Table of Contents

CHAPTER IV - OF THE ORDER OF PRIVILEGES AND MORTGAGES

Art. 67. The property of the debtor is the common pledge of his creditors, and the proceeds of its sale must be distributed among them rateably, unless there exist among the creditors some lawful causes of preference.
These lawful causes of preference are such as result from privileges and mortgages.

 

SECTION I - OF THE PREFERENCE AND ORDER OF PRIVILEGES

Art. 68. Privilege is a right which the nature of a debt gives to a creditor and which intitles him to be preferred before other creditors, even those who have mortgages and are prior in time.

Art. 69. Among creditors who are privileged, the preference is settled by the different nature of their privileges.

Art. 70. The creditors who are in the same rank of privileges, are paid in concurrence, that is on an equal footing.

Art. 71. Privileges may exist either on moveables or immoveables or on both at once.

Art. 72. Privileges are either general or special on certain moveables.

Art. 73. The debts which are privileged on all the moveables in general, are those hereafter enumerated, and are liquidated in the following order:-
1st. Funeral charges;
2dly. Law charges;
3dly. The charges respecting medical attendance, as those of a physician, surgeon, druggist, &c. during the sickness of which the deceased died; and their charges are paid by concurrence among those to whom they are due;
4thly. The salaries of the persons who lent their services, for the year last past or for what is due on the current year;
5th. The price of the subsistance furnished to a debtor and to his family during the last six months by traders in retail, as bakers, butchers and the like, and during the last year by boarding houses and tavern keepers.

Art. 74. The debts which are privileged on certain moveables are the following:
1st, The appointments or salaries of the overseers for the year last past or the current year, on the produce of the crop of said year;
2d, The rents of immoveables and the hire of slaves employed in working the same, on the produce of the crop of the year, and on the proceeds of the furniture which is found in the house let, or on the farm, and of every thing which serves to the working of said farm.
The landlord may seize the furniture which was in the house or on the farm when it has been removed, without his consent, and he preserves his privilege upon it, provided he prove its identity and urge his claim at farthest within a fortnight from the day of its removal.
The privilege of the landlord extends even to the goods which are in the house or apartment by him let, when the house or apartment was let chiefly for a store or shop;
3d, The debt on the pledge which is in the creditor's possession;
4th, The debt due for money laid out in preserving the thing;
5th, The price due on moveable effects, if they are yet in the debtor's possession, whether he bought them on a limited or general credit.
If the sale has been made, without any limited time of credit, the debtor may even claim his effects as long as they are in the buyer's possession, and prevent their sale, provided such claim be made within eight days from their delivery, and the effects be found in the same condition as they were in when delivered.
The privilege of the vender is however exercised only after that of the owner of the house or farm, unless it be proved that the owner was informed that the furniture and other effects put in the house or farm, did not belong to the tenant.
Nothing herein shall alter or affect the established laws and usages of commerce as to the claim of the thing sold.
6th, The things which have been furnished by an inn keeper, on the effect of the traveller which have been left at his inn;
7th, The carrier's charges and the accessory expences on the thing carried;
8th, The debts arising from abuses and peculation committed by public officers, and those accountable for public money, in the execution of their functions, on the amount of the recognisance in which they are bound.

Art. 75. The creditors who have a privilege on immoveables are:
1st, The vender on the estate by him sold, for the payment of the price of it, whether it was sold for ready money, or on a credit, or whether a mortgage has been expressly stipulated by him or not, provided there exist no novation of the debt.
This privilege extends to slaves and cattle sold with the estate.
If there are several successive sales, the price of which is due in whole or in part, the first vender is preferred to the second, the second to the third, and so on.
2d, Architects and other undertakers, brick layers and other workmen, employed in constructing, rebuilding or repairing houses, or making other works, on the said houses or works by them constructed, rebuilt or repaired.

Art. 76. The privileges which extend both to the moveables and to the immoveables are those enumerated in the foregoing 73d article.

Art. 77. When, for want of moveables, the creditors who have a privilege, according to the preceding article, demand to be paid out of the proceeds of the immoveables in concurrence with the creditors who have a privilege on said immoveables, the payments must be made in the following order, to wit:
1st, Law charges and those enumerated in the 73d article;
2d, Those mentioned in the 75th article. 

Art. 78. Both the conventional and judicial mortgagee creditors have their rank settled among themselves, from the day of the recording of their mortgages in the office of the register of mortgages, in the form and manner directed by law.

Art. 79. The creditors who have caused their titles to be recorded on the same day, have in concurrence a mortgage of one and the same date; no distinction being made between those recorded in the morning, and such as were recorded in the evening of the same day, even should the register have marked this difference.

Art. 80. As to the tacit or legal mortgages, as these are not subject to be recorded, their respective rank is fixed from the day when they begin to take effect, agreeably to law, and those of the same day concur together.
They likewise concur with the judicial or conventional mortgages without any preference over them, if their date is of the same day on which the latter were recorded.

 

CHAPTER V - HOW PRIVILEGES OR MORTGAGES EXPIRE OR ARE EXTINGUISHED

Art. 81. Privileges and mortgages are extinguished:
1st, By the extinction of the principal obligation
2d, By the creditor's renunciation of the mortgage;
3d, By prescription.
Prescription is acquired to the debtor as to the property which is in his possession, through the lapse of the time fixed for the prescriptions of the action which gives the mortgage or the privilege.
And as to the property which is held by a third possessor, prescription is acquired to him through the lapse of the time fixed for the prescription of the ownership in his favor.




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