Norman Mayer & Co. v. Montgomery

174 So. 880, 187 La. 374, 1937 La. LEXIS 1179
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided April 26, 1937·No. No. 33814.·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

PONDER, Justice.

This is a proceeding by rule against the Federal Land Bank to subordinate its mortgage to plaintiff’s judgment against Thomas W. Montgomery.

Mrs. Edna Innis Montgomery, on November 8, 1922, executed a mortgage on two certain tracts of land (containing 269.22 acres, 215.97 acres, respectively) to the Federal Land Bank for the sum of $10,000. It was recited in the mortgage that. the property was acquired by Mrs. Edna Innis Montgomery from her deceased father, James Innis, partly by inheritance, partly by purchase from Mrs. Mary Margaret Innis, and by act of partition between Mrs. Edna Innis Montgomery and her coheirs. The act of mortgage was signed by Edna Innis Montgomery and Thomas W. Montgomery, filed for record November 8, 1922, and recorded in Book 1, page 159 et seql, in the mortgage records of Point Coupee parish.

Norman Mayer & Co. obtained a judgment (which is recorded in Book 29, Entry No. 491, on October 18, 1923, in the mortgage records of Point Coupee parish) against Thomas W. Montgomery for the-sum of $8,270.11, with legal interest from judicial demand, in the district court of Point Coupee parish on October 18, 1923. The judgment was revived by judgment of ■the same court, October 18, 1933, and was duly recorded.

On March. 10, 1932, prior to the suit herein, the plaintiff sought to execute the above-mentioned judgment on an undivided one-half interest in the property recited in the mortgage by causing a writ of fi. fa. to issue. When the sheriff seized the undivided one-half interest and advertised it for sale, Mrs. Edna Innis Montgomery instituted suit against the plaintiffs and sheriff enjoining the sale on the ground that the property seized was her separate paraphetnal property and it could not be seized for a community debt. This suit bears No. 32,664 of the docket of this court and is entitled Mrs. Edna Innis Montgomery v. Lamertine Bouanchaud et al., 179 La. 312, 154 So. 8. In that suit, this court decreed the undivided one-half interest in the property to be community property.

The plaintiff brought the present rule against the Federal Land Bank to subordinate the mortgage of the Federal Land Bank to plaintiffs’ judgment against Thomas W. Montgomery as to the undivided one-half interest in the lands, de *377 creed in suit No. 32,664 of the docket of this court to be community property. After trial on the merits, plaintiff’s rule was dismissed and plaintiff appealed to this court.

Plaintiff states in its brief on page 5 that there is'no provision in the mortgage to the Federal Land Bank to explain the signature of Thomas W. Montgomery, ex•cept the provisions, viz.:

“The said Edna Innis Montgomery declared that in favor of the mortgagee herein, and of all future holder or holders of the said note secured hereby, and as ■ regards the property hereby mortgaged she waives any and all homestead exemptions to which she is or may be entitled under the Constitution of the State of Louisiana.
“An'd now to these presents intervened Mrs.-herein duly authorized by her husband, who declared that she hereby joins her husband in the waiver of homestead exemptions hereinabove stipulated.”

The plaintiff contends, as the mortgage was executed in a printed form ordinarily used where a husband might be executing such an act, that the notary failed to change the printed form so as to substitute Mr. Montgomery’s name in the vacant space ordinarily used to fill in the name of the wife and that, manifestly, the only object the defendant bank had in requiring Mr. Montgomery to sign the act of mortgage was to carry out the usual practice of requiring the other spouse to sign to waive the homestead.

The lower court, in its reason for judgment, stated that, at the. time the mortgage was given to the Federal Land Bank, Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery were not living on the property mortgaged and, in fact, they had never lived on it. Finding no error in this ruling of the lower court, we see no necessity for a homestead waiver. In fact, the name of Thomas W. Montgomery was not filled out in the blank space provided for the person who intended to waive the homestead rights The signature of Thomas W. Montgomery was not qualified or restricted.

Under the provisions of Act No. 170 of 1912, p. 310, when the title to community property stands in the name of the wife, it cannot be i mortgaged or sold by the husband without her written authority or consent. Since the wife and husband both signed the instant mortgage on the undivided one-half interest decreed to be community property, it would be binding.

Under Act No. 244 of 1918, p. 435, as amended by Act No. 219 of 1920, the wife can mortgage her separate and paraphernal property without the authority of the husband. Therefore, at the time this mortgage was given to the Federal Land Bank, there was no necessity for the husband to sign to authorize the wife.

To give effect to defendant’s contention that the husband signed the act of mortgage to authorize the wife, we would have to read into the act of mortgage something that is not contained therein. To give effect to defendants’ contention that the husband signed the act of mortgage *379 to waive the homestead rights, we would have to read a vain and useless stipulation into the act of mortgage. To construe the signature of Thomas W. Montgomery to the act of mortgage in the light of plaintiff’s contention, that it was to authorize his wife or to waive the homestead rights, would be equivalent to giving the husband’s signature a vain and useless meaning.

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Norman Mayer & Co. v. Montgomery, 174 So. 880, 187 La. 374, 1937 La. LEXIS 1179 (La. 1937).

174 So. 880 (Norman Mayer & Co. v. Montgomery) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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