Automobile Finance & Securities Co. v. Duggan, Inc.
Automobile Finance & Securities Co. v. Duggan, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
By Division C, composed of Justices DAW-KINS, ST. PAUL, and THOMPSON.
The plaintiff, Automobile Finance Securities Company, proceeded via executiva against defendant, Duggan, Incorporated, to foreclose a chattel mortgage on two motor trucks.
The mortgage debt was evidenced by two notes, one for $1,670 and the other for $1,270, with 8 per cent, per annum interest from April 8,1920, and 15 per cent, attorney’s fees.
The Carolina Portland Cement Company opposed the seizure and sale of one of the trucks, claiming to be owner of same by pur-
On the day following the sale, the opponent filed a petition, setting forth the fact of such sale and asking the court to order the sheriff to keep in his possession the $1,750. alleged to be the proceeds of the sale, until it should be finally adjudicated whether the said truck was the property of opponent and it was' entitled to said proceeds of sale, or whether the so-called chattel mortgagee was entitled to the same. The order was granted as prayed for.
Thereafter, on October 16, 1920, the plaintiff, through its counsel, filed an exception of no cause of action to the original petition and demand of opponent.
The exception was sustained by the court, opponent’s suit was dismissed, and opponent prosecutes an appeal to this court.
Opinion.
In the brief of opponent’s counsel it is stated:
“Inasmuch as intervener did not proceed 'by injunction, the property was sold, intervener claiming the right to be 'paid out of the proceeds by preference.”
The legal effect of the action of the oppo? nent was to recognize the judicial sale of the truck and to convert its demand for the ownership of the truck into one for the proceeds of the sale or the price of the truck.
The ownership of that fund, in the hands of the sheriff, presented the sole issue between the plaintiff and opponent at the time judgment was rendered in the lower court, and the right to that fund presents the sole issue on this appeal. That fund, therefore, constitutes “the fund to be distributed,” the thing in dispute between the parties.
The amount is below the lower limit of the jurisdiction of this court. Constitution of 1913, art. 85.
It may be argued that the principal demand of the plaintiff against the defendant exceeded the sum of $2,000, and that, opponent’s claim being one incidental to the main demand, the appeal lies to the court having appellate jurisdiction of the main demand. Constitution 1913, art. 95.
Conceding that a third opposition comes within the meaning of an. incidental demand, which we do not for a moment concede, an examination of the record discloses that, before the final judgment of dismissal of opponent’s petition was rendered, the plaintiff, through counsel, alleging that the truck not claimed by the cement company was claimed by one M. L. Opotowsky, and that the latter claimant had paid plaintiff $1,270, interest and costs, represented by one of the mortgage notes, asked permission of the court to withdraw the said note for $1,270 permanently from the records of the court in order to deliver the same to said Opotowsky, who purchased the same. The request was grant-
' It is needless to say that it is the duty of the court to notice want of jurisdiction.
It is ordered that this case be transferred to the Court of Appeal for .the parish of Orleans, at the cost of appellant, incurred in bringing the appeal to this court.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.