State ex rel. Algiers Brewing Co. v. King

46 La. Ann. 490
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided April 15, 1894·No. No. 11,503·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Watkins, J.

This proceeding arises in the case entitled Lafayette Bank vs. Algiers Brewing Company, No. 39,952, in the Civil District Court, Division B, which court is presided over by the respondent judge, wherein several persons claiming to be bondholders of the defendant company intervened and procured rules on all parties to the suit, to show cause why the plant and all of the paraphernalia and property of said corporation should not be sold.

On the trial of said rules an order was made by the respondent to the effect that John H. O’Connor, receiver of the Algiers Brewing Company, should, after due advertisement, make sale at public auction of the entire property and effects of said corporation, for cash, for not less than two-thirds of its appraisement.

Erom this order of sale, the relator, acting through its president, moved the aforesaid court for a suspensive appeal, upon furnishing bond in the amount required by law, and the respondent fixed the amount of such bond at one thousand dollars, but at the same time requiring of the Brewing Company, as appellant, that it should furnish and file, before his appeal bond for costs, * * * his bond, with a good and solvent surety for thirty thousand dollars, conditioned for the payment of all such damages as shall be sustained by the receiver and creditors by the appeal from the order of sale in this ease, if it should-be decided that such appeal was wrongfully obtained and illegally kept in force by the appellant.”

In relator’s petition are stated the grounds of complaint against the sale-order thus, viz.:

[494]*494“Now your relator says that the judgment from which an appeal is sought is not a moneyed judgment, nor a judgment for the delivery of movables or immovables, and (the respondent) had no authority or right to demand, besides the appeal bond, the special bond herein-before spoken of.”

He further shows that all the property and assets of the corporation are in the possession and under the control of the said receiver, an officer of the court, and if same suffer damage or deterioration, it will in nowise be his (relator’s) fault; and he represents that when property is in the hands of an officer of the court, and there remains pending the appeal, a bond for costs, is all that can be legally demanded of an appellant.

In the alternative, he denies that the proof discloses the likelihood of any loss being sustained during the pendency of an appeal. And finally the relator avers that the action and order of the judge in requiring a special bond of thirty thousand dollars, if maintained, will practically operate a denial of its constitutional right of appeal, they superadding to an appeal bond a.requirement that is illegal and contrary to law.

Hence his prayer is for certiorari to issue requiring the respondent to transmit to this court a certified copy of the record in said suit; for prohibition to restrain further proceedings in the matter of said sale; and mandamus to coerce a suspensive appeal on relator’s one thousand dollar bond, which has been already tendered.

The respondent has sent up the original records of his court, in lieu of certified copies thereof, because of the delay which the making of certified copies would engender.

He returns, substantially, that, in view of the fact that he was unable, at the moment, to fully and definitely determine what the amount of the' suspensive appeal bond should be — baking into consideration the injury which might possibly be wrought to all parties in interest by a suspension, for any length of time, of the order of sale, and, at the same time, be preservative of the relator’s right of appeal — he made an order for the taking of testimony on that question, regarding such to be a conservative and proper course to be pursued, under the circumstances.

He further returns that, in his opinion, the testimony taken in pursuance of said order established the fact that great loss and injury would be entailed upon the corporation and its property by [495]*495the proposed appeal of the relator — a careful summary of the evidence adduced, and the reasons which influenced his judgment in the premises, being given at length.

He further returns that, considering all these facts and circumstances, he considered it in the plain line of his duty, and in the exercise of a just and reasonable discretion, warranted by the settled jurisprudence of this State, to demand a bond equal to the amount of damage likely to result from a suspension of the order from which an appeal was sought,” and hence he made the aforesaid order.

He insists that this was a proper case for the exercise of his discretion, and that such discretion was justly and reasonably exercised, and his action was warranted by the decisions of this court, and notably that in the case of State vs. Judge, 19 La. 167; State ex rel. Coons vs. Judge, 27 An. 334; and in Hart vs. Judge, 34 An. 1210.

The controversy is thus narrowed to one question, and that is whether the relator is entitled to appeal suspensively from the order of sale upon its furnishing bond in the sum of one thousand dollars as fixed by the respondent’s order; or was the right of appeal properly conditioned upon relator previously furnishing an additional bond for damages.

Relator furnished and caused to be filed the suspensive appeal bond of one thousand dollars, bub declined to furnish the additional bond of thirty thousand dollars to cover such damages as may result during the pendency of the appeal.

The contention is, substantially, that under an ex parte order of the respondent at the request of plaintiff in the aforesaid suit a receiver was appointed, who qualified, gave bond and entered into possession of all the property and assets of the corporation; and is now, and has been at all times since said order was made in the actual possession, management and control thereof for the account of the creditors of the corporation. That certain of the creditors of the corporation having intervened in said suit, but having obtained no judgment therein, applied to the respondent pendente ,lite for an order for the sale of all its assets and property, as a conservatory measure, in the interest of all parties concerned.

That believing a sale would be injurious and result in irreparable injury and loss to the corporation, relator applied to the respondent for an order of suspensive appeal, which he granted under the suspensive condition above stated.

[496]*496Of the imposition of this condition, relator complains that it is illegal and unwarranted in law; that the only judgment which the appellate court could render adverse to the corporation would be one affirming the validity and legality of the sale-order, directing the sale to be proceeded with; and, inasmuch as the property is in the hands of the receiver, an officer of court, and being operated by him for account of creditors, any loss which might happen during the pendency of the appeal could not be attributed to it — no part of the revenue passing under its control, and no part of the property being under its administration.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

State ex rel. Algiers Brewing Co. v. King, 46 La. Ann. 490 (La. 1894).

46 La. Ann. 490 (State ex rel. Algiers Brewing Co. v. King) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

In Re Clover Ridge Planting & Mfg. Co.
193 So. 468 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1939)
Beard v. Larson
98 So. 556 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1923)
Pratt Engineering & Machine Co. v. Cecelia Sugar Co.
63 So. 496 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1913)
Fitzpatrick v. Letten
49 So. 494 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1908)