Lafayette Woodworks v. Boudreaux

255 So. 2d 176, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 5259
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 10, 1971
DocketNo. 8589
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 255 So. 2d 176 (Lafayette Woodworks v. Boudreaux) 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
Lafayette Woodworks v. Boudreaux, 255 So. 2d 176, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 5259 (La. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

TUCKER, Judge.

On December 12, 1969, a materialman’s lien was filed and recorded in the Mortgage Records of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, in Mortgage Book 310, Folio 177, under Entry No. 373025, in favor of Lafayette Woodworks, and against Kenneth F. Boudreaux and his residence, properly described, to secure the payment of Two Thousand Nine Hundred Forty-two and 17Aoo ($2,942.17), representing the purchase price of building materials and millwork furnished by plaintiff to Stanford Homes, the contractor who constructed the residence in question for defendant owner. On July 9, 1970, the present suit was filed by Lafayette Woodworks against Kenneth F. Boudreaux, owner of the residence for which plaintiff supplied materials,' and the Bank of Terrebonne & Trust Co., Houma, Louisiana, holder of the mortgage on the residence in question, said suit being numbered 33,773, on the docket of the Seventeenth Judicial District Court. Service of the suit and citation was made upon both defendants. The original petition set forth all the essential allegations required by L.R.S. 9:4812 to enforce a materialman’s lien against the property and against its [178]*178owner. Plaintiff’s prayer for relief concluded as follows:

“ * * * against defendants recognizing your petitioner’s said labor and material lien which is recorded December 12, 1969 in Mortgage Book 310, Folio 177 under Entry No. 373025, Mortgage Records, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, as a good and valid labor and material lien affecting the property of the defendant, Kenneth F. Boudreaux described in the foregoing petition and that the said lien in the sum of $2,942.17 be recognized as having priority and superiority over any and all other creditors of defendant and all claims against defendant’s said property including the claim of the defendant Bank of Terrebonne & Trust Company, Houma, Louisiana, and in due course that the said property be seized and sold, according to law and petitioner’s said lien be paid with said priority from the proceeds thereof, and for all costs of this suit and for all general and equitable relief and all necessary orders in the premises, etc.”

Plaintiff did not file a notice of this suit in the Mortgage Records of Terrebonne Parish as required by sentence 3 of L.R.S. 9:4812, as amended by Act No. 405 of the regular session of the 1966 legislature.

On January 13, 1971, defendant Kenneth Boudreaux petitioned for hearing on a rule to show cause why plaintiff’s material lien against him should not be canceled from the Mortgage Records, inasmuch as plaintiff had never filed the notice of his suit against defendant as required under L.R.S. 9:4812, with the result that its lien filed against defendant Boudreaux on December 12, 1969, had prescribed within a year from that date. An Order was signed setting the hearing on this rule for January 22, 1971, and later extended to January 29, 1971. On that date defendant Boudreaux filed a Peremptory Exception of Prescription on the same grounds as previously alleged and asked that all of plaintiff’s demands against him be dismissed at his costs. On January 29, 1971 the trial judge signed an order permitting the filing by plaintiff Lafayette Woodworks of a supplemental and amended petition dated January 28, 1971, in which he alleged that defendant Boudreaux had not recorded in the Records of Terrebonne Parish the building contract between Stanford Homes as Contractor and Kenneth F. Boudreaux, as owner, under which defendant’s home was built. In the light of this discovery plaintiff asks judgment against Kenneth F. Boudreaux in the amount of Two Thousand Nine Hundred Forty-two and 17/ioo ($2,942.17), with legal interest from the date of judicial demand until paid, and for all costs of suit. He reiterated and incorporated all allegations of the original petition. Also on January 29, 1971, plaintiff filed an exception of no cause or right of action against the petition of defendant filed January 13, 1971, on the rule to show cause. Plaintiff alleged that L.R.S. 9:4812 was enacted for the protection of third persons, and that his suit filed July 9, 1970, was sufficient notice as between the material-man and the owner to toll the prescriptive period of one year provided by the aforesaid statute without any necessity of additional recordation of the filing of notice of the suit in the Mortgage Records. He further alleged the unconstitutionality of Act 405 of 1966, and argued that to construe the statute as requiring the filing of notice of suit in the Mortgage Records under the circumstances of the instant case would render nugatory sentence 2 of L.R.S. 9:4812.

On February 1, 1971, defendant Bou-dreaux filed exceptions of prescription and no cause of action reiterating his early allegations and pleading additionally that plaintiff’s supplemental and amended petition set forth an entirely different cause of action. He alleged further that there was no privity between Lafayette Woodworks and the defendant Kenneth F. Boudreaux.

On February 17, 1971, hearing was held and judgment rendered on defendant Bou-dreaux’s rule to show cause filed January 13, 1971, ordering the Clerk of Court of [179]*179the Parish of Terrebonne to cancel and erase from the Mortgage Records the ma-terialman’s lien and privilege filed December 12, 1969, in favor of Lafayette Wood-works, and against the property of Kenneth F. Boudreaux, as having prescribed on December 12, 1970. The judge ordered the defendant in Rule to pay all costs of the proceedings, but refused plaintiff-in-rule Boudreaux’s request that he pay attorney fees due for the cancellation of the lien, inasmuch as the court did not find any evidence of malice in the filing of the lien. The lower court held that the provisions of L.R.S. 9:4812 are to be construed strictly as requiring the filing of notice of suit in the mortgage records to interrupt the running of prescription against a material-man’s lien. He grounded his opinion upon Robins v. Pavone, 224 So.2d 541 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1969) and Pringle-Associated Mortgage Corp. v. Eanes, 208 So.2d 346 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1968) writ granted 252 La. 267, 268, 270 ; 210 So.2d 508, 509 (1968), and affirmed by the Supreme Court, 254 La. 705, 226 So.2d 502 (1969). He further ruled Act 405 of 1966 to be constitutional in all respects, in that the title of the act is broad enough to cover all items embraced therein.

From this judgment on the rule ordering the cancellation of the materialman’s lien the plaintiff Lafayette Woodworks has appealed alleging the following suggestions of error by the lower court:

(1) The judgment of the Court rendered on February 17, 1971, on the construction of LSA-R.S. 9:4812 is contrary to the law because it does not give effect to all parts of the statute without nullifying and rendering useless other parts of the same.

(2) The trial Court erred in ordering the cancellation of plaintiff’s lien and privilege against defendant’s property.

(3) The trial Court failed to rule on and dispose of the exception of prescription of one year which was filed by Kenneth F. Boudreaux to plaintiff’s supplemental and amended petition praying for judgment in personam against defendant, Kenneth F. Boudreaux, which exception of prescription should be overruled, and that issue allowed to proceed to trial on the merits.

This court finds plaintiff-appellant’s first specification of error invalid. Sentences two and three of the first paragraph of L.R.S. 9:4812 are completely compatible with each other, and also with sentence four. Sentence three merely adds a proviso to sentence two by stating that

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
255 So. 2d 176, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 5259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lafayette-woodworks-v-boudreaux-lactapp-1971.