Scionneaux v. Waguespack

32 La. Ann. 283
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 15, 1880
DocketNo. 7711
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 32 La. Ann. 283 (Scionneaux v. Waguespack) 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
Scionneaux v. Waguespack, 32 La. Ann. 283 (La. 1880).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Marr, J.

In January, 1852, Marcelin Scionneaux sold to Mrs. Priestly a tract of land, in the parish of St. James, having one arpent front on the river, by a depth of eighty arpents. The price was represented by two notes of the purchaser, each for two thousand dollars, payable, respectively, in the month of March, 1853 and 1854, the purchaser having the right to prolong the payment for ten years from maturity, on paying interest annually at eight per cent. This debt was secured by the vendor’s mortgage and privilege, reserved in the notarial act of sale.

The annual interest was paid up to the 31st March, 1857; and on the 6th of March, 1858, the heirs of Mrs. Priestly sold this land, with other parcels, the whole constituting a sugar plantation, having ten and one third arpents front, and thirty-five slaves, in block, without separate estimation, to Alexis Perry, for the round price of $95,000 ; in part payment of which Perry assumed the debt and mortgage to Scionneaux. The notarial act of sale to Perry was recorded, in extenso, in the mortgage-book, in the parish recorder’s office, on the 15th Ma-rch, 1858 ; and it was re-inscribed, in extenso, on the 6th July, 1876.

Perry paid the interest regularly from March, 1858, to March, 1862. He was not able to pay regularly after this ; but he made small payments, on account, in 1864, 1865, 1866,1867, and 1868.

On the 4th February, 1868, Perry mortgaged this plantation to the •Citizens’ Bank; and, on the 12th February, 1868, it was sold, by the sheriff, under fieri facias, and was adjudicated to Mrs. Alexis Perry, for $44,850, in part satisfaction of her judgment against her husband for .$114,000. In part payment of the price Mrs. Perry assumed the debt to [286]*286Scionneaux, amounting, in capital and interest, to $5100, and the mortgage by which it was secured. The sheriff’s deed to Mrs. Ferry was-recorded in the proper mortgage-book on the 14th February, 1868; and it was re-inscribed on the 6th July, 1876. In this deed the land is-described as having eleven and one third arpents front.

In 1870, Mrs. Ferry mortgaged this property to-Philip Buchanan i and in 1871 she mortgaged it to Edward T. Gay & Co. Writs of seizure- and sale issued on these two mortgages ; and the property was adjudicated to Edward J. Gay, on the 1st April, 1876 : and in March, 1877, Gay sold it to Joseph Waguespack.

In May, 1877, after thirty days previous demand of payment of Mr. and Mrs. Ferry, this suit was brought by the widow of Marcelin Scion-neaux, as holder and owner of the two notes given by Mrs. Priestly for the price of one arpent front, against Mr. and Mrs. Ferry, and against Waguespack, to subject the entire property to the payment of the debt and interest from March, 1868, together with the interest, $1100, which had accrued up to that date, less $945 35 paid since on account of the; interest.

Mr. and Mrs. Ferry separately accepted.service, and confessed judgment as prayed for. Waguespack set up title under Gay, whom he-called in warranty. Gay denied that Widow Scionneaux was the owner-of the notes. He set up the title which he acquired under the mortgages to Buchanan and to Gay & Co. and the sheriff’s adjudication to him. He alleged that the mortgage in favor of Scionneaux had not, been re-inscribed ; and that, on his demand in writing, the recorder had canceled and erased the inscription, on the 31st March, 1876. He admitted, as the petition- charged, that Mr. and Mrs. Ferry were separate in property, and that they were insolvent, and had no property which could be reached for the payment of their debts. He plead the prescription of five years, in bar of the notes sued on ; and he alleged that the acts of Ferry aDd wife, in attempting' to renounce the prescription, and in confessing judgment, were null and void, and were done with the intention of defrauding him and other third parties in interest; and that the judgment on their confession was a nullity, of no effect in law..

The Citizens’ Bank intervened, asserting priority, as mortgagee, to the rights set up by Gay and Waguespack, in virtue of the mortgage of Ferry in February, 1868.

On the confession of Ferry and wife judgment was rendered against them in solido, in December, 1877, with recognition of the vendor’s mortgage, and privilege in accordance with the prayer of the petition.

As between the other parties final judgment was rendered against the plaintiff in October, 1879, in favor of defendant, Waguespack, his-warrantor, Gay, and the Citizens’ Bank, intervenor, rejecting her de[287]*287mand, and maintaining the priority of the mortgage granted by Ferry to the Citizens’ Bank over the mortgages under which Gay and Wagues-pack claimed. This is the judgment which the appeal taken by plaintiff brings up for review.

Counsel for plaintiff admits that the mortgage granted by Mrs.. Priestly to Seionneaux cannot be enforced, for want of re-inscription but he maintains that the assumptions by Mr. and Mrs. Ferry preserved the vendor’s privilege upon the whole property ; and that is the right, which plaintiff seeks to enforce in this suit. •

The assumption by Alexis Ferry, in 1858, was part of the price of" his purchase, not of the one arpent front, but of the whole tract sold to him by the heirs of Mrs. Priestly. He assumed, in their stead, the debt due-to Seionneaux, and the mortgage in his favor which rested on that one-arpent alone. He did not grant a new mortgage in favor of Seionneaux but by assuming, as part of the price of the whole property, the debt due by the heirs of Mrs. Priestly, to Seionneaux, he bound the whole property, in favor of Seionneaux for this debt. The vendor’s lien existed, primarily, in favor of the vendors of Ferry, the heirs of Mrs. Priestly; but the assumption of the debt due Seionneaux was a stipulation pour autrui, which was accepted by Seionneaux, by receiving, as he did, from Ferry, the annual interest up to 1862, and payments on account up to his death, which occurred in 1866. This stipulation was also accepted by plaintiff, the holder of the notes, by receiving from Ferry such payments as he subsequently made, on account of the interest; and this stipulation inured to the benefit of Seionneaux, and of his wife, after his death, as fully as if they had been the immediate vendors of Ferry. The vend- or’s privilege is the creature of the law. The act of sale shows the existence and assumption of the debt due to Seionneaux, as original vendor; and the law created the privilege. This privilege must be recorded, to be preserved; and the recording of the act from Priestly’s heirs to Ferry, in the mortgage book, in March, 1858, and the re-inscription in July, 1876, gave notice to all persons, whomsoever, that of the. whole price of the entire property sold by the heirs of Mrs. Priestly to-Ferry, the amount due to Seionneaux was not paid; and that it had been assumed by Ferry. Civil Code of 1825, arts. 3238 to 3241, inclusive.

And so, in 1868, Mrs. Ferry bound herself to pay, as part of the price of the adjudication to her of the whole property, the debt due to Seionneaux, amounting to $5100, in capital and interest, for which her husband had bound himself personally, in 1858. This assumption on her part, created the vendor’s lien, not on the one arpent front, but on the whole property, in favor of Seionneaux, or rather of his widow, who was then the holder of the notes ; and Mrs. Seionneaux accepted this stipulation in her favor by receiving from Mrs.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
32 La. Ann. 283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scionneaux-v-waguespack-la-1880.