Union Homestead Ass'n v. Montegut

122 So. 68, 168 La. 369, 1929 La. LEXIS 1796
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 2, 1929
DocketNos. 29231, 28923.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 122 So. 68 (Union Homestead Ass'n v. Montegut) 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
Union Homestead Ass'n v. Montegut, 122 So. 68, 168 La. 369, 1929 La. LEXIS 1796 (La. 1929).

Opinions

OVERTON, J.

On July 6, 1925, Mrs. Adrian Montegut contracted to purchase from the Picheloup Realty Company lots 38, 39 and 40 in a certain square located in the city of New Orleans. This contract was recorded in the conveyance records on July 23, 1925. A few days later Mrs. Montegut entered into a written contract with E. J. Stewart & Co. to build a residence on lot 38 and one on *372 lots 39 and 40, together with the necessary outhouses. This contract was not recorded, nor was the bond demanded by law of the contractor exacted by the owner.

On October 8, 1925, although the Picheloup Realty Company had bound itself to seE these lots to Mrs. Montegut, that company conveyed them to Morris P. Lecompte. On the same day Lecompte transferred the property to Fineran, and on November 20, 1925, Fineran sold it to the Union Homestead Association, the plaintiff herein. On the day that the Union Homestead Association purchased the property, it sold lots 39 and 40 to Mrs. Monte-gut, who had contracted to purchase them from the Picheloup Realty Company, and lot 38, which Mrs. Montegut had also contracted to purchase from that company, to Henry B. Foster, making both sales partly for cash and partly on terms of credit, with the de-' ferred payments in each instance secured by a vendor’s privilege and a special mortgage, which were duly and promptly recorded.

At the time the Union Homestead Association purchased and resold, there -was no certificate of record accepting the work done under contract. In fact, at that time, the buildings, though practically completed, were not entirely ■ finished, for there still remained some work to be done on each, which was thereafter promptly done by the contractor in the fulfillment of his contract. Without reference, however, as to whether the buildings were then completed, it may be said that no acceptance of the work was ever placed of record.

Following the recordation of the vendor’s liens and special mortgages in favor of the Union Homestead Association various furnishers of- material and subcontractors recorded liens in the mortgage records against both pieces of the property, involved herein. Against the property of record in the name of Mrs. Montegut, three of the liens, now before us, were recorded in December, 1925, two in January, 1926, one in March of that year, and against the property of record in the name of Foster, the two liens thereon were recorded in December, 1925.

Both Mrs. Montegut and Foster failed to pay the installments and interest on the mortgages granted by them, and on March 10, 1927, the Union Homestead Association instituted proceedings by executory process to foreclose the mortgages and vendor’s liens, and the two pieces of property were adjudicated to it for sums scarcely more,than sufficient, if sufficient, to pay the mortgages and vendor’s privileges held by the association.

As there was insufficient to pay all who had recorded privileges and m'ortgages against ' the property, the civil sheriff caused all who had such claims of record to be ruled into court, for the purpose of ascertaining to whom the proceeds of the sale should be paid. Five of those so cited, who claimed privileges of record, as materialmen, against the property, which prior to the adjudication stood in the' name of Mrs. Montegut, appeared and asserted their privEeges, and two-of them, who claimed similar privileges on the property, which, prior to that adjudication stood in the name of Foster, appeared and asserted the privileges claimed by them, all urging that they are entitled to payment in preference to the Union Homestead Association.

The association contends that the foregoing claimants are not entitled to payment by priority over it: (1) Because Mrs. Montegut was not the owner of the three lots upon which the residences were erected, when the contract for -their erection was signed and the buildings were constructed, and it was not until later that she became the owner of two of the lots; (2) because the privileges claimed were not recorded within the time *374 prescribed by law; and (3) because the privileges asserted were recorded after its vendor’s privilege.

The ultimate question to be decided on this appeal is whether the Union Homestead Association is entitled to payment by preference over the furnishers of material. Since the vendor’s lien and special - mortgage, claimed by the association, were recorded before the claims of the furnishers of material, though after the building contract had been entered into, one of the questions presented is: Are the privileges and mortgages of the association affected, as to priority of payment, by these liens?

In Capital Building & Loan Association v. Carter, 164 La. 388, 113 So. 886, it was said that “a lien or privilege may affect third persons during the period in which it is not of record, if, eventually, it is recorded in the manner and within the time prescribed by law.” This ruling was based primarily on section 19 of article 19 of the Constitution of 1921, which provides that “no mortgage or privilege on immovable property, or debt for which preference may be granted by law, shall affect third persons unless recorded or registered in the parish where the property is situated, in the manner and within the time prescribed by law.” Where, therefore, a privilege or a mortgage is recorded in the parish where the property is situated, in the manner and within the time prescribed by law, it was said that during the period in which it was not of record it might affect third persons. We adhere to that ruling. However, it may be said that in that case the privileges of the furnishers of material were not recorded within the time fixed by law.

In the case of Central Lumber Co. v. Schroeder, 164 La. 759, 114 So. 644, the same doctrine was held as was-held in the Capital Building & Loan Association Case. In that case, as the lien of the furnisher of material was recorded in the manner and within the time prescribed by law, it was held that the lien affected third persons during the period in which it was not of record.

However, the doctrine announced in -those cases is not decisive of the present case. In them there was no question to what property the liens attached, if they were found valid. The facts there involved did not admit of any such question. In the present ease they do. It is here contended, among other things, that Mrs. Montegut did not become the owner of lots 39 and 49 until the building thereon had been constructed, and that she never did become the owner of lot 38, and therefore that the liens claimed, under the building contract, never did attach to the lots themselves, which we may say were sold with the buildings without separate appraisements of the lots and the buildings.

At the time Mrs. Montegut entered into the contract for the erection of the buildings, she had only an agreement with Pieheloup & Co. to sell her the property for $4,909 cash, The agreement provided for the depositing of $400 to be applied on the purchase price, for the passing of the deed within 90 days, for the payment of 8 per cent, interest per annum on the purchase price for any delay attributable to Mrs. Montegut, and for the .delivery of immediate possession for building purposes.

This agreement was a mere promise to sell and did not convey title to Mrs. Montegut. Trichel v. Home Ins. Co., 155 La. 459, 99 So. 403; Succession of Fay, 161 La. 1022, 109 So.

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Bluebook (online)
122 So. 68, 168 La. 369, 1929 La. LEXIS 1796, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/union-homestead-assn-v-montegut-la-1929.