Woodard v. Johnson

152 So. 65, 178 La. 501, 1933 La. LEXIS 1876
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 27, 1933
DocketNo. 32610.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 152 So. 65 (Woodard v. Johnson) 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
Woodard v. Johnson, 152 So. 65, 178 La. 501, 1933 La. LEXIS 1876 (La. 1933).

Opinion

*503 BOGEBS, Justice.

The relators, M. B. Johnson and G. H. Moore, were adjudged in contempt by the judge of the Second judicial district court for the parish of Bienville and apply for writs of certiorari and prohibition to review the ruling of the judge and to forbid him from executing or attempting to execute his judgment finding them guilty of contempt.

The case was submitted upon the allegations of the application of relators and the averments of the returns of the district judge and A. E. Woodard, the respondents.

The substantial facts, as we gather them from the record before us, are as follows, viz.:

On November 27, 1931, relator M. B. Johnson filed suit in the justice of the peace court for ward 4 of Bienville parish against one Jerry Ashley for $100 for rent of a farm for the year 1931, and, under a provisional seizure, caused the constable to seize six bales of cotton as the property of Jerry Ashley and grown on the leased premises during the term of the lease. A. E. Woodard was also made a party defendant as guarantor of the note given for the rent.

The justice of the peace rendered judgment against both defendants but failed to recognize the lessor’s lien. On appeal, the district court rejected plaintiff’s demand against A. E. Woodard and affirmed the judgment against Jerry Ashley with an amendment recognizing the lessor’s lien. When the judgment became final, relator M. B. Johnson caused execution to issue thereon in the justice of the peace court directed to relator G. H. Moore, the constable of said court, who seized under the execution the six bales of cotton originally seized by virtue of the writ of provisional seizure, and advertised that he would sell the cotton on May 17, 1933.

On the day before the sale, A. E. Woodard, claiming to own four bales of the cotton, represented by negotiable warehouse receipts, the Monroe Hardware Company, Inc., and the Fowler Commission Company, Inc., each claiming to own one bale of the cotton represented by a negotiable warehouse receipt, *505 filed a joint suit in the Second judicial district court for the parish of Bienville, in -which they prayed that relators, M. R. Johnson and G. H. Moore, constable, be enjoined irom selling their alleged property; and a restraining order was granted temporarily prohibiting the sale of the cotton claimed by the plaintiffs.

The relators, M. R. Johnson and G. H. Moore, constable, disregarding the restraining order sold the cotton under the fi. fa. issued by the justice of the peace, M. R. Johnson, himself, becoming the purchaser thereof for the sum of S200.

On May 19, 1933, A. E. Woodard, Monroe Hardware Company, Inc., and Fowler Commission Company, Inc., plaintiffs in the suit in the district court, filed a joint petition therein and prayed that relators be cited and punished for contempt for refusing to obey the order of the.court.

Relators answered the rule to show cause, alleging and pleading that the district court was without jurisdiction to issue the restraining order or to try and punish them for contempt; that the restraining order was issued in violation of a prohibitory law; that relators were not legally cited and no notice given them that any order had been filed or that the conditions of the order were complied with.

After a hearing on the rule, the court sustained the exceptions to jurisdiction as to plaintiffs Monroe Hardware Company, Inc., and Fowler Commission Company, Inc., and overruled the exceptions as to the plaintiff A. E. Woodard, and held relators in contempt for violating the restraining order issued at his instance. Relators’ application for a new trial was overruled, and the relators were ordered to appear in court for sentence. Whereupon relators invoked the supervisory power of this court to stay the proceeding until the further orders of the court.

The only questions whieh may be inquired into on relators’ application for certiorari and prohibition are those relating to the regularity of the proceeding and to the jurisdiction of the court.

Relators contend that the restraining order was issued in violation of a prohibitory law, Act No. 29 of 1924, in that it was not indorsed with the date and hour of issuance, does not state any legal reason for its issuance without notice and does not describe in detail any acts sought to be restrained, without reference to the petition and attached documents; that the order was conditional on plaintiffs furnishing bond for $100 and there was no notice or citation served on them showing that any bond had been given or filed or that the order had been entered of record in the clerk’s office, and they had no means of knowing whether these things had been done; and that until such knowledge is legally brought to them, they cannot be held for contempt.

The returns of the respondents show that the restraining order was issued on May 16, 1933, the day before the sale was advertised to take place. That a certified copy of the petition, together with the restraining order and citation, was served upon both relators prior to the hour of sale, as shown by the returns of the serving officers and by the testimony of the sheriff and a deputy sheriff of the parish of Bienville. That the sheriff *507 particularly called the attention of relators to the restraining order, which he read to them prior to the hour set for the sale, and advised them not to proceed with the sale. That ignoring the warning of the sheriff and disregarding the restraining order, relators sold the property which they had been prohibited from selling.

We End, contrary to relators’ contention, that the restraining order does set forth the reasons for its issuance, namely, “that it is apparent from the allegations of petitioners’ petition that immediate loss and injury will be sustained by said plaintiffs herein before they can be heard on a preliminary writ due to the fact that the sale is advertised for the 17th day of May, at 11 o’clock A. M., for the year 1933, and that plaintiff had no other remedy than the issuance of this restraining order.”

We find also that the restraining order prohibited the relators from proceeding with the sale of the property described in the advertisement attached to plaintiffs’ petition and as represented and shown by the six negotiable warehouse receipts. It is quite true that the order might have set forth in more detail the act which it was intended to prohibit. But there can be no question that relators, irrespective of the warning given them personally by the sheriff, were fully informed from the language of the order itself as to what they were prohibited from doing. There was only one sale that concerned relators advertised to take place on May 17, 1933, at 11 o’clock a. m. of property represented by six negotiable warehouse receipts.

As required by the court in issuing the restraining order, bond in the sum of $100 was furnished by the plaintiffs on May 16, 1933, and filed in the clerk’s office on May 17, 1933.'

Relators’ complaint that they were given no specific notice that the bond on which the order' was conditioned had been furnished or that the order itself had been filed in the clerk’s office is untenable.

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152 So. 65, 178 La. 501, 1933 La. LEXIS 1876, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodard-v-johnson-la-1933.