Sadler v. Henderson

Citations

• 112 La. 518
• 36 So. 549
• 1904 La. LEXIS 427

Syllabus

<p>JUDGMENT — EES JUDICATA.</p> <p>1. Property belonging to a minor was specially mortgaged by his natural tutrix under an order of court homologating the proceedings of a family meeting which had been held on her petition. The mortgage creditor foreclosed the mortgage and bought the property. The minor, through a dative tutor, subsequently appointed, brought suit to have the mortgage and judicial proceedings thereunder set aside; and the property decreed to belong to the minor. Judgment was rendered in the district court in favor of the validity of the mortgage and the sale, and the judgment was affirmed on appeal. The purchaser afterwards sold the property to a third person, and he himself sold it to the minor after he had come of age. The latter paid the price, and many years afterwards, while in possession of the property, brought suit against his vendor alone to recover the price he had paid, on the ground that the property had always been his own, and that the mortgage and judicial proceedings, under which his title had been attempted to be divested, were illegal and fraudulent. The defendant pleaded estoppel and res judicata and prescription. The exceptions were sustained. The judgment of the district court was correct. So long as the original judgment stood unreversed it barred plaintiff’s action. It could not be ignored nor set aside in the absence of the original mortgagee and purchaser. Defendant, as privy in contract with him, had the right to avail himself of the pleas of estoppel and res judicata.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>