Latham v. Glasscock

108 So. 100, 160 La. 1089, 1926 La. LEXIS 2001
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 1, 1926
DocketNo. 25332.
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 108 So. 100 (Latham v. Glasscock) 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
Latham v. Glasscock, 108 So. 100, 160 La. 1089, 1926 La. LEXIS 2001 (La. 1926).

Opinion

LAND, J.

Alfred Latham, during his marriage to Mary Latham, acquired the S. W. % of S. W. 3/4 of section 20, Tp. 6, R. 8, in the parish df Tangipahoa.

The wife of Alfred Latham, and his unmarried daughter, Louisa Latham, died intestate. The present suit is brought by Alfred Latham, and by his 10 remaining children, to recover this property, in the proportion of i5%8o to Alfred Latham, and in the proportion of 4S%so to his 10 children; said interest being claimed by Alfred Latham, as surviving husband in community, and as heir of his deceased daughter, and the interest of his 10 children being the share of the community inherited hy them from their deceased mother, Mary Latham, and from their deceased sister, Louisa Latham.

On April 19, 1917, defendant Hillery S. Glasscock purchased from Mathew J. Allen and William B. Kemp an undivided one-half interest in this property, and also all the rights and interest of his vendors in a certain judgment obtained by them April 28, 1915, in the suit of Mathew J. Allen and William B. Kemp v. Albert Latham et al., No. 8227 on the docket of the Twenty-Fifth.,judicial district court. This sale was made without warranty as to Allen. Allen , and Kemp acquired the undivided one-half interest sold by them to Glasscock at sheriff’s sale made on August 21, 1915, in partial execution of the judgment obtained by them in suit No. 3227.

On June 27, 1917, defendant instituted a partition suit against Alfred Latham and his 10 children, alleging that he was the owner of an undivided one-half interest in this property acquired by purchase from Allen and Kemp, and that his vendors acquired said interest under sheriff’s sale in suit No. 3227.

Defendant, as assignee of the rights and interest of Allen .and Kemp in the judgment obtained by them in suit No. 3227, claims to have acquired at sheriff’s sale made on July 26, 1920, under an alias writ of fieri facias, all of the interest in this property of the following defendants in said suit, namely Alfred Latham, William Latham, Walter Latham, Beulah Latham Morgan, widow of --- Morgan, and Mary Latham Baham, wife of Andrew Baham.

Defendant, in a second supplemental and amended petition filed in the partition suit, sets up this additional interest claimed to have been acquired by him under the second sheriff’s sale of July 26,1920, under the same judgment, and alleged that he was the owner of a 20 or 01%8o interest in the property, and prayed for partition by licitation.

Judgment was rendered in the partition suit on December 9, 1919, ordering a sale of' the property to effect a partition.

1. Plaintiffs have attacked the judgments *1093 and sales made thereunder in all of these three proceedings.

It is alleged that the first judgment, of date April 2S, 1915, rendered in the suit of Allen and Kemp v. Alfred Latham et al., No. 3227, is null and void, as to the petitioners Walter Latham and Beulah Latham, nonresidents, because there was no notice of such suit served upon said absentees.

This was a suit via ordinaria on two mortgage notes aggregating the sum of $500, with interest and attorney’s fees, and secured by special mortgage on an undivided half interest in this property. Each of these notes is signed by Alfred Latham, William Latham, Leonard Latham, Walter Latham, Beulah Morgan, widow, Mary Baham, and Andrew Baham; the latter being the husband of Mary Baham, but not one of the heirs of Alfred Latham.

Marcus C. Rownds, Esq., was appointed curator ad hoe for the absentees Walter Latham and Beulah Morgan.

In a supplemental and amended petition, a writ of attachment was prayed for against the absentees. There is neither attachment bond nor writ of attachment in the record, although an order was obtained and a bond fixed for the issuance of the writ.

No service whatever of the writ of attachment was made in the case.

Although the notes are mere joint obligations, judgment was rendered against the absentees and other defendants in solido.

A certified copy of the original writ of attachment was not posted, as required by article 254 of the Code of Practice.

“It is the established law of this state that a writ of attachment in the case of a nonresident is not merely a conservatory writ, but is the basis and foundation of jurisdiction, which cannot be acquired, except under the very letter of the law allowing process.” Pugh v. Flannery, 92 So. 699, 151 La. 1083, and cases cited.

It is well settled that nonresidents cannot be brought into the courts of this state, upon ordinary demands for money, by substituted service. Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U. S. 730, 24 L. Ed. 565; Haddock v. Haddock, 26 S. Ct. 525, 201 U. S. 562, 50 L. Ed. 867, 5 Ann. Cas. 1; Hobson v. Peake, 10 So. 762, 44 La. Ann. 383; Andrews v. Sheehy, 51 So. 122, 125 La. 217.

The first judgment and sale in the suit of Allen and Kemp v. Alfred Latham et al., therefore, are null and void, in so far as Walter Latham and Beulah Latham Harris, widow, formerly Beulah Morgan, are concerned.

The other defendants in the suit were personally served.

' The suit was dismissed, however, as to Leonard Latham, as he was a minor, and his signature to the act of mortgage and to the notes was held to be not binding upon him.'

Defendant has pleaded the prescription of 5 years, under article 3542 of the Civil Code, against all informalities connected with or growing out of the sheriff’s sale. This prescription is good as to the lack of service of notice of seizure upon all the defendants, but cannot be sustained as to want of service of writ of attachment upon the absentees Walter Latham and Beulah Latham, Harris or Morgan, as this was a radical nullity, and this prescription is not applicable to sales affected by radical nullities. Brewer v. X. & M. V. R. Co., 54 So. 987, 128 La. 554.

2. The second sheriff’s sale is null and void as to all of the plaintiffs in this suit.

The reason for the nullity of this sale assigned by plaintiffs is that the alias writ of fieri facias under which the sale was made had expired before such sale; no copy of said writ having been made and returned by the sheriff, as required by law.

That no levy had been made under the alias writ by the sheriff before it had expired is made plain by the fact, as stated in the proeés verbal of the sale, that said writ was received February 21, 1919, the day of its issuance; *1095 that the seizure was made on June 20, 1919; that the property was advertised on June 21, 1919, and sold on July 26, 1919.

The writ had long expired even before the seizure of the property.

Article 642 of the Code of Practice provides that—

“All writs of fieri facias, issued by the clerks of the several courts throughout the state, shall.be made returnable by them in not less than thirty nor more than seventy days.”

It is also provided under said article of the Code of Practice that—

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Bluebook (online)
108 So. 100, 160 La. 1089, 1926 La. LEXIS 2001, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/latham-v-glasscock-la-1926.