Case Name: Succession of Thomas J. Foster, Deceased
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1899-03-20
Citations: 51 La. Ann. 1670
Docket Number: No. 12,996
Parties: Succession of Thomas J. Foster, Deceased.
Judges: 
Reporter: Louisiana Annual Reports
Volume: 51
Pages: 1670–1689

Head Matter:
No. 12,996.
Succession of Thomas J. Foster, Deceased.
Syllabus.
The fee of the attorney of the mortgage creditor, fixed in the act of mortgage on-the amount of the debt forms part of the demand. It is part of the amount claimed and inseparable from it in matter of jurisdiction.
Where the mortgagee is compelled to employ counsel to attend to .the collection of his claim, and counsel render the services incident thereto, such as obtaining the payment of interest and granting extensions in expectation of full payment of the debt, interest and fees; Held, the fee stipulated in the act of mortgage is due.
On Rehearing.
On motion to dismiss the appeal. Where a plaintiff claims an amount within the appellate jurisdiction of this court, and the defendant admits his indebtedness for part of such amount, but the District Court rejects the entire demand, and the record fails to disclose any deposit, consignment, or acceptance of the amount admitted to be due, such rejection is error affecting the whole claim and an appeal will lie to this court, notwithstanding that the amount claimed exclusive of the amount admitted to be due is less than two thousand dollars.
On the Merits.
1. A stipulation, in an act of mortgage whereby notes are secured, which reads: “In case it becomes necessary to resort to legal proceedings for the recovery of the amount of said notes, or any part thereof, he (the mortgagor) hereby binds himself to pay the fees of the attorney who may be employed for that purpose, which fees are hereby fixed at ten per cent on the amount sued for,” imposes upon the holder of the notes, seeking to recover the fees, the obligation of proving, in ease his right to such recovery is contested, the existence of the conditions contemplated by the stipulation.
2. It is not to be supposed that the contracting parties in such a case use the word “necessary” without reason or purpose, or that they intend thereby that the attorney’s fees shall be paid where legal proceedings are unnecessary. This court will not, therefore, read that word out of the contract or invert its meaning.
3. Nor will It be supposed that such parties predicate the right to recover, and the obligation to pay, attorney's fees, solely upon a resort (when necessary) to legal proceedings “for the recovery of the amount,” etc., if they intend that such right and obligation shall arise in case of a resort to legal proceedings for some other purpose than such recovery.
4. Nor can the court ignore the language, used by the parties, to the effect that the fees to be recovered are “fixed at ten per cent, upon the amount sued . for,” and, in the absence of a “suit,” and of anything, which, by reasonable interpretation, can be called a suit, fix and award the fees upon some other basis.
ON APPEAL from tbe Twenty-Fourth Judicial District Court for the Parish of St. Mary. Allen, J.
Beattie & Beattie for Plaintiff in Rule, Appellant.
B. Gaffery & Son and Richardson & Soule for Defendant in Rule, Appellee.
Argued and submitted January 13, 1899.
Opinion handed down March 20, 1899.
Rehearing granted April 17, 1899.
Opinion handed down on rehearing June 21, 1899.

Opinion:
'The opinion on rehearing by Monroe, J.
On Motion to Dismiss.
(The original opinion in this case loas prepared by the late Justice Miller, and having been considered by the Court, subsequently, was adopted as the judgment of the Court).
Miller, J.
The appellant, the mortgage creditor of the succession of Thomas J. Foster, sought by rule in the lower court to compel the sale of the property of the succession to pay the debt amounting to two thousand two hundred dollars, and from the judgment against her «on her rule, takes this appeal.
A motion to dismiss the appeal is made 'on the ground that the •amount in dispute is below our jurisdiction. It is urged that the controversy arose with reference to the fee of the attorney of the mortgage creditor, which was fixed by the act at ten per cent, on the amount of the debt. That, in our view, forms part of the demand of the appellant, and it is the amount claimed, not one of the elements, that is the test of our jurisdiction.
The motion to dismiss is denied.