Ingolia v. Pique

139 So. 2d 34, 1962 La. App. LEXIS 1724
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 12, 1962
DocketNo. 681
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 139 So. 2d 34 (Ingolia v. Pique) 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
Ingolia v. Pique, 139 So. 2d 34, 1962 La. App. LEXIS 1724 (La. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

JOHNSON, Judge.

A brief statement of the case leading up to defendant’s application to this Court for remedial writs is necessary for proper understanding of the question to be decided.

This plaintiff brought a possessory action against the defendant in the District Court in the Parish of Plaquemines, claiming physical possession of certain lands located in that Parish and alleging that the defendant was disturbing and interfering with plaintiff’s possession, mainly by having given written notice to the Shell Oil Company that defendant was asserting a claim against the plaintiff for one-half interest in said property, as a result of which the Shell Oil Company withheld one-half the royalties due to plaintiff from oil production on the land in excess of $3,000 a month, aggregating at that time to more than $40,000.00. Plaintiff prayed for injunctions, prohibitory and mandatory, against the defendant and that defendant be ordered to assert any adverse claim he may have to the land in a petitory action to be filed within a time to be fixed by the Court. Upon the trial of a rule to show cause, preliminary injunctions issued accordingly. After trial on the merits the Court rendered a final judgment quieting the plaintiff in his possession of the land, ordering the defendant to assert his claim, if any he has, in a petitory action within forty-five days and making the injunctions permanent. That judgment was dated October 30, 1961.

[36]*36On motion of the defendant the trial Court granted a devolutive appeal and fixed the bond at the sum of $250.00, and granted a suspensive appeal on giving bond in the sum of $2,500.00. Both bonds were furnished. On plaintiff’s motion the trial Court, on January 10, 1962, (by a different Judge) rendered judgment modifying and amending the original order granting the appeal by increasing the bond to be given for a suspensive appeal to the sum of $35,-000.00.

Whereupon, the defendant filed an application to this Court for remedial writs to be addressed to the trial Court, ordering that the record be sent here in order that this Court may either rescind the said order of January 10, 1962, or in the alternative that this Court may fix the amount of the suspensive appeal bond or remand the case to the trial Court to fix the bond at $2,500.-00.

On January 18, 1962, this Court issued the following order:

“IT IS ORDERED that the Honorable Bruce Nunez, Judge of the Twenty Fifth Judicial District Court for the Parish of Plaquemines, issue an order on or before February 2, 1962:
“a) rescinding, annulling and setting aside the judgment rendered by him on January 10, 1962, which increased to the sum of $35,000.00 the amount of the suspensive appeal bond theretofore required to be furnished by relator, Charles S. Pique, Jr., and
“b) reinstating the order of the Honorable Rudolph M. McBride, Judge, dated November 9, 1961, fixing the amount of such suspensive appeal bond at the sum of $2,500.00,
“or show cause in this Court on February 9, 1962 why the relief prayed for in the petition of Relator should not be granted.”

The trial Court having filed his response and having transmitted the record of the proceedings to this Court, the matter is now before us on the rule nisi contained in the above order of this Court.

The present law governing the amount of the security to be furnished for an appeal is Article 2124 of the LSA-Code of Civil Procedure, which reads, in part, as follows :

“The security to be furnished for a devolutive appeal shall be fixed by the trial court at an amount sufficient to secure the payment of costs.
“The security to be furnished for a suspensive appeal is determined in accordance with the following rules:
“(1) When the judgment is for a sum of money, the amount of the security shall exceed by one-half the amount of the judgment, including the interest allowed by the judgment to the date the security is furnished, exclusive of costs;
“(2) When the judgment distributes a fund in custodia legis, only security sufficient to secure the payment of costs is required; and
“(3) In all other cases, the security shall be fixed by the trial court at an amount sufficient to assure the satisfaction of the judgment, together with damages for the delay resulting from the suspension of execution. * * * ”

The judgment of the District Court of October 30, 1961, from which a suspensive appeal was granted to the defendant, is not a judgment for a sum of money. Therefore, sub-section (1) of Article 2124 does not apply.

The judgment appealed from does not distribute a fund in custodia legis, and subsection (2) does not apply.

The amount of the bond for a suspensive appeal in this instance must be fixed in accordance with sub-section (3).

The judgment of October 30, 1961, first recognizes the plaintiff as being in posses[37]*37sion of certain described land and the plaintiff is quieted in his possession of that property and decreed to be entitled to the revenues. The judgment then orders the defendant to assert his claim, if any he has, to said property in a petitory action to be filed within forty-five days.

The next paragraph of that judgment decrees that the defendant is enjoined and prohibited from disturbing the possession of the plaintiff and from asserting any right of ownership (except in a petitory action) or attempting to affect the title to said property, and from interfering with the receipt by the plaintiff of the revenues from said property.

By the last paragraph of the judgment the defendant is commanded to sign and deliver to the Shell Oil Company a letter correcting the statement in a previous letter-notice of July 22, 1960, that a suit in the Civil District Court of the Parish of Orleans by defendant against the plaintiff asserts a claim of defendant against the plaintiff for one-half interest in the designated property standing of record in the name of the plaintiff, and the substance of such letter shall state that no claim of title or ownership is being made by the defendant.

There is evidence in the record that the mandatory injunction contained in the last paragraph of the judgment has been complied with and that the Shell Oil Company has released and paid to the plaintiff all royalty amounts which it had withheld at the instance of the defendant. Therefore, the only portion of the judgment which the defendant, relator herein, must comply with is the injunction prohibiting him from disturbing plaintiff’s possession of the property, from asserting ownership therein (except in a petitory action) and

“ * * * from doing any act of any nature whatsoever in interference with the possession of the plaintiff in said property, including by way of illustration but not limitation any act interfering, hindering or preventing the receipt by plaintiff of revenues from said property.”

The import of sub-section (3) of Article 2124 of the LSA-Civil Code of Procedure is that the Court shall exercise its judgment in fixing the amount of a sus-pensive appeal bond. Counsel for Ingolia contends that the Court has “wide discretion” in that respect and refers to the official revision comments printed in the Code following the article referred to.

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139 So. 2d 34, 1962 La. App. LEXIS 1724, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ingolia-v-pique-lactapp-1962.