28 La. Ann. 345 | La. | 1876
In this case a married woman, alleging herself to be separate in property from her husband by judicial decree, and claiming to be owner of two lots of ground, with tho buildings and improvements thereon, situated in the city of Baton Rouge, complains that Moyer, Weiss & Co., merchants of New Orleans, have caused an order of seizure and sale to issue against the property of her husband, and that under that order the sheriff has seized her said property and advertised' it for sale. She thereupon applied for and obtained an injunction restraining the sheriff from proceeding to sell- the property. In her petition the wife sets forth various grounds and reasons why tho property seized should not be sold. She avers that the note and mortgage given to Mej^er, Deutch & Weiss, upon which the order of seizure and sale was taken out, were not intended to be for an' absolute indebtedness to the amount of tho note, but were executed as a continuing guarantee and security for future advances to be made to her husband by them; that in truth and reality the real sum for which her husband was indebted to' them has been fully paid by shipments of cotton made by him to his
She declares that, in signing the mortgage with her husband and renouncing her legal rights cn tho property mortgaged, she did so in ignorance of her rights; not having, them detailed and explained to her as required by law; that she is illiterate, not knowing how to write; that she is therefore not bound by tho said renunciation.
Tho plaintiff is met by various exceptions interposed by tho seizing creditors. They aver in their answer that tho pretended judgment of separation of property sot up by tho plaintiff has lapsed and become null and without effect through her failure to execute tho same within the time required by law, and is without offoct, cron as between tho parties to it; that the effect of said judgment on tho mortgage records could have no effect as to the respondents, for tho reason that plaintiff joined in tho act and specially renounced whatever mortgage rights or other claims she may have had on the property. They deny generally all tho averments of the plaintiffs petition, and pray that the injunction bo dissolved, with damages.
The judgment in tho court below was rendered in conformity with the prayer of tho defendants’ answer. Tho injunction was dissolved with ton per cent damages on the amount enjoined as general damages and special damages as attorney’s fees in the sum of §350, to bo recovered in solido against tho plaintiff and her sureties on tho injunction bond, and all costs of suit.
Tho plaintiff .lias appealed.
The property seized was mortgaged by the plaintiff’s husband to the seizing creditors on the twenty-sixth of March, 18G8. The plaintiff’s judgment against her husband was rendered on tho eighth of July, 18C8. The husband convoyed the same property to his wife on tho ninth of August, 1869, in payment of her judgment against him.
The ease would soom to turn upon the question of validity of the wife’s judgment.
The article 2428 [2402] of the Civil Code provides that: “ tho separation of property, although decreed by a court of justice, is null, if it has not boon executed by the payment of the rights and claims of tho wife, made to appear by an authentic act, as far as the estate of the husband can meet them, or at least by a bona fide non-intorrupted suit to obtain payment.”
For obvious reasons this “ bona fide non-intorrupted suit” to obtain payment and satisfaction of tho wife’s judgment is imperative, and nullity results from its non-observance. Here eleven months elapsed after tho rendition of the plaintiff’s judgment against her husband before any movo of any kind was made to enforce it. More than one year before
It is therefore ordered that the judgment appealed from be affirmed with costs in both courts'.
Rehearing refused.