Court Opinion

ID: 9453158
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:04:42.90267+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:32.337794
License: Public Domain

WISDOM, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Again I am constrained to dissent.
In giving decisive importance to an issue of fact not raised in the trial court and not raised in this Court in pleadings, briefs, or oral argument, the majority *494oversteps the bounds of judicial review. Apparently, until this Court gratuitously informed the serendipitous defendant of his good fortune he was not aware of the possibility of a factual dispute over his indebtedness. Contrary to the opinion of the majority, Frederick did not contest the amount due and unpaid on the note— as to principal or interest. He filed no countervailing affidavits, as required by F.R.Civ.P. 56(e). In agreement with the complaint, he pleaded that the proceeds derived from the judicial sale amounted to $44,100. He did not contend that the government failed to credit him with any payment. He does not say that the government’s computations are wrong. Indeed, he does not question any figures or facts alleged in the complaint relating to the government’s claim. As Judge Connally found, “Frederick asserted no defense to the claim of the United States”.
If Frederick was aware of the possibility of constructing a defense such as this Court constructed for him, he must have rejected the notion as too full of holes to be worth trying. Frederick, like Aesop’s cat but unlike the fox, has only one trick for escaping his pursuers. His one defensive theory is that his counterclaim creates issues of material fact as to the existence of the conspiracy to defraud and the amount of his damages. He assumes that the amount of his recovery, if any, would be set off against his debt to the government and therefore that it is a question of fact as to the amount, if any, of the alleged deficiency.1 The cat has a good trick— when its tree is not axed. Judge Connally felled Frederick’s tree.
Frederick’s claim in tort for fraud against the United States Marshal and certain SBA employees — none of whom, by the way, are parties to the suit — has nothing to do with the existence or the amount of the contractual claim of the United States against him for his indebtedness. For this and other reasons, the district court properly dismissed the counterclaim.
*495One of the district court’s conclusions completely ignored by the majority is that Frederick failed to plead fraud with the specificity required by F.R.Civ.P. 9 (b). Actually, the only special fact on the face of the papers that shows any fraud relates to the fraud Frederick committed when he attempted to deceive the court by alleging that all of the mortgaged property, property allegedly worth $299,000 only two years before, was sold at the judicial sale for $44,100. Frederick unwittingly exposed his own deceit on appeal: he incorporated in his brief a copy of the act of mortgage containing a description of the mortgaged property. A comparison of the list of the property mortgaged with the list of the property sold shows, as Frederick well knew, that not all of the mortgaged property was seized and sold.
A basic error in the Court’s opinion is its failure to give effect to state law governing judicial sales, as required by F.R.Civ.P. 69(a). Under Louisiana law, the creditor does not — as the Court seems to think — control the seizure and sale of mortgaged property. Such property may be seized and sold only under the eye of a court, here the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. By law the property must be appraised by two appraisers, one appointed by the seizing creditor and the other by the debtor. LSA-R.S. 13:4364-65. The record in United States v. Frederick Dredging Co., No. 8784, Western District of Louisiana, shows that Frederick himself signed the required “appraisement list” in the capacity of “Appraiser for Defendant”. Property sold must, at its first offering, after due advertisement, bring two-thirds of its appraised value. LSA-C.C.P. art. 2336. Here, as the foreclosure proceedings show, the appraisers agreed to an appraisal of $60,-000 .for the property seized and sold. Thus, the mortgagee, and Frederick, its president, knew exactly what property was sold, knew its appraised value, and knew that it brought in excess of two-thirds of its agreed appraised value.
Judicial sales carry a presumption of regularity, and a sheriff’s (or marshal’s deed) constitutes full proof until rebutted. LSA-R.S. 13:4355. See Vinton Oil & Sulphur Co. v. Gray, 1914, 135 La. 1049, 66 So. 357; Scott v. Gordon, 1935, 184 La. 1017, 168 So. 134; Gumina v. Dupas, La.App., 1965, 178 So.2d 291. Frederick makes no effort to specify any facts to rebut the presumptions of validity attached to judicial sales.
The district court properly dismissed the counterclaim. And since Frederick’s only defense to the suit was the counterclaim, the district court properly rendered summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff.

. The appellant’s brief makes this very clear. He states: “The only question in this case is whether or not there was a question of fact as to whether or not, after the sale of the mortgaged property, and the application of the proceeds of the sale to pay off the judgment, there actually did exist an unpaid balance on the Judgment, being the deficiency in the amount sued for by the Government. * * * It will quickly be seen that in a period of approximately two years the property involved had allegedly depreciated from $299,000.00 to $44,100.00, a depreciation in excess of $250,000.00. The nature of the property is such that common knowledge justifies a conclusion that such enormous depreciation would not ordinarily occur within so short a period of time. * * * It is Appellant’s contention that the facts in this case are not so without dispute as to eliminate a question of fact as to the propriety of the sale by the Marshal, and to eliminate any controversy as to whether or not there does actually exist a deficiency. Appellant contends that the amount of the appraisal and the amount of the sale are so widely divergent that these facts by and of themselves create an issue of fact as to whether or not a valid, bona fide sale took place which gave full credit to Appellant of all he was entitled to receive by way of credit upon the Louisiana Judgment against him. Hamlin v. Hamlin, D.C.Miss.1964, 237 F.Supp. 299, 301. Without respect to whether Appellant would be entitled to recover from the Government for any fraudulent or bad faith activity, he is entitled to a determination of whether or not the sale realized the full value of the property securing the indebtedness. These questions would include questions of whether or not the Marshal and others, gave notice to the Appellant, the presence of other bidders, the question of what the property was subsequently sold for by the Small Business Administration for, an independent appraisal of the value of the property at the time of the sale, to compare with the appraisal at the time the loan was made, and other questions of fact that could be explored at the trial on the merits.”
This quotation contains the substance of the appellant’s almost citation-free brief of eight typed pages. There is not one word in the brief in support of the majority’s statement, “An important point in the case was failure of the United States to prove the amount of the damages to which it was entitled, i. e., the amount due and unpaid on the note to it and hence due by Frederick as guarantor”.