Commercial Soap Works, Limited v. F. A. Lambert Company, Limited
| Decision Date | 15 March 1897 |
| Docket Number | 12,396 |
| Citation | 21 So. 639,49 La.Ann. 459 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
| Parties | COMMERCIAL SOAP WORKS, LIMITED, ET ALS. v. F. A. LAMBERT COMPANY, LIMITED, ET ALS |
Submitted March 4, 1897
APPEAL from the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans. Ellis, J.
E Evariste Moise, for Plaintiffs, Appellants.
Chaffe & Bowers, Saunders & Miller and Dinkelspiel & Hart, for Defendants, Appellees.
The plaintiffs seek an injunction to restrain creditors from prosecuting suits in New York to subject to execution a fund there belonging to the debtor, also the debtor of the plaintiffs.
The allegations of the petition are that the debtor is insolvent that the creditors suing in New York are citizens of Louisiana; that our law makes the property of the debtor the common pledge of his creditors; that the object of the creditors in seeking the New York courts is to obtain an unjust preference over other creditors here; that the debtor and those holding the fund in New York are combining with the debtor to secure that preference for those he proposes to favor, prejudicial to the rights of petitioners. The lower court refused the injunction and plaintiffs appeal.
The proposition of the petition is, that the courts, under the circumstances alleged, have the power to enjoin the creditor from obtaining judgment against his debtor. Whether the creditor sues here or in another State, his right of action except under well defined conditions arising out of positive restrictions in the Code, or our jurisprudence, can not be questioned. We can not perceive that the petition states any case to authorize the denial of defendants' right of suing their debtor. That he is insolvent furnishes usually the cause for suit, and that advantage the creditor who sues promptly is apt to secure over the less active creditor furnishes him no cause of complaint. The alleged attempt of the creditors in the New York courts to secure an unjust preference, suggests the remedy our law prescribes to secure equality of the rights of creditors of an insolvent debtor. R. S., Sec. 1781 et seq. When the debtor makes a cession voluntary or forced, our courts, to secure an equal distribution, exert a jurisdiction to enforce from our own citizens the respect due to our laws and will restrain them from bringing suits in another jurisdiction against the insolvent debtor which they could not bring here, and thereby by attachments...
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