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21 La. Ann. 118

Fleming v. Shields

Supreme Court of Louisiana

Decided February 15, 1869

Supreme Court of Louisiana · decided 1869-02-15

<p>Anintervenor in an attachment suit will not be permitted to urge defenses personal to the defendant. The admissibility of testimony, the formality and regularity of the pleadings are matters pertaining exclusively to the defendant. His position in the case in.limited to showing that he is the veritable owner of the property attached, or that he has a lion upon It superior to that of the attaching creditor.</p>

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“On the first point urged by the interveners it is elementary that in an attachment suit the intervener will not be permitted to urge defenses personal to the defendants. The formality and regularity of the proceedings, the rightful issuing of the attachment, in the absence of fraud and collusion between plaintiff and defendants, are matters pertaining exclusively to the defendant. The intervener is limited to the assertion of his own rights, to show that the property attached is his; that he has a superior privilege on it, or, as alleged in this case, the plaintiffs and defendants perpetrated a fraud in the issuing of the attachment in order to defeat his pursuit of the property. He has nothing to do with the irregularity of the affidavit, the insufficiency of the attachment bond, and other irregularities in the proceedings.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Stemcor USA Inc. v. CIA Siderurgica Do Para Cosipar

“An intervenor who claims property in controversy between other parties, cannot interfere therein any further than to prove his right to the property. He cannot contest the plaintiff's claim against the defendant, nor urge any irregularities in the suit.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Stemcor USA Inc. v. CIA Siderurgica Do Para Cosipar

Relies on West v. His Creditors

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1869-02-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently July 2018

1 federal appellate · 5 state decisions

201869187018801890190019101920193019401950196019701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Wylt, J.

¶1Plaintiffs sued out writs of provisional seizure and attachment against the property of the defendant, who was an absentee, alleging he owed them the amount of an account for advances and supplies furnished his plantation, in the parish of Tensas. The products and movables on the place and defendant’s half interest in the plantation were seized under these writs by the sheriff "on second December, 1867. ’ •

¶2The defendant accepted service and waived legal and technical formalities. He also admitted the correctness of the account sued on, and set up no defense against plaintiff’s demand.

¶3On the tenth November, 1868, the intervenor filed his petition of intervention in this case, alleging that he held a mortgage bearing on said. plantation or the undivided half thereof owned by the defendant j also alleging that the attachment was null and void because of the illegality of the affidavit, the insufficiency of the bond and other informalities; and by supplemental and amended petition he charged that the defendant, Joseph D. Shields, was in- insolvent circumstances at the date of the levy of plaintiffs’ writ of attachment to the knowledge of plaintiffs, *119who. fraudulently colluded with, him to have said attachment levied Upon said plantation in order to give, if possible, the lien of the attaching creditor a preference and priority over the special mortgage of the intervenor, which, by an oversight, was not recorded in *the mortgage office of said parish, till a few days subsequent to the levy of said writ.

¶4On the trial there was judgment in favor of plaintiffs for the amount claimed by them, with a privilege on the property attached, from the date the attachment was levied, to wit: second December, 1867; and the intervention was rejected at the costs of the intervenor.

¶5From this judgment the intervenor has appealed.

¶6From a careful examination of the record we are of opinion that the intervenor has failed to establish his allegation of fraud and collusion between the plaintiffs and the defendant; he has failed to establish that the defendant, Joseph D. Shields, was an insolvent at the time the attachment was levied and at the time of the trial of this cause. Proof that the plantation in controversy was worth less than the amount of plaintiffs’ .claim and the claim of the intervenor does not establish the allegation that the defendant was notoriously insolvent. He lived in Mississippi, and might have in that State ample means to pay all his debts. We cannot presume that the plaintiffs and defendant are guilty of fraud and collusion in the absence of proof to sustain that charge.

¶7The District Judge refused to permit the intervenor to offer proof of the irregularity of the affidavit, the insufficiency of the attachment bond and other informalities in the proceedings. Ho permitted the plaintiffs to offer in evidence their acknowledged account against the defendant, and when the intervenor objected thereto because the necessary revenue stamp was not attached to said acknowledged account, the District Judge'.'permitted the attorney of plaintiffs to affix thereto a ñve cent United States revenue stamp, and file the same in evidence. To all of which rulings the intervenor took a bill of exceptions.

¶8We think the District Judge did not err in his rulings and the bill of exceptions was not well taken.

¶9In the absence of fraud and collusion, the intervenor will not be permitted to urge defenses which are personal to the defendant. Questions of the admissibility of the testimony and the formality and regularity of the pleadings are matters for the consideration of the defendant, and. if he saw fit to waive them no other party can complain.

¶10In the case of Lee et al. v. Bradlee, 8 M. 55, where a third party intervened in the attachment suit claiming the property, this court said: A third party has stepped in, averring the goods attached to be his property, and demanding restoration of them. The claimant has not only attempted to prove the property to be his, but he has been acting the part of the defendant by undertaking to show that the attachment ought not to have issued, and that after it had issued, it was imperfectly executed. The only thing which we conceive a claimant may be permitted to do is to show that the property attached is verily his. As soon as he succeeds in thaf, his part is at an end. But a claimant *120lias surely no right to show any irregularity in the suit in which he intervenes for the sole purpose of rescuing the property. Whether the plaintiff, the court and the sheriff have been acting legally or not is none of his business.”

¶11The only difference between this case and the one just referred to is, in that case the intervenor claimed to be the owner of the property attached, while in this the interven or claims that he has a mortgage on the property attached. The principle is the same. The same doctrine is affirmed in the case of West v. His Creditors, 8 Rob. 123, in which this court said an intervenor who claims property in controversy between other parties cannot contest the plaintiff’s claim against the defendant nor urge any irregularities in the suit.” ,

¶12In the case of Yeatman v. Estill, 13 An. 222, it was held that it is no longer competent for the intervening party to object to the mode in which the writ of attachment has been executed.” The intervenor admits that plaintiffs’ attachment was levied prior to the registry of his mortgage. Without inscription his mortgage had no effect against third persons. C. C. 3314. As to plaintiffs, the property of the defendant stood free of encumbrance the day their attachment was levied because the intervenor had not inscribed his mortgage. Plaintiffs acquired attaching creditors’ privilege on the plantation reverting from the judgment to the day the attachment was levied. C. P. 264, 265 ; 7 A. 1; 3 A. 430.

¶13It is therefore ordered that the judgment appealed from be affirmed with costs.

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