Wilkinson v. MacHeca

103 So. 733, 158 La. 183, 1924 La. LEXIS 2255
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 12, 1924
DocketNo. 26106.
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 103 So. 733 (Wilkinson v. MacHeca) 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
Wilkinson v. MacHeca, 103 So. 733, 158 La. 183, 1924 La. LEXIS 2255 (La. 1924).

Opinions

LAND, J.

Plaintiff, suing upon a New York judgment for alimony, attached the one-eighth interest of defendant, a nonresident, in certain residence property at the corner of Camp and Phillip streets in the city of New Orleans. By supplemental petition filed March 30, 1921, the original demand of plaintiff for alimony was increased from $3,320 to $4,197.97, and, by further amendment of petition filed June 29, 1922, the latter amount claimed was increased to $5,822.97.

Defendant obtained the release of the property attached on a bond in the sum of $2,475, executed September 12, 1921.

Numerous third persons, including William J. I-Iartman, were made garnishees, and answered that they were not indebted to defendant in any amount. A second writ of attachment issued upon the filing of the supplemental petition June 29, 1922. Hartman was made garnishee under both the first and second writs of attachment. In his answer as garnishee under the first writ made April 8, 192Í, he denied any indebtedness to defendant. In his answer as garnishee under the second writ, he made a similar denial, and stated that he had purchased on September 12, 1921, the interest of defendant in the property attached for the price of $1,650.

On June 22, 1921, plaintiff filed a rule to traverse the answers made by Hartman as garnishee on April 8, 1921, and on October 24, 1921, plaintiff filed a second rule to traverse the answer of Hartman as garnishee made on October 3, 1921.

The grounds of these rules to traverse were that the answers^ of the garnishee were false and evasive.

On January 17, 1922, these rules were ordered dismissed by the court, as shown by minute entry, no formal judgment being signed.

On Npvomber 28, 1921, plaintiff filed and recorded in the office of the recorder of mortgages for the parish of Orleans a notice of *187 lis pendens, reciting the pendency of her original suit filed May 13, 1920, of her supplemental petition filed March 13, 1921, increasing her demand to $4,197.97, and of the rule to traverse the answers of W. J. Hartman as garnishee made October 3, 1921.

On February 15, 1922, Hartman, garnishee, took a rule on plaintiff to cancel and erase the notice of lis pendens recorded November 28, 1921, on the ground that the property had been released on bond, and that said notice had been filed by plaintiff through her attorney “illegally and wrongfully, there being no warrant in law for same.”

The exceptions to rule to cancel tendered by plaintiff were overruled, and on June 20, 1922, a judgment was rendered making absolute the rule to cancel inscription of notice of lis pendens of date November 28, 1921. No appeal was taken from this judgment.

On January 17, 1922, a judgment was rendered dismissing the rule to traverse, no appeal being prosecuted from this judgment. On February 6, 1923, Hartman, garnishee, filed a second rule to cancel a second inscription of the notice of lis pendens recorded on June 30, 1922, and referring to the pendency of the supplemental petition filed June 29, 1922. The second rule to cancel the second notice of lis pendens recites the purchase by Hartman from defendant, on September 12, 1921, of thé interest of defendant in the property attached, the release of said property from seizure on bond in the sum of $2,-475, the proceeding thereafter by plaintiff against Hartman under garnishment process, and by rule to traverse his answers as gar^ nishee, the recordation, in connection with r-said proceedings, on November 28, 1921, of the first notice of lis pendens, and the finality of the judgments dismissing the rules to traverse and to cancel the inscription of the first notice of lis pendens.

Mover alleges in said rule that plaintiff, in heir supplemental petition filed June 29, 1922, has attempted, illegally and wrongfully, to revive the issues already determined in his favor in the proceedings already had.

The exception of res adjudicata pleaded to the supplemental petition of plaintiff has never been passed upon by the lower court, as said exception has never been tried. The plea of res adjudicata set up in the second rule of Hartman to cancel the second notice of lis pendens is based solely upon the allegations of the first notice of Us pendens, upon the statement that the allegations of the second notice are similar, and upon a judgment of date June 20, 1922, ordering the cancellation of the first notice, and also upon a judgment of date January 17, 1922, dismissing the rule to traverse the answers of Hartman as garnishee.

The first rule to cancel the first inscription of notice of lis pendens was filed February 15, 1922. It is based upon the allegations that Hartman had purchased the interest of defendant in the property attached on September 12, 1921, upon the release of the attachment upon bond, and that plaintiff, through her attorney, illegally and wrongfully and without warrant of law recorded said notice in the office of the recorder of mortgages of the parish of Orleans.

It is true that the first notice of lis pendens contained the averment that:

“The transfer by Joseph R. Macheca, on the 12th of September, 1921, of his interest in said real estate to said William J. Hartman, was collusive and of no effect between the parties, and was in violation of the writ of attachment and garnishment proceedings instituted and pending in said cause, and that no real consideration or otherwise passed between the parties to said transfer, and that the object of said alleged transfer and sale was to deny and defeat the rights of plaintiff,” etc.

However, the first rule to cancel the notice of lis pendens raises no issue as to simulation and fraud or collusion to place the property transferred beyond the reach of plaintiff, a judgment creditor, and no such *189 issues were passed upon on the trial of said rule. The merits as to these issues were not gone into at all.

The judgment on the rule was, therefore, interlocutory, and not final, and cannot be made a basis for a plea of res v adjudieata. O. P. arts. 538, 539.

“The authority of the thing adjudged takes place only with respect to what was the object of the judgment. The thing demanded must be the same; the demand must be founded on the same cause of action; the demand must be between the same parties, and. formed by them against each other in the same quality.” R. C. C. 2286.

The demand in the first rule was for the cancellation and erasure of the inscription of the notice of lis pendens as illegal. Its object was not to have the sale from defendant to Hartman declared legal and valid.

The demand in the supplemental petition of plaintiff is much broader than the allegations contained in the notice of lis pen-dens, as said demand contains, apparently, all of the elements of a resolutory action, and its object is to have said sale declared illegal, null, and void as simulated and fraudulent. The demands, therefore, are not the same in the rule to cancel the notice of lis pendens and in the amended petition filed by plaintiff. It is true that no matter how the question is raised, whether by plea, exception, intervention, etc., the questions disposed of by the judgment are res judicata.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
103 So. 733, 158 La. 183, 1924 La. LEXIS 2255, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilkinson-v-macheca-la-1924.