Opelousas St. Landry Bank & Trust Co. v. Fontenot

137 So. 339, 173 La. 430, 1925 La. LEXIS 2389
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJuly 13, 1925
DocketNo. 27298.
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 137 So. 339 (Opelousas St. Landry Bank & Trust Co. v. Fontenot) 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
Opelousas St. Landry Bank & Trust Co. v. Fontenot, 137 So. 339, 173 La. 430, 1925 La. LEXIS 2389 (La. 1925).

Opinion

OVERTON^ J.

Plaintiff recovered judgment against Honoré Fusilier, one of the defendants in the above numbered and entitled suit, for the sum of $6,000, and caused a writ of fieri facias to issue from the judgment recovered by it. Under this writ the sheriff seized, as belonging to Honoré Fusilier, an iron safe and its contents; the contents, in so far as it is necessary to mention them, consisting of money and promissory notes. Shortly after the seizure was made, Émar Fusilier, a son of Honoré Fusilier, filed an affidavit with the sheriff claiming a part of the property seized. After the seizure was made, and after Emar Fusilier had made the affidavit mentioned, and the safe had been opened and its contents inventoried, plaintiff filed a rule against-the sheriff and against Honoré and Emar Fusilier to show cause why the sheriff should not pay to it, and credit the writ of fieri facias with the money found in said safe, aggregating the sum of $992.95, which money plaintiff alleges belongs to its judgment debtor, Honoré Fusilier; and why the sheriff should not proceed to sell, in execution of said writ, the remaining property, found in said safe, as the property of Honoré Fusilier, with the exception of a certain part thereof, which plaintiff describes and admits belongs to Emar Fusilier.

Honoré Fusilier filed an answer to this rule in which he avers that $849 of the money, which the sheriff claims to have seized as part of the contents of said safe, belongs to Emar Fusilier; that $135 of the remainder of the money found therein was delivered by him, in trust, to Emar Fusilier, to be used for a specified purpose, and that the rest of the money found in said safe, as well as the other property found therein, with the exception of that which plaintiff admits belongs to Emar Fusilier, was delivered by him for safe-keeping to said Emar Fusilier, and that the seizure thereof was illegally made, and is null and void; that the ijroperty seized, which belongs to him, should be returned to him, because of the illegal seizure made; and he prays for judgment, in ’ reconvention, ordering the sheriff to return it to him.

Emar Fusilier also filed an answer to the rule filed by plaintiff, in which he avers that he is the owner of the $840, mentioned above, and that the $135, also mentioned above, should be returned to him to the end that it may be used for the purpose for which it was delivered to him, and he prays for judgment in reconvention ordering that said sums, as well ás the property, which plaintiff admits belongs to him, be returned to him.

The rule was tried, and on June 24, 1924, judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff, ordering that the money found in said safe be paid to plaintiff and credited on said *433 writ, and that the remainder of the property found therein, except that part of it which plaintiff admits is the property of Emar Fusilier, he sold to satisfy the remainder of the judgment against Honoré Fusilier; the trial court having found that all of the property contained in said safe, with the exception noted, was the property of said Honoré Fusilier, and that the seizure thereof was valid.

Both Honoré and Emar Fusilier obtained an appeal from the judgment rendered, returnable to the Court of Appeal for the First Circuit, and though they perfected the appeal by furnishing bond, they failed to file the transcript thereof in the appellate court until after the return day had expired. On motion of plaintiff, the Court of Appeal (1 La. App. 195), because of the failure of the appellants to file the transcript timely, dismissed the appeal. The appellants, that is, the Fusiliers,' then applied to this court for a writ of certiorari for the purpose of having the ruling of the Court of Appeal reviewed and set aside, 'but the application was denied. The Fusiliers then, to wit, on March 30,1925, within one year after the judgment was rendered against them on the rule, filed by plaintiff, which was within the time fixed by law for the taking of a devolutive appeal, applied to the trial court and obtained an order for a devolutive appeal from the judgment rendered against them on said rule, returnable for the first time to this court.

Plaintiff and appellee has appeared in this court and moved to dismiss this last appeal on the following grounds, to wit:

“(1) That on June 25, 1924, said Honoré Fusilier and said Emar Fusilier were granted by the District Court, on their motion, appeals suspensive and devolutive, returnable to the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, on August 18, 1924; that they, perfected said appeals by giving bond, but the transcript of said appeal was not filed until- October 17, 1924; that the Court of Appeal sustained mover’s motion to dismiss said appeals; that this Court on March 12, 1925, refused appellants’ application for a writ of certiorari to review the judgment of the Court of Appeal; and that the failure of appellants to file the transcript in time constituted an abandonment of the appeal, which cannot now be renewed.
“(2) That the amount in dispute in each of said appeals is below the jurisdictional limit of this court.”

The question to be answered is whether or not the appeal taken to this court should be dismissed upon either or both of the grounds quoted above. In passing upon the motion to dismiss, we deem it preferable to pass first upon the second ground, set forth therein, that is, upon the ground that the amount in dispute in each of said appeals is below the jurisdictional limit of this court.

Subject to certain exceptions, unnecessary to notice, the appellate jurisdiction of this court and of the Courts of Appeal is determined by the amount in dispute. When the amount in dispute exceeds §2,000, exclusive of interest, this court has jurisdiction of the appeal. When it is $2,000, or below that amount, but in excess of $100, exclusive of interest, the Court of Appeal has jurisdiction. Constitution of 1921, art. 7, §§ 10 and 29. The amount in dispute is determined by the amount at issue at the time the case is submitted for decision. Crowell & Spencer Lumber Co. v. Lynch, 157 La. 21, 101 So. 797; Nelson et al. v. Continental Asphalt & Petroleum Co. et al., 157 La. 491, 102 So. 583.

From the foregoing it is "obvious that it is necessary to ascertain what was the *435 amount, or value, of the right or thing at issue at the time the rule was submitted for decision. In making this inquiry it is necessary .to inquire, first, into plaintiff’s demand, and, then, into the issue as made up on that demand. As we have seen, plaintiff filed its rule for the purpose of recovering judgment against the sheriff and the Fusiliers, ordering the sheriff to pay to it, and to credit on said writ, the money found in said safe, amounting to $992.95, and to sell the remainder of said property, found in said safe, with the exception of a certain part thereof, admitted to belong to Emar Fusilier, to satisfy, after the crediting of said amount, the balance of said judgment. Hence, it appears that plaintiff, by means of the rule filed by it, is seeking to subject to the satisfaction of the $6,000 judgment, procured by it, $992.95 in money and the remainder of the property found in said safe, with the exception of that part of the latter which it admits belongs to Emar Fusilier.

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Bluebook (online)
137 So. 339, 173 La. 430, 1925 La. LEXIS 2389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/opelousas-st-landry-bank-trust-co-v-fontenot-la-1925.