Hewett v. Williams

19 So. 604, 48 La. Ann. 686, 1896 La. LEXIS 484
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedDecember 21, 1895
DocketNo. 11,978
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 19 So. 604 (Hewett v. Williams) 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
Hewett v. Williams, 19 So. 604, 48 La. Ann. 686, 1896 La. LEXIS 484 (La. 1895).

Opinions

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Breaux, J.

The plaintiff sues the defendant, Mrs. Williams, for a debt contracted by her husband, to make a crop of cotton on his plantation.

The defendant pleads the exception of no cause of action, res judicata, and in her answer she pleads that in a former suit the proceeds of the cotton claimed here were delivered to her, and that neither the cotton or the proceeds are in her possession.

The judgment was pronounced against her, and she appeals.

The prior suit pleaded in defence was brought on notes, two of which had not matured at the time the suit was brought.

The following is our summary of facts:

Two of plaintiff’s notes had not matured at the date that suit was brought by him, and one hundred and thirty-six bales of cotton were attached and sequestered. The defendant in that first suit released [688]*688the. sequestration on a forthcoming bond. Although the property was released under that bond it remained seized under a writ of attachment plaintiff sued out at the same time that he obtained a writ of sequestration. Later the plaintiff obtained an order for the sale of the property pendente lite; the property was sold, and realized four thousand two hundred and eighty-six dollars and eight cents.

Mrs. Williams about this time intervened.

With reference to her averred rights the following is an extract from an admission of record binding upon all parties:

That the evidence taken in suit 5038 showed that the suit was brought and the writ of sequestration obtained in that case by the plaintiff J. E. Hewitt during the forenoon of December 12, 1893, an'd before 12 o’clock M.; that the writ of sequestration was issued before noon, and sent to the sheriff of Red River parish, and that the dation en paiement was made at 3 o’clock in the afternoon of the same day, and that the delivery of the property in Red River parish was made between 5 and 6 o’clock p. m. on same day, December 12, 1893 * * ■ *

The evidence further showed that the writ of sequestration was served on T. J. Williams, Jr., on December 12, 1893, before the dation en paiement was signed.”

In this condition Mrs. Williams intervened, asserting her dation en paiement embracing the cotton seized by plaintiff under his privilege for a debt not disputed, though as to a part not matured (the maturity however being near at hand), she received the proceeds of the cotton in question made with the aid of plaintiff’s advances.

Taking up the attachment we see that it was dissolved by a judgment of the District Court. It was in matter ot this attachment that the intervenor furnished bond, and obtained possession of the property which had been previously sold under an order of court authorizing the sale of property attached. From the judgment no appeal was taken.

In the former suit, the suit in which the attachment was dissolved as just mentioned, judgment was pronounced in favor of Hewitt for the amount of his debt on the matured note with privilege on the cotton seized. The court dismissed his suit on the two unmatured notes, but maintained the sequestration to enable him to assert his privilege in a new suit on the two notes at their maturity1. The District Court in this judgment maintained the dation en paiement by T. J. Williams to his wife.

[689]*689On the appeal taken from this judgment this court maintained the .judgment in Hewitt’s favor for the debt due and his privilege on the cotton; affirmed the dismissal as to the notes not due; set aside the reservation continuing in force the sequestration to await the second suit; and as to the dation en paiement, this court held that Mrs. Williams took the property subject to the privilege in favor of Hewitt, and recognized her right to payment out of the proceeds of the cotton, to the amount of her matured debt. J. E. Hewitt vs. T. J. Williams, Mrs. F. P. Williams, Intervenor, 47 An. 742.

The present suit is for the privileged debt of Hewitt, not matured when the first suit was brought, and presents the issue whether Mrs. Williams, under her dation en paiement, holds the proceeds against Hewitt despite his privilege resting on the cotton and the suit in which it was claimed at the time she obtained the proceeds by furnishing a forthcoming bond.

THE PLEA OF NO CAUSE OP ACTION.

Tins plea, as we interpret the pleadings and appreciate the argument, rests on the theory that the suit is hypothecary or in revendication of the cotton or its proceeds and that, therefore, it must be directed against the property, there being, it is urged, no personal liability of Mrs. Williams. (The cotton having béen •disposed of and the proceeds no longer in her possession she avers.)

If the liability alleged by plaintiff is answered by intervenor’s use of the proceeds, and her defence is thereby established, it could have been supplied by her at any moment after she received the proceeds, by disposing of them, although such was not the con■dition of the order under which she was permitted to bond and take possession.

If such be the case, if, after disposing of the proceeds, she was no longer responsible for them, practically the liability never existed. There is, it strikes us, an error here.

The personal liability arising out of the act of converting another’s property (or the property on which he had a lien) can not by the fact itself of the conversion or the disappearance of the converted property be defeated. This is not the hypothecary nor the action in revendication to be paid and satisfied by Mrs. Williams out of the funds; or by causing the disappearance of the cotton from which the proceeds were derived. The question is one of personal liabil[690]*690ity for applying property to her own use, although she knew that it was subject to plaintiff’s privilege, and that he was attempting to-enforce that privilege at the time she received the proceeds representing the property.

THE PLEA RES JUDICATA.

If it has been decided that a dation enpaiement by the husband to the wife frees the property from all liens then existing, made at the-time and under the circumstances before stated (the service of the suit had already been made on the husband at the moment of the dation), such final judgment becomes binding, if not as authority, at-least as conclusive between the parties.

Let us see if this was this court’s action.

The res judicata relied upon is the first judgment maintaining the-dation en paiement in which the exception of prematurity was maintained on the notes sued upon in this case.

The District Court, in view of the hardship upon the privileged creditor, who would be made to lose because his debt was not due at the moment he instituted suit, retained the sequestration in force-until he could bring his new suit at the maturity of his notes. This court, on the appeal from that judgment, maintained the dismissal, but reserved the reservation and dismissed the sequestration.

The notes now sued upon passed out of consideration. As to these notes there could be no adjudication, save that of dismissal, but the judgment in that case decreed that the dation

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

Related

Mossler Acceptance Co. v. Denmark
31 So. 2d 216 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1947)
Alexandria Production Credit Ass'n v. Horn
199 So. 430 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1940)
Parish of Jefferson v. Texas Co.
189 So. 580 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1939)
Pitts v. Neugent
175 So. 460 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1937)
Terrell v. Terrell
151 So. 661 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1934)
Covington v. Matlock
121 So. 355 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1929)
American Cotton Oil Co. v. Boquet
5 La. App. 638 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1927)
Knox v. Louisiana Ry. & Nav. Co.
102 So. 685 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1925)
Wilkinson v. MacHeca
103 So. 733 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1924)
Pierson v. Carmouche
84 So. 59 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1920)
Union Seed & Fertilizer Co. v. J. Supple's Sons Planting Co.
71 So. 949 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1916)
American Machinery & Construction Co. v. Haas
54 So. 38 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1910)
State Nat. Bank v. S. W. Clark & Sons
39 So. 844 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1905)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
19 So. 604, 48 La. Ann. 686, 1896 La. LEXIS 484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hewett-v-williams-la-1895.