Case ID: la_17/html/0158-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Btjllaed, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Lopez & Al. v. Bergel, F. W. C.
    Where the evidence shows the conveyance of a house and lot was made in fraud of creditors by the debtor, to a third person for an alleged price, the sale will be avoided.
    Damages for a frivolous appeal will not be allowed, when the matter in dispute is not for a swn of money, as the rescission of the sale of a house and lot and its value is not shown.
    Appeal from tile court of the third district for the parish of East Baton Rouge, the judge thereof presiding.
    This is an action for the rescission of the sale of a house and lot in the town of Baton Rouge, which the plaintiffs allege was made to the defendant, a free woman of coloi-, by their debtor, in fraud of their rights as creditors. They show a judgment against their debtor for upwards of five hundred dollars, and expressly charge that he conveyed the house and lot in question to the defendant to secure it from the payment of- their just demand. They pray that the sale he rescinded and annulled, and the property made liable to their judgment.
    The defendant resisted the suit on the ground that the sale was tona fide and made for a good and valuable consideration. There have been several [2D8] trials and two or three verdicts for the defendant. The case has been several times before this court, and always l’emanded. See 12 La. Rep. 197; 15 Id.
    On its return the last time to the court below, it was again submitted to a jury, and from all the evidence adduced, they returned a verdict for the plaintiffs; and the court being satisfied therewith, rendered judgment avoiding and annulling said sale, so far as it regarded the plaintiffs, and that the house and lot be subjected to the payment of the plaintiffs’ demand. The defendant appealed.
    
      R. N. <& A. N. Ogden for plaintiffs.
    
      Elam for the defendant.
   Btjllaed, J.

delivered the opinion of the court.

This case has been several times before this court, and remanded for a new trial. The result of the last trial was a verdict for the plaintiffs, which being followed by the judgment, the defendant appealed. 12 La. Rep. 197.

The evidence, in our opinion, fully sustains the verdict, and shows that the conveyance of the house and lot to the defendant was made in fraud of creditors, and the court correctly applied the law .as laid down in articles 1965 and 1972.

The appellee asks an affirmance of the judgment, with damages for a frivolous appeal. The article 907 of the Code of Practice authorizes this court to condemn the appellant to pay such damages as it may think equivalent to the loss which he has sustained by the delay consequent on the appeal, “provided the amount of such damages shall not exceed ten per cent, on the value of the amount in dispute.” In cases in which the appellant has been condemned to pay a sum of money, there is a known standard by which the damages may be ascertained. But in tbe present ease the defendant is not the debtor of the plaintiffs. The matter in dispute is a house and lot in Baton Rouge, which she has been condemned to surrender, in order to satisfy a judgment recovered against the defendant’s vendor. The value of the house and lot, which [259] constitutes the amount in dispute, is not shown, and it does not appear whether it exceeds , or falls short of the amount of the judgment against Bergel.

It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed, that the judgment of the district court be affirmed, with costs.