Succession of Labry
Succession of Labry
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. I am unable to concur in the opinion of the majority of tlie court, that the recording of a tutor’s bond, executed prior to the adoption of the constitution of 1868, preserves the mortgage in favor of the minor.
I findnotliing in sections two, eight and eleven, of act No. 95 of 3869, which authorizes or directs the recording of such bonds, or gives the recording of them such effect. The bonds which are to be recorded are those given by tutors appointed after the passage of the law; and it is a well settled doctrine that we cau not extend the effect of the registry of mortgages or laws providing for registry by implication or inference. It may be a legislative omission, but we can not, I think, supply the omission.
Rehearing refused.
Opinion of the Court
The litigating parties in this case contest each other’s claims to priority of mortgage right upon tho proceeds of mortgaged property insufficient to pay all their debts against the succession. The administrator filed a tableau of distribution,' which was opposed by Matliilde Laurans, whose claim to legal mortgage was postponed to tlio legal mortgage of Alexaudre, Alexandrine an l Joseph 8. Labry, heirs of the decedent, Alexandre Labry. A. Miltenbergor &, Co. opposed the pretensions of these parties as unfounded, setting up. their special mortgage as having priority over all others. After hearing these oppositions, the Parish Judge amended the tableau by allowing the claim of Joseph Severin Labry for $3880 33,' with legal mortgage, to take effect from the twenty-first of February, 1848. Alexandre and Alexandrine were awarded each a like sum, with judicial mortgage, to take effect from the twenty-first of December, 1866. The claim of Mathilde Lauraus was allowed, but without mortgage. A. Miltenberger & Co. were ranked as creditors, having special mortgage dating from the second of April, 1861, for the sum of $9470 20. From the judgment homologating the tableau as thus amended, all the parties, except Joseph S. Labry, have appealed.
The wife oí Alexandre Labry, and mother of the throe heirs— Alexandre, Alexandrine and Severin Labry — died in the year 1848. An inventory and appraisement was then made of her succession, and the surviving husband became the tutor of the minor children. An abstract from this inventory was recorded in the mortgage office of the parish of Pointe Coupee, in October, 1869, with the view of preserving
Tlie opponents of the Labry heirs have failed to establish against them the plea of prescription. We think the Judge a quo erred in allowing two .of those heirs, Alexandre and Alexandrine, only a judicial mortgage to take effect from tlie twenty-first of December, 1866. It is true the judgment rendered in their favor against their former tutor,
We think there was error in the judgment, also, in placing Matnilcie Laurans on the tableau as an ordinary creditor for the amount of her claim without mortgage right. Alexandre Labry, Sr., was, as we have seen, appointed her dative tutor in 1851, and gave bond and security as required by law. To preserve her lien or legal mortgage she recorded, prior to the first of January, 1870, her tutors’ bond, and this, we think, was sufficient. The act of the Legislature of March 8, 1869, providing the mode of preserving legal mortgages is, in several of its sections, not free from ambiguity and even obscurity; yet, taking it in i ts entirety, wo think its purpose was accomplished. The sections two, eight and eleven, in connection, we think, warrant our conclusion that the recording of the bond suffices. Section two directs prospectively that before a tutor shall bo appointed, the bond of such tutor shall bo recorded? What is the object of the Legislature by this enactment ? Plainly that the bond recorded shall operate as notice of the minor’s legal mortgage. Then why should not the recording of a tutor’s bond, which was given before the adoption of the constitution of 1868, operate as notice of a legal mortgage, existing irom the date of the bond, provided that in this case the bond be recorded before the first of January, 1870 ? The act in question was passed in conformity with the direction given by the one hundred and twenty-third article of the State constitution, and this was “ to provide, by law, for the registration of all mortgages and privileges.” Legal mortgages, existing in favor of minors before the adoption of the constitution of 1868, were to continue to exist if recorded before the first of January, 1870. The Legislature was required to provide by law for the recording of all mortgages and privileges. Then it was incumbent upon the Legislature to provide for the recording of that class of mortgages which, prior to January 1, 1870, existed by operation of law without being recorded. The legal mortgage of minors before January 1,1870, had the same character that mortgages of that kind, to come into existence after that period, were to have. They had all to be recorded to have
There was then no reason that there should be one method for recording minors’ mortgages that existed before 1870, and another method for recording the same kind of mortgages that were to have their origin after that period. The article one hundred and twenty-three of the constitution recognized no distinction, and did not authorize the Legislature to make any in the manner of recording mortgages of the same class, whether existing prior to January 1, 1870, or to exist afterwards.
The ground assumed by the opponents of the claim of Matnnae Laurans that Alexandre Labry, her tutor, resigned his trust as her tutor, that other tutors succeeded him, and to them she must look for redress, can not be maintained. It is not shown that he ever resigned, and if he did, it is not pretended that he ever made any settlement of his accounts. Assuming that circumstances existed which an+,’orized or excused him from a further discharge of his duties as her tutor, he still continued bound to render an account of the tutorship, a duty which he never performed. It is shown that large amounts went iuto his possession belonging to the then minor under his charge. The appointment of Laurans, and afterwards Provosty, as her tutor, by no means released Labry from accountability.
The tableaux as first presented in the Parish Court gave, in our opinion, the proper rank of the several creditors by mortgage and privilege, and we think it should assume its original form.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed, that the judgment of the District Court be annulled, avoided and reversed. It is further ordered, that the tableau of the administrator be amended by placing' thereon the heirs of Alexandre Labry, viz:' Alexandre, Alexandrine and Joseph S. Labry as creditors, with legal mortgage, for $14,184 05 to date and take effect from the twenty-first of February, 1848. Next, that Mathildo Laurans be recognized as a creditor, with legal mortgage to date and take effect from the twenty-fifth of November, 1851, for the sum of $9151 92. Third — That A. Miltenberger & Co. take rank with special mortgage for $9470 to date and take effect from the second of April, 1861, and that, as thus amended, the tableau he homologated and confirmed, the costs to be paid by the succession,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Succession of Alexandre Labry, deceased—On Opposition to Tableau of Administrator
- Status
- Published