and the mortgage securing it are said to have been given by Legrande without authority. The prescription of three years is pleaded against the debt for which the note was given and against the taxes. It is denied that the heirs are bound in solido, but only jointly, each for his or her virile share.

The payment of the two purchase price notes is said to have resulted from certain payments made by Legrande having to be imputed to them — they being the more onerous debt, by reason of their being secured by mortgage and vendor’s privilege. One of these payments of $200, made on February 12, 1912, was credited to the $1,884.40 note; the other payment, of $250, was made on December 20, 1912. The testimony is to the effect that the first of these payments was so credited with the knowledge and tacit consent of Legrande, and that, as to the $250 payment, the agreement was that it should be credited to the same note.

The contention that the mortgage and Vendor’s privilege securing' the two purchase price notes are prescribed is based on article 3305, C. C., as amended by Act 105, p. 228, of 1916, and on article 3369, O. 0., as amended by Act 227, p. 410, of 1918. The former reads:

“A conventional mortgage can only be contracted by act passed in presence of a notary and two witnesses, or by act under private signature. No proof can be admitted óf a verbal mortgage. Hypothecation of ships and other-vessels are made according to the laws and usages of commerce; provided that power boats, sailing vesels, pull boats, dredges, barges and all other kinds of water craft plying wholly within the navigable waters of this state provided that such vessels do not come within any of the provisions of the laws of the United States on the same subject-matter may be mortgaged and hypothecated in the same manner, to the same extent and with the same legal effect as mortgages and hypothecations are executed upon lands and other immovables susceptible of mortgage, and when the act contains the ‘pact de non aliendo’ such mortgage or hypothecation, in case of any sale or other alienation, shall follow the ship, steamboat, power boat and other vessels so mortgaged or hypothecated in the hands of third persons, and may be seized and sold by executory or other process in same way, manner and extent as lands and other immovables are now sold under conventional mortgages containing said pact. All such mortgages or hypothecations must- be recorded in the parish where the owner resides and shall prescribe in ten years from the date of registry.”

The act of 1918 reads:

“The registry preserves the evidence of mortgages and privileges during ten years, reckon[259]*259ing from the day of its date; its effect ceases, even against the contracting parties, if the inscriptions have not been renewed before the expiration of this time, in the manner in which they were first made; provided, that in all cases where the mortgages and privileges secure the payment of notes, bonds or other obligations maturing after ten years, this renewal of the original inscription shall be made within three months from the expiration of the last maturing notes, bonds or other obligations, as fixed in the original instruments from which they sprung or with which they are identified. In all cases the reinscription of the' mortgages and privileges shall preserve their effect for ten years from the date of the timely renewal as above provided.
“But the provisions of the above paragraph shall not obtain with regard to the mortgages to which husbands are subject for the dowry and other claims’of wives and tutors and curators towards minors, interdicted and absent persons whose estates they administer.

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Bluebook (online)
91 So. 726, 151 La. 253, 1922 La. LEXIS 2700, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harman-v-legrande-la-1922.