State Ex Rel. Knighton v. Derryberry

177 So. 256, 188 La. 412, 1937 La. LEXIS 1272
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 2, 1937
DocketNo. 34511.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 177 So. 256 (State Ex Rel. Knighton v. Derryberry) 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
State Ex Rel. Knighton v. Derryberry, 177 So. 256, 188 La. 412, 1937 La. LEXIS 1272 (La. 1937).

Opinion

PONDER, Justice.

This is a rule on the district judge and the defendants to show cause why the writ of mandamus should not issue directing the district judge to grant the relators, plaintiffs, a suspensive appeal from the order of the district court setting aside a writ of judicial sequestration previously issued by the district court.

The facts in the case are, namely, viz.: The plaintiffs on July 1, 1937, filed a peti-tory action against the defendants alleging that they were owners of an undivided half interest in a 40-acre tract of land situated in the parish of Caddo; that the defendants had entered into a contract with the G. H. Vaughan Production Company in which they had undertaken to transfer %6 of all the oil, gas, and other minerals in and under said land; that said contract between defendants and the G. H. Vaughan Production Company is absolutely null as far as the right of the plaintiffs, as owners of an undivided half of said land, are concerned; that the G. H. Vaughan Production Company has drilled on the land two wells which are producing oil and have been producing oil continuously since September 17, 1935.; that the oil is sold and being delivered to the Standard Oil Company of Louisiana ; that the Standard Oil Company has actually received the oil produced from the land under the null contract between the defendants and the G. H. Vaughan Production Company; that the defendants, the G. H. Vaughan Production Company and the Standard Oil Company, are liable to the plaintiffs for one-half the value of all the oil, gas, or other minerals extracted or produced from the tract of land; that from information and belief plaintiffs aver that the value of plaintiffs’ half of said oil, etc., exceeds the sum of $200,000; that plaintiffs are entitled to a full and complete accounting of the quantity and value of the oil, etc.; that the G. H. Vaughan Production Company and the Standard Oil Company are continuing to produce and take away the oil from the land, half of which belongs to plaintiffs; that the plaintiffs will suffer irreparable injury unless a writ of judicial sequestration is issued under articles 273 and 274 of the Code of Practice to hold the proceeds of the sale of the oil, etc., intact until the final determination of the suit.

The district judge, at the time the plaintiffs’ petition was presented, signed an order for the issuance of a judicial sequestration and an order for the defendant to render an accounting, within ten days, of the quantity and value or price from all oil, etc., taken from the tract of land. This order was signed on July 1, 1'937. On July 6, 1937, the court signed an order, on the *415 petition of the defendants, ruling the plaintiffs to show cause on July 9, 1937, why the order previously signed by the court for the issuance of a judicial sequestration, etc., should not be set aside as improvidently granted. The rule was tried on July 9, 1937, and the court ordered that the sequestration heretofore issued be vacated and set aside, whereupon the plaintiffs applied for a suspensive appeal which was refused by the district court. The plaintiffs have applied to this court for the writs of certiorari and mandamus to compel the district court to grant' them a suspensive appeal. A rule was issued by this court and the matter has been submitted for determination.

The question presented for our determination is whether or not the plaintiffs are entitled to a suspensive appeal from an order vacating and setting aside a writ of judicial sequestration. It is unques^ tionablj the law that it is within the discretion of the trial court to grant or refuse to grant a judicial sequestration and that this court could not be warranted in interfering with that discretion, but that is not the question here" presented. The question here presented is whether or not the plaintiffs are entitled to a suspensive appeal from the order setting aside the writ.

In the case of Schwan v. Schwan, 52 La.Ann. 1183, 27 So. 678, 682, the court states:

“But it is said, if the question whether he should, ex officio, order the 'sequestration was a matter within the discretion of the judge, it was equally within his discretion to determine whether he would set the sequestration aside, and that, having exercised a discretion vested in him by law, his action is not reviewable on appeal. This view is, however, founded on misapprehension. The right of appeal in such cases is not affected adversely by the fact that the order or judgment from which the appeal is sought is within the discretion of the judge by whom it is made. On the contrary, where such order or judgment is discretionary, the remedy, if the case is one which requires a remedy, is by appeal, rather than by mandamus or prohibition. State v. Judge of Superior Dist. Court, 26 La.Ann. 116; State v. Judge, 36 La.Ann. 394; State v. Judge of Dist. Court for Iberville, 38 La.Ann. 49; State v. Rightor, 40 La.Ann. [852] 854, 5 So. 416; State v. Judge, 44 La.Ann. [1085] 1090, 11 So. 684. Whether the case is one which requires a remedy, since the order or judgment in question was interlocutory, depends ttpon whether the resulting injury is or may be irreparable; and whether the injury is, in any given case, irreparable, this court has said is a matter concerning which it is difficult to lay down any precise rule, but that the general principle is that an injury, the damage from which is merely in the nature of a pecuniary, loss, and can be fairly and fully compensated in money,-is a reparable injury, for which a bond for sufficient amount, and properly secured, would furnish all adequate relief. Crescent City Live-Stock Landing & Slaughter-House Co. v. Police Jury, 32 La.Ann. [1192] 1194; Puckette v. Judge, 39 La.Ann. 901, 2 So. 801 [4 Am.St.Rep. 242]; State v. Judge of Civil Dist. Court, 50 La.Ann. [266] 273, 23 So. 839. But there are some cases *417 where the bond does not afford adequate relief, and in Eltringham v. Clarke, 49 La.Ann. 340, 21 So. 547, the distinction is made between a case where a sequestration is issued in a suit for the recovery of a debt secured by a privilege and the property is released on bond, and a case where the plaintiff resorts to the writ for the protection of a right of property; and it is held that in the latter case the dissolution of the writ, even on bond, may work irreparable injury. Where, as in the instant case, the writ is dissolved on motion, and without bond, the weight of authority is decidedly in favor of the proposition that the injury may be irreparable, and that an appeal should be allowed. See Eltringham v. Clarke, cited supra; State v. Judge Lewis, 9 Mart.(O.S.) 301; Johnston v. Johnston, 13 La.Ann. 581; White v. Cazenave, 14 La.Ann. 57; State v. Rightor, 35 La.Ann. 515; State v. Judge of 23d Dist. Court for Iberville, 38 La.Ann. 49; State v. Judge of 4th Dist. Court for Parish of Orleans, 25 La.Ann. 299,-in several of which cases an appeal was allowed, although bond had been given.

“It is further said, in behalf of the motion to dismiss, that, having ordered the sequestration, and having dissolved it ex officio, and in the exercise of his judicial discretion, the latter order left no contention before the court, and nothing to appeal from. If it be true — as we have found it to be — that irreparable injury may result from the interlocutory order 'made by a judge in the exercise of his judicial discretion, and that the remedy in such case is by appeal (State v. Judge of Dist. Court for Iberville, 38 La.Ann. 49), this proposition is answered.”

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Bluebook (online)
177 So. 256, 188 La. 412, 1937 La. LEXIS 1272, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-knighton-v-derryberry-la-1937.