Mullen v. E. D. Green Realty Co.

147 So. 115, 1933 La. App. LEXIS 1607
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 31, 1933
DocketNo. 4529.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 147 So. 115 (Mullen v. E. D. Green Realty Co.) 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
Mullen v. E. D. Green Realty Co., 147 So. 115, 1933 La. App. LEXIS 1607 (La. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinions

DREW, Judge.

E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., was the owner of four mortgage notes, signed and executed by Mary Waterman Evans, three of which were in the sum of $300 each, and one note for $475. On the 5th day of August, 1929, it pledged the above notes to the Texas Lumber Company, Inc., as security for its note in the sum of $772.71 held by said Texas Lumber Company, Tnc.

On September 19, 1931, by notarial act, E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., transferred, set over, and assigned unto K. S. Biggers the four notes held by the Texas Lumber Company, Inc., as pledgee.

On October 10, 1931, Mrs. Eloise Bennett Mullen secured judgment against the E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., in the amount of $1,149.70, with interest and attorney’s fees thereon; and on October 13, 1931, issued a fieri facias on said judgment and had seized by the sheriff one of the Mary Waterman Evans notes, to wit; the $475 note, then held by the Texas Lumber Company, Inc., as pledgee.

On the 28th day of October, 1931, IC. S. Big-gers intervened in the suit of Mrs. Eloise Bennétt Mullens v. E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., and alleged that the note seized in this suit under fieri facias issued by Mrs. Mullen is not the property of the E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., but the property of intervener, and that he was the owner of said note for value before maturity by virtue of the notarial assignment from E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., to him of date September 19, 1931. He prayed to be recognized as the owner of said note and that the sheriff of Caddo parish be ordered to release the seizure therein and to deliver said note to him. He further prayed for judgment against Mrs. Mullen in the sum of $100, as attorney’s fees, for releasing the illegal seizure.

Mrs. Mullen filed an exception of no cause of action to the petition of intervention and third opposition, which was sustained by the lower court, and intervener appealed to this court. At the request in open court of the attorney for plaintiff, Mrs. Mullen, and not contested by intervener, this court rendered a consent judgment overruling the exception of no cause of action and remanding the case to the lower court for trial (19 La. App. 641, 141 So. 440).

Plaintiff answered the intervention, denying all material allegations, and averred that intervener is not the owner of any right whatever with respect to the note referred to in his petition for intervention; that no bona fide assignment of said notes to intervener has been executed by E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc.; and that said notes were and are still the property of the said E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., subject to the rights of plaintiff, as seizing creditor, and to the rights of the Texas Lumber Company, Inc., as pledgee.

There was judgment in the lower court in favor of plaintiff, Mrs. Mullen, and against intervener, IC S. Biggers, rejecting his demands and dismissing his petition of intervention and third opposition at his cost; from which judgment intervener has appealed.

The lower court disposed of the case by holding that the assignment from E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., to K. S. Biggers of date September 19, 1931, was not a bona fide *116 transfer of the rights and claims which E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc,, had in and to the notes pledged to the Texas Lumber Company, Inc. The assignment is in regular form, passed before a notary and there is proof that there was a just consideration for the assignment. The only testimony tending to show that it was not a bona fide transaction is that E. D. Green, the president of the E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., offered to transfer, sell, and. assign the said notes to another person, after the date of the assignment to Biggers. There is no testimony that Biggers knew of Green’s action or had any knowledge at any time that E. D. Green was attempting to assign the said notes to other persons, and any action of E. D. Green could not be binding on Biggers, a bona fide transferee, under the assignment of September 19, 1931.

Immediately after the assignment on September 19, 1931, Biggers, through his attorney, notified the Texas Lumber Company, Inc., pledgee, that the notes had been assigned to him and attempted to secure from the pledgee th.e amount still due it by E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., the principal obligor, on the note for which the Evans notes were pledged to secure. He was unable to secure this information from the Texas Lumber Company, Inc. He at no time notified Mary Waterman Evans, the maker of the notes, that he claimed the ownership of •said notes.

There was no actual transfer of the notes by the E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., to 1C. S. Biggers, his contention being that the assignment by notarial act and notice .to the pledgee were sufficient to constitute him owner, and to place the notes beyond the reach of the creditors of E. D. Green Realty Company, Inc., of which Mrs. Mullen, the plaintiff, was one. In opposing this contention, plaintiff relies on the following authorities:

Article 1922 of the Revised Civil Code, roads as follows: “With respect to movable effects, although, by the rule referred to in the two last preceding articles, the consent to transfer vests the ownership of the property in the obligee, yet'.this effect is strictly confined to the parties until actual delivery of the object. If the vendor, being in possession, should, by a second contract, transfer the ownership of the property to another person, who gets the possession before the first obligee, the last transferee is considered as the owner, provided the contract be made on his part bona fide, and without notice of the former contract.”

Article 1923 of the Revised Civil Code, reads as follows: “In like manner, if movable property has been alienated by contract, but not delivered, it is liable in the hands of the obligor to seizure and attachment, in behalf of his creditors.”

In the case of Lassiter v. Bussy, 14 La. Ann. 699, the court held a promissory note not transferred by indorsement and delivery in the usual mercantile mode, is subject to seizure under the rule which governs the sale of movables not accompanied with delivery, and that the doctrine of notice is not applicable to the sale of personal or movable property, and the creditors may seize them and sell them, when there is no delivery of possession, although informed of an agreement to sell.

And in the case of Marshall v. Parish of Morehouse, 14 La. Ann. 689, an agreement to transfer personal effects vests the property in the transferee, but the effect of the transfer is strictly confined to the parties to it until the actual delivery of the object, and that personal property transferred by contract, but not delivered, is liable in the hands of the transferor to seizure and attachment by his creditors.

In the case of Thomas R. Hill v. William A. Hanney & Co., 15 La. Ann. 654, a ease plaintiff contends to be similar in all respects to the case at bar, the court said:

“It is to be noted that W. L. Allen & Co. were the agents of Beck for the collection of the draft, and that their possession was Beck’s possession, and that the draft was attached in the hands of the garnishees, before its delivery to the plaintiff, the transfer-ree, and before any notice of the transfer had been given to Andrews ¿Se Co. the debtors of the draft.

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Bluebook (online)
147 So. 115, 1933 La. App. LEXIS 1607, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mullen-v-e-d-green-realty-co-lactapp-1933.