Privilege

Exemption from such burdens as others are subjected to.

State v. Betts, 24 N. J. L. 557. See Brenham v. Water Co., 67 Tex. 542, 4 S. W. 143; Ripley v. Knight, 123 Mass. 519.

See a full title in Jacob, Law Diet. In Civil Law. A right which the nature of a debt gives to a creditor, and which entitles him to be preferred before other creditors. Dalloz, Diet. Privilege; Domat, Lois Civ. liv.

2, t. 1, s. 4, n. 1; 43 La. Ann. 1078, 1194.

Privilege is “a real right in a thing ( jus in re) springing from the nature of a debt which has been contracted with reference to that thing, and securing the debt by a preference on the proceeds of the thing when it is sold under legal process.” Howe, Stud. Civ. L. 86. “A mortgage under the civil law is to all intents and purposes what it is in equity in the English law or the law of Connecticut, a security for a debt given by the agreement of the debtor. But a debtor cannot, by his mere agreement, proprio vigore, confer a privilege. ‘‘If he contracts a debt, which by its nature has a privilege under the law, then the privilege exists, as a method of securing the debt. It inheres in the thing with reference to which the debt has been contracted, follows it into the hands of third persons (in the absence of some law of recordation providing to the contrary), and as a rule would prime a mortgage of the same property.” “The one is legal; the other conventional. This former is sometimes called by the civilians a privileged hypothecation; the latter a mere hypothecation.”

Howe, Stud. Civ. L. 88.

The civil law privilege became, by adop- Rumbell, 148 U. 8.

1, 13 Sup. Ct 498, 37 L. Ed. 345.

Creditors of the same rank of privileges are paid in concurrence, that is, on an equal footing. Privileges may exist either in movables or immovables, or in both at once. They are general or special, on certain movables. The debts which are privileged on all the movables in general are the following, which are paid in this order.

Funeral charges

Law charges, which are such as are occasioned by the prosecution of a suit before the courts. But this name applies more particularly to costs, which the party cast has to pay to the party gaining the cause. It is in favor of these only that the law grants the privilege. Charges, of whatever nature, occasioned by the last sickness, concurrently among those to whom they are due. See Last Sickness. The wages of servants for the year past, and so much as is due for the current year. Supplies of provisions made to the debtor or his family during the last six months by retail dealers, such as bakers, butchers, grocers, and during the last year by keepers of boarding-houses and taverns. The salaries of clerics, secretaries, and other persons of that kind. Dotal rights due to wives by their husbands. The debts which are privileged on particular movables are — the debt of a workman or artisan, for the price of his labor, on the movable which he has repaired or made, if the thing continues still in his » possession; that debt on the pledge which is in the creditor’s possession; the carrier’s charges and accessory expenses on the thing carried; the price due on movable effects, if they are yet in the possession of the purchaser; and the like. See Lien. Creditors who have a privilege on moveables in Louisiana are (1) vendors for purchase money, (2) architects, mechanics, contractors, etc., for construction, rebuilding and repair of houses, etc., (3) material men, (4) those who have worked by the job in the manner required by law or police regulation ou levees, bridges, ditches, and roads of a proprietor; Code §§ 3249-51. In regard to privilege, Domat says, “We do not reckon in the number of privileges the preference which the creditor has on the movables that have been given him in a pawn, and which are in his custody. The privilege of a creditor is the distinguishing right which the nature of his credit gives him, and which makes him to be preferred before other creditors, even those who are prior in time, and who have mortgages.” Domat, pt. 1, lib. iii. tit. i. sec. v. These privileges were of two kinds: one gave a preference on all the goods, without any particular assignment on any one thing; the other secures to the creditors their se- Among creditors who are privileged, there Is no priority of time, but each one is in the order of his privilege, and all creditors who have a privilege of the same kind take proportionately, although their debts be of different dates. And all privileges have equally a preference over those of an inferior class, and over debts which do not have this favored character, whether subsequent or antecedent in point of time. The vendor of immovable property, for which payment has not been made, is preferred before creditors of the purchaser, and all other persons, as to the thing sold. By the Roman law, this principle applies equally to movables and immovables; and the seller may seize upon the property in the hands of his vendee, or wherever he can find it. So, too, a person who has lent money to repair a thing, or to make improvements, has this privilege. And this, though he lends to workmen or architects, etc., if it be done with the knowledge of the owner. Carriers have a privilege not only for the price of carriage, but for money paid on account of the goods. Landlords have a privilege for the rents due from their tenants even on furniture of the under-tenants, if there be a sublease. But not if payment has been made to the tenant by an immediate lessor; although a payment made by the sub-tenant to the landlord would be good as against the tenant. The privilege was lost by a novation, or by anything in the original contract which showed that the vendor had taken some other security Inconsistent with the privilege. See Domat, pt. i. lib. iii. tit. i. sec. v. See Dalloz, Diet. Privilege; Lien; Last Sickness; Preference. In Maritime Law. An allowance to the master of a ship of the general nature of primage, being compensation, or rather a gratuity, customary in certain trades, and which the law assumes to be a fair and equitable allowance, because the contract on both sides is made under the knowledge of such usage by the parties.