State v. Judge of the City Court of New Orleans
State v. Judge of the City Court of New Orleans
Opinion of the Court
The applicants complain that, having instituted a suit in the City Court of New Orleans, against one J. P. Stanby, to recover the possession of a certain tenement which they had leased to Messrs. Schmidt & Stanby for a store, the lease of which had expired, and having obtained judgment against said Stanby, by which the latter was ordered to surrender to them
They further represent, that they applied to the City Court for a writ of possession, as contemplated by article 2683' of the Civil Code, but that the judge thereof refused to allow said judgment to be executed, or any further proceedings to be had in said case during the pendency of the appeal, although the law that gives jurisdiction to the City Court of cases of this class, expressly declares that the landlord may avail himself of the provisions of. said law and of the said article 2683. They refer to the laws relative to the subject in controversy, and say that the refusal of the said judge to allow a writ of possession to issue, amounts to a denial of justice ; wherefore they pray that a writ of mandamus may be issued, directing said judge to allow a writ of possession, &c.
The judge answered, that he granted the suspensive appeal agreeably to the usual practice of his court; that the interpretation given by his predecessor to the act of 1838, relative to the jurisdiction of the City Court, and to the last section of the act of 10 March, 1826, also relative to said court, was that, in the cases between landlord and tenant, for the possession of the premises leased, the defendants were entitled to a suspensive appeal, &c.
We think the judge did not err, in refusing to permit a writ of possession to issue. It is true that, by the second section of the law of 1819 (B. and C.’s Digest, p. 540, no. 3), it is provided that no appeal from a judgment rendered according to the first section shall suspend its execution; and that the said first section points out the proceedings to be had when a lessor wishes, upon the determination of the lease, to repossess himself of the premises leased, and says that it shall be lawful for the justice of the peace to give his judgment against the lessee, or tenant, ordering him to deliver to the lessor the possession of the demised premises, &c, which judgment, in case of refusal of the lessee to comply with it, is to be executed by the constable’s acting under a warrant of possession issued for that purpose. It is also true that articles 2656 and 2683 of the Civil Code seem' to be a re-enactment of the provisions contained in the first
However different the practice may have been under the law of 181-9, and previous to the enactment of the law of 1838, the provisions of the latter are so clear that they need no comment. They were adopted for the purpose of vesting the presiding judge of the City Court with original and exclusive jurisdiction in all actions instituted by landlords against their tenants for the the possession of real property, in cases in which the value indis-pute exceeds the sum of #300; of requiring the proceedings in such suitsfto be by petition and answer,|so as to form an issue joined between the parties, as in other cases; and of permitting, after judgment thereon, an appeal to be taken therefrom directly to the Supreme Court,Jonfthe appellant’s filing his bond, with a good and sufficient surety, for an amount to be fixed by the court a
The rule is, therefore, discharged.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- State v. The Judge of the City Court of New Orleans
- Status
- Published