Hilgenfeld v. Hilgenfeld

180 So. 2d 236, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 4063
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 15, 1965
DocketNo. 10471
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 180 So. 2d 236 (Hilgenfeld v. Hilgenfeld) 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
Hilgenfeld v. Hilgenfeld, 180 So. 2d 236, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 4063 (La. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

BOLIN, Judge.

We issued certiorari and alternative writs of prohibition and mandamus on application of Jack L. Henry in order that we might determine the correctness vel non of the lower court’s action in refusing to grant an injunction against the seizure and sale of property, under executory process, which was to be sold in satisfaction of a debt allegedly due plaintiff, Mrs. Hilgenfeld.

A summary of facts preceding this action is necessary to a clearer understanding of the present proceeding. In October 1951 and June 1955, Clarence Hilgenfeld and Eunice S. Hilgenfeld, then husband and wife, executed as co-makers two mortgages to secure a note in the amount of $7700 payable to the Farmers Home Administration. Both mortgages and the note were in authentic form, contained the usual acceleration clauses and confessions of judgment in favor of the Government or any future holder of the note.

Mr. and Mrs. Hilgenfeld were judicially separated on June 23, 1959, and a judgment of divorce was rendered on October 20, 1960. Subsequent to the separation but prior to the divorce the Hilgenfelds partitioned the community property, encumbered by the mortgages, and as a result of the partition Mrs. Hilgenfeld became the owner of a portion of the Southwest Quarter of the Northeast Quarter of Section Two, Township 18 North, Range 15 West in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Mr. Hilgenfeld was awarded the remainder of the property located in the same quarter section. No mention was made in the partition of the debt due the Farmers Home Administration.

Shortly after the partition defendant Hil-genfeld sold two parts of the land acquired by him to W. D. and J. F. Snelling which tracts were released from the mortgage on June 13, 1960. On August 28, 1959, Hil-genfeld also borrowed $4000 from Jack L. Henry and gave as security a mortgage on the remaining portion of his property. Default on the note led to foreclosure by Henry who bought the property in at the sheriff’s sale. Two other tracts were then released from the original mortgage as a result of a condemnation judgment against Henry on June 29, 1962. The remaining [238]*238two tracts of land under the mortgage, of June 20, 1955, are owned by Eunice S. Hilgenfeld and Jack L. Henry, respectively.

Plaintiff alleged she is the owner and holder of the original note and mortgages by reason of a notarial assignment from the United States in favor of her father, Albert F. Soap, and the subsequent assignment dated March 30, 1965, also in notarial form, from her father to herself. Consideration for the assignment was $1722.04 being the balance due on the note. She further alleged she made all payments on the note to the Farmers Home Administration subsequent to the separation in 1959, and is legally subrogated to the rights of the mortgagee and is therefore entitled to bring this execu-tory proceeding against the property of Jack L. Henry. Two acts of breach by Henry are alleged: first, that Henry had leased the property covered by the original mortgage and has failed to provide for payment of said rentals to the mortgagee; second, that Plenry, through his agents and lessees, committed waste of the property by cutting and removing 37 cords of timber from the property on or about March 1965, in contravention of the mortgage provisions.

Henry, as owner and third possessor of the property, sought a preliminary injunction to enjoin and prohibit Eunice Soap Hilgenfeld and the Sheriff of Caddo Parish from seizing and selling the property by executory process. Upon the rule to show cause a judgment was rendered dismissing and recalling the rule and fixing attorneys’ fees for Mrs. Hilgenfeld in the sum of $750 and for the curator for Clarence L. Hilgenfeld, Jr., in the sum of $50.

It is from the refusal to grant the injunction and the award of fees that Henry sought and was granted writs by this court. Relator based his action on the provisions of Article 2703, Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure, permitting a third possessor to intervene in the executory proceeding, and upon Article 2751 of the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure which allows the arrest of the seizure and sale by injunction when the debt secured by the mortgage or privilege is extinguished, or is legally unenforceable, or if the procedure required by law for an executory proceeding has not been followed.

Specifically Henry alleges as follows :

1. There is no liquidate debt or sum certain which is sought to be enforced by executory proceedings. The indebtedness has not been previously confessed, nor judicially determined and therefore is not liquidated.
2. Payment of the balance due on the note by Eunice Soap Hilgenfeld and the assignment to her, a solidary debtor with her former husband, Clarence L. Hilgenfeld, Jr., caused the debt to be extinguished by confusion with only the right to demand contribution from Clarence Hilgenfeld remaining.
3. Mrs. Hilgenfeld made payments on the note for years without asserting any demand against the third possessor and is estopped from now asserting said claim. (Additionally it is claimed there has been no default under the terms of the note and mortgage.)
4. That Mrs. Hilgenfeld, as a solidary obligor with her husband, is solely responsible for the payment of the note sued on.

In conclusion Mr. Henry asked for attorney’s fees in the amount of $1000 because of the alleged wrongful seizure of his property.

Prior to the hearing on the action for a preliminary injunction the parties stipulated the total payments made by plaintiff were $4560.23. This figure was arrived at by giving defendant credit for the payment of $2000, $750 of which was received from the sale to the Snellings and $1250 from the expropriation proceedings mentioned above. Assuming that each of the co-makers was [239]*239obligated to pay one-half of the indebtedness of $6560.23, it can be determined from the stipulations and by mathematical calculation that the amount, if any, due plaintiff is $1280.11, which amount is admitted, in brief by counsel for respondent, to be "correct.

We shall take up the contentions of the applicant in the order followed by respondent. We find that the breach of the condition of the mortgage prohibiting the cutting and removing of timber which had the effect of maturing the obligation, in the absence of rebuttal evidence, was sufficiently proved by the verified petition. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 2637 provides:

Evidence as to the proper party defendant, or as to the necessity for appointing an attorney at law to represent an unrepresented defendant, or of the breach or occurrence of a condition of the act of mortgage or privilege maturing the obligation, need not be submitted in authentic form. These facts may be proved by the verified petition, or supplemental petition, or by affidavits submitted therewith.”
% sj: s{i ‡ #

It is contended by relator that the payment of the balance due on the note by Mrs. Hilgenfeld and the assignment to her, a solidary debtor, caused the debt to be extinguished by confusion. (Louisiana Civil Code Article 2217.) We find there was no confusion nor consequent extinguishment in this instance by reason of the provisions of the second paragraph of Louisiana Civil ■Code Article 2218 relating to the effects of confusion:

“That which takes place in the person of the creditor, avails his co-debtors

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

Related

First City Bank v. 740 Esplanade Avenue
665 So. 2d 1190 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1995)
Bailey v. Jones
439 So. 2d 475 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1983)
Whitney National Bank of New Orleans v. Ben Development Co.
364 So. 2d 1076 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1978)
Vives v. Fortier
200 So. 2d 901 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1967)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
180 So. 2d 236, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 4063, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hilgenfeld-v-hilgenfeld-lactapp-1965.