Maroun v. Marrs

178 So. 723
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 28, 1938
DocketNo. 5575.
StatusPublished

This text of 178 So. 723 (Maroun v. Marrs) 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
Maroun v. Marrs, 178 So. 723 (La. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

HAMITER, Judge.

The defendant herein, W. G. Marrs, rented from the plaintiffs under a written contract the premises located at the southeast corner of Spring and Texas streets in the *724 city of Shreveport, La., more specifically designated as municipal No. 129 Texas street. When the lessee defaulted in the payment of the agreed rent, the lessors instituted this suit, seeking recovery under the provisions of the lease agreement. In connection therewith, a writ of provisional seizure issued, and thereunder the sheriff seized the furniture, fixtures, merchandise, and other property located in the premises.

Subsequently the Allied Store Utilities Company filed a petition of intervention and 'third opposition alleging that it sold to defendant under date of September 29, 1936, certain equipment seized by plaintiffs, and that in payment therefor defendant executed in its favor on said date a promissory note, together with an act of chattel mortgage on the purchased articles. A further allegation is that the mortgage was by notarial act and was duly recorded in the chattel mortgage records of Caddo parish,. La., before the said property was placed in or on the leased premises. Another averment is that it has a prior lien and privilege on said property and is entitled to its release or to be paid out of the proceeds of the sheriff’s sale by priority and preference over plaintiffs and all other creditors of defendant. Appropriate judgment is prayed for against plaintiffs and defendant.

Also filing a petition of intervention and third opposition in the proceeding was the Toledo Scale Company, a creditor of defendant. It alleges the ownership of, or, in the alternative, that it has a vendor’s lien and privilege on other certain described property seized by plaintiffs, under and by reason of a written contract entered into with defendant. This third opponent avers its right to immediate possession of said property, or, alternatively, that it is entitled to be recognized as having a vendor’s lien and privilege thereon superior to all other persons. Judgment in accordance with the named allegations is asked for against plaintiffs and defendant.

Plaintiffs’ answer to the opposition of the Allied Store Utilities Company asserts that the latter’s alleged act of chattel mortgage was not recorded, as required by law, before the property covered thereby was placed in the leased premises. Alternatively, it alleges that the act of chattel mortgage is a nullity.

. In answering the opposition of the Toledo Scale Company, plaintiffs allege the superiority of their lessor’s lien and privilege, regardless of the consttuction to be placed on the contract executed by and between said third opponent and defendant.

No appearance was made by defendant Marrs, and preliminary defaults were regularly entered against him by plaintiffs and by both third opponents.

After a trial of the merits, there was judgment in favor of plaintiffs and against defendant* for the amount of the rent claim asserted, and decreeing the maintenance of the provisional seizure, with recognition and enforcement of the lessor’s lien and privilege, on all of the property in the leased premises, except one used meat cooler. Third opponents were granted judgments against Marrs for the amounts of their respective claims, but their demands to be paid by preference to plaintiffs’ claim were rejected, with the exception that the chattel mortgage of the Allied Store Utilities Company was held superior to plaintiffs’ lessor’s lien and privilege in so far as the aforementioned used meat cooler is concerned.

Orders of suspensive and devolutive appeal were requested by and granted to both of the third opponents. The Allied Store Utilities Company perfected its appeal, but the Toledo Scale Company failed in this regard. The latter filed no bond. Defendant Marrs did not appeal.

In this court plaintiffs have filed a motion to dismiss the appeal sought to be taken by the Toledo Scale Company for the reason that the required appeal bond has not been filed by it. In our opinion the motion must be sustained. An appellate court is not permitted to review the proceedings and judgment of the trial”court when the orders of appeal are not accompanied by an appropriate bond. Durrett Hardware & Furniture Company v. Howze, La.App., 174 So. 205, and cases therein cited.

In answering the perfected appeal, plaintiffs pray for an amendment of the trial court’s judgment by ordering recognition of their lessor’s lien and privilege on the used meat cooler as being superior to the claim of the Allied Store Utilities Company.

In view of the faot that no valid appeal was pro'se.cuted by either the defendant or the Toledo Scale Company, we are concerned only with the controversy existing between plaintiffs and the Allied Store Utilities Company. For convenience, the latter will hereinafter be designated as appellant.

It is urged by plaintiffs in this court that the chattel mortgage granted-by Marrs to *725 appellant is illegal, null, and void for the reason that (1) the property sought to be mortgaged is not described as required by law, and (2) the act does not specify and set forth the location of the property.

The instrument stipulating the herein-discussed chattel mortgage recites, in part, the following:

“Ship to... W. G. Marrs
“Street No_ Corner Texas St. & Spring St.,
“City... Shreveport... Parish Caddo... State Louisiana
“State of Louisiana \
“Parish of Caddo /
“Be it known, that on this 29th day of September, 1936, before ike, J. B. Crow, a Notary Public, duly commissioned and qualified within and for the Parish of Caddo, State of Louisiana, and in the presence of the witnesses hereinafter named and undersigned, personally came and appeared Allied Store Utilities Co., a corporation, vendor, and herein represented by Á. B. Wynn, whose authority to act herein is acknowledged, which company hereby sells, transfers and conveys to W. G. Marrs, a resident of the Parish of Caddo, State of Louisiana, who also appears, is here present, accepting and purchasing for himself, his heirs and assigns, the following described property:
Quantity Model No. Fixture Finish Price FOB 1" actor;
One DX610 Hussman-Ligonier Refrigerator counter(s) 10 ft. long Regular Store Serial #36-1003
X86 Cooler coil for used cooler t
Valve for X86 coil s
" 100MS Hussman-Ligonier Condensing Unit(s), l'H. P. Current .AC, Electrical Volts, 220, Specification Cycles, 60 Phase 1
" Grocer Refrigerator (s)
" Used Meat Cooler (s), 8 ft. front, 6 ft. Depth 10.”

With reference to the describing of movable property to be mortgaged, section 2 of Act No. 198 of 1918, as amended by Act No. 178 of 1936 (the Louisiana chattel mortgage statute), provides that,

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Related

Durrett Hardware & Furniture Co. v. Howze
174 So. 205 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1937)
Union Bldg. Corporation v. Burmeister
173 So. 752 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1937)
Youree v. Limerick
101 So. 864 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1924)

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Bluebook (online)
178 So. 723, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maroun-v-marrs-lactapp-1938.