Hardie v. Justice
| Decision Date | 13 December 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 8619,8619 |
| Citation | 353 So.2d 384 |
| Parties | Patrick C. HARDIE and Guy W. Smith v. William M. JUSTICE, Jr., John F. Short and Gail B. Short. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
A. W. Wambsgans, Metairie, for defendants-appellants.
Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles, James A. Burton, New Orleans, for plaintiffs-appellees.
Before LEMMON, BOUTALL and BEER, JJ.
The issue in this appeal is whether a recorder of mortgages, when a mortgage certificate is requested in the name of John Francis Short, is liable in damages for not reporting a mortgage registered in the name of John F. Short. The trial court answered in the affirmative and rendered judgment against the recorder for the amount that plaintiffs (the attorney who examined the title and the notary who passed the sale) paid the mortgagee to purchase an assignment of the note secured by the mortgage in order to achieve cancellation of the mortgage, thereby preventing the mortgagee's seizure and sale of the property. 1
The pertinent duty and liability of recorders of mortgages are stated in C.C. arts. 3393 and 3394:
"Each register of mortgages and/or parish recorder shall obtain and maintain in effect at all times liability insurance to cover any such errors and omissions which may occur in his office. * * *" C.C. art. 3394. (Emphasis supplied)
The recorder's duty to deliver mortgage certificates is limited to some extent by R.S. 9:5181, which states:
"Recorders of mortgages shall refuse their certificates to persons whose christian names are not stated, or whose christian names are designated by the initial letters alone."
In the present case plaintiffs properly stated the christian names of John Francis Short on the request for a certificate. The recorder therefore had no right to refuse the certificate and was answerable for injury resulting from omitting to mention in the certificate any act existing on his register in the name of John Francis Short. See also Hathorn...
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Dane v. Doucet Bros. Const. Co., Inc.
...to review the jurisprudence and codal provisions relative to the duty and liability of the recorder of mortgages. Hardie v. Justice, 353 So.2d 384 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1978). There we stated at p. "The pertinent duty and liability of recorders of mortgages are stated in C.C. arts. 3393 and 339......
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First Acadiana Bank v. Sandoz
...125-26 (La.App.1963). This principle is reflected in several cases involving omitted and incorrect middle initials. In Hardie v. Justice, 353 So.2d 384, 385 (La.App.1978), writ den. 354 So.2d 1379 (La.1978), a recorder of mortgages was held to be liable for damages when a mortgage certifica......
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Dixie Sav. and Loan Ass'n v. Sharp, CA-6277
...that an error in or omission of a middle initial in a mortgage does not make it invalid as to third persons. Hardie v. Justice, 353 So.2d 384 (La.App. 4th Cir.1977); Modern Finance Co. v. Montgomery, 46 So.2d 677 (La.App. 4th Cir.1950); Tranchina v. Williams, 10 La.App. 656, 120 So. 882 (4t......
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Cardinal Federal Sav. Bank v. Corporate Tower Partners, Ltd.
...records under the names furnished him by a party seeking a mortgage certificate. See La.R.S. 9:2728; La.R.S. 9:5181; Hardie v. Justice, 353 So.2d 384 (La.App. 4 Cir.1977), writ den., 354 So.2d 1379 (La.1978). The Clerk is not required to check encumbrances against property under the names o......