Hodgson v. Roth

33 La. Ann. 941
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 15, 1881
DocketNo. 8223
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 33 La. Ann. 941 (Hodgson v. Roth) 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
Hodgson v. Roth, 33 La. Ann. 941 (La. 1881).

Opinion

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

Poché, J.

A statement of the main facts underlying this litigation is necessary to a proper understanding of the issues presented by the pleadings.

By an authentic act, under date of July 31, 1877, which was ratified in another authentic act on the 24th of August, 1877, Mrs. Ella Both, the defendant, purchased from Widow Norbert Marionneaux, her mother and former natural tutrix, all the rights,titles, interest and claims of the latter in the property belonging to the succession of her deceased husband (defendant’s father), accruing to her as surviving partner in community, as usufructuary, or in any manner whatsoever.

[943]*943In payment of said purchase, the defendant executed three promis.•sory notes, amounting together to $4000, to be secured by mortgage on ■the property which has been seized in this case at the instance of plaintiff, Hodgson, as the holder of said notes, which matured on the 20th of :March of the years 1878,1879 and 1880.

His executory proceedings were enjoined by the defendant, who obtained an injunction without bond, on the following grounds:

1st. That the mortgage and indebtedness on which the order of ^seizure and sale issued were null and void, because they were given to Mrs. Eugenie Marionneaux, her former tutrix, in settlement of the tutor.ship, in less than ten days after rendition of her account and the delivery •of the vouchers.

2d. The account which served as a basis for the notes, was grossly erroneous to petitioner’s prejudice. That she would not have given the notes if she had known of the errors which only came to her knowledge on 26th July, 1878.

3d. That she had instituted a suit against Mrs. Eugenie Marionneaux •.to have annulled said acts on which the executory process issued.

4th. That Hodgson was a holder after maturity.

6th. That said notes and mortgage were obtained from her unlawfully, and Hodgson was aware of the fact when he acquired the notes.

Subsequently, after her death, her executor having been made a party, filed a supplemental petition of injunction, alleging want of con.sideration of the notes sued on, on the ground that among the items of property transferred to defendant, were seven notes of J. A. Dardenne, .amounting together to $9000, represented as community property between her deceased father and her mother, and that suit having been .brought against Dardenne on said notes, the latter had set up as defence, .a reduction of the same by agreement between defendant’s mother and himself ; thus reducing the value of the property transferred to her, and making part of the consideration of the notes executed by her in favor of her mother.

Plaintiff objected to the filing of this amended petition, on the ground that the averments therein set forth would not entitle the petitioner to . an injunction without bond, and reserved a bill of exception to the ruling of the judge in allowing the petition to be filed.

The case was tried on the merits by a different judge, who had suc- • ceeded the judge who had overruled plaintiff’s- objection, and the latter judge, considering the ruling of his predecessor as erroneous, refused to consider the amended petition; and on the merits dissolved the injunction, with damages.

As we understand the case, the appeal taken by defendant presents . for solution the following questions:

[944]*9441st. Whether the last judge in the lower court erred in refusing to consider her amended petition for injunction.

2d. Whether her injunction was properly granted without bond.

3d. Whether the judge erred in dissolving the injunction on its merits.

4th. Whether damages were properly allowed in dissolving an injunction in a case of executory process.

Eirst — Under Arts. 739 and 740 of our Code of Practice, the defendant in executory process can arrest the proceeding without bond, by alleging some of the following reasons: 1st. That he has paid the debt for which he is sued; 2d. That he has been remitted by the creditor; 3d. That it has been extinguished by transaction, novation, or some other legal manner; 4th. That time has been granted to him for paying the debt, although this circumstance be not mentioned in the contract; 5th. That the act containing the privilege or mortgage is forged; 6th. That it was obtained by fraud, violence, fear, or some other unlawful means; 7th. That he has a liquidated account to plead in compensation of the debt claimed; 8th. And, finally, that the action for the recovery of the debt is barred by prescription.

Defendant’s counsel contend that the averments of the amended petition are covered by the third reason enumerated in the article under consideration, but we cannot sanction their reasoning.

Their averment means that the obligation was null ab initio, for reason of the want of consideration, or, in other words, that it never has had legal existence. If that be the case, counsel have failed to inform us how an obligation which has never sprung into existence can be extinguished. Destruction presupposes existence or being. It is impossible to destroy or extinguish nothing.

The most liberal construction of the article fails to show under which of its eight wings the averments of defendant’s amended petition could be sheltered, and forces the conclusion that the supplemental petition should have been excluded, and that the judge who tried the case did not ■err in refusing to consider the reasons therein advanced.

Second — -A careful examination of the five grounds of injunction averred in the original petition, fails to satisfy us that any one of them is covered by the provisions of the article providing an injunction without bond.

Oounsel for defendants seem to lose sight of the very material difference between a ground sufficient to maintain an injunction of an executory process in general, and the averments which can, in the exceptional cases enumerated in the Code, justify the issuance of an injunction without bond.

Admitting, for the sake of argument, that the account which served [945]*945as a basis of the contract between the defendant and her mother, was grossly erroneous to the daughter’s prejudice, that she has instituted a suit for the nullity of the contract, that Hodgson acquired the notes after maturity, we' fail to perceive by what process of reasoning any of these averments can be assimilated to any of the eight reasons enumerated in the article of the Code.

If the fifth ground, charging that the notes and mortgage had been obtained from her unlawfully, had been more specific, so as to allow the introduction of evidence as to the illegal means resorted to, that ground would have approached the sixth reason contained in the article, but in its vagueness it was not susceptible of proof, and was properly considered as not complying with Art. 739.

Plaintiff’s counsel properly objected to the introduction of any testimony in support of allegations, other than those containing any of the reasons enumerated in Art. 739.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 La. Ann. 941, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hodgson-v-roth-la-1881.