DAWKINS, District Judge.
Plaintiff, James B. Smith, alleging himself to be a "resident" of the State of Texas, brought this suit in the Alexandria Division of the Western District of Louisiana against B. S. Landis, Mrs. Zoe B. Snyder, John B. Snyder and Mrs. Zelma S. Pipes, "residents of the Parish of Franklin, La." which is in the Monroe Division. In exceptions, defendants insisted the complaint failed to state the citizenship of either plaintiff or defendants, but merely the residence, and the action was brought in a division other than that where the defendants lived, but these were overruled and we think correctly so, because the action was one of a local nature, or in rem, involving real property which is located in Catahoula Parish, in the Alexandria Division, of which we can take notice.
The nature of the case and the statement of what happened in the proceedings in the State Court, are so well and correctly stated by the lower judge, Honorable Gaston L. Porterie, now deceased, in his opinion reported in 106 F. Supp., beginning at page 264, the same will be adopted and is quoted down to the end of the second paragraph in the second column on page 266, as follows:
"On August 19, 1927, one F. R. Wilson, in Suit No. 4590, petitioned the Seventh Judicial District Court of Louisiana, Catahoula Parish, for a judgment against J. B. Smith (complainant here) in the sum of $749.79, with 5% per annum interest thereon from judicial demand until paid, for work done by Wilson for Smith. Alleging Smith a resident of Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, Wilson attached Smith\'s properties — the properties involved in this action — in Catahoula Parish for the purpose of jurisdiction and further prayed that Smith be served through a curator ad hoc appointed by the court for that purpose. On the same day an order was signed appointing an attorney at law to represent Smith and ordering the issuance of the writ of attachment upon Wilson\'s furnishing bond in the sum of $250. The attorney accepted the appointment and the $250 bond was filed in August of 1927.
"On April 4, 1928, citation was issued to Smith; it was personally served on his curator ad hoc; and, the writ of attachment was issued. On April 19, 1928, the sheriff seized the properties and posted a copy of the writ on the principal front door of the courthouse at Harrisonburg, Louisiana, the parish seat of Catahoula Parish. A notice of this seizure was served on the curator ad hoc in his office in Harrisonburg, on April 21, 1928.
"On December 3, 1928, judgment was signed against Smith in favor of Wilson for the amount sued for, with interest and costs, and on the same day that judgment was filed with, and the next day was recorded by, the Catahoula Parish Clerk of Court. This judgment recites that a `* * * default was granted on Nov., 26th, 1928, and not set aside * * *\'; the attachment was recognized; and, the properties were ordered seized and sold by the sheriff to the highest bidder for cash at not less than two-thirds of the appraisement, to pay and satisfy the judgment.
"On December 6, 1928, the curator ad hoc was personally served with a notice of this judgment, from which no appeal, suspensive or devolutive, was taken.
"On January 2, 1929, when this judgment had become executory, Wilson caused a writ of fieri facias to be issued under which the sheriff seized and took possession of the properties and gave public notice that he would sell them at public sale on February 23, 1929, to satisfy Wilson\'s judgment.
"On February 18, 1929 — five days before the scheduled sale — Smith filed Suit No. 4686 in the same court, naming Wilson and the sheriff as defendants, and prayed as follows:
"(a) To have the judgment against him in Suit No. 4590 declared null and void for want of jurisdiction over his person or over the subject matter; and, on the further ground that the default therein rendered had been confirmed upon illegal, insufficient and incompetent evidence.
"(b) For damages in the sum of $350.
"(c) For the issuance of a temporary restraining order to prevent the sale of the properties on February 23, 1929, and for the issuance of a preliminary and permanent injunction.
"A temporary restraining order was issued on February 18, 1929, prohibiting the sale of the properties on February 23, 1929. The hearing on the rule to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not issue was postponed, by written agreement of counsel for both sides, approved by the court, until March 18, 1929, and the restraining order continued in force.
"On May 20, 1929, Wilson answered alleging the legality and validity of his judgment in Suit No. 4590, and, alternatively, reconvened for a judgment against Smith for the same amount recovered against Smith in Suit No. 4590, with costs and interest from August 19, 1927.
"On June 12, 1929, Smith sold the properties involved herein to Mrs. Sudie J. Dahlberg.
"On June 28, 1929, the same Judge who rendered judgment in Suit No. 4590 against Smith, signed a judgment in Suit No. 4686 rejecting all of Smith\'s demands therein and dismissed Suit No. 4686 and directed the sheriff to proceed to sell the properties. Smith did not appeal suspensively from this judgment; that is, within ten days under Louisiana law; nor did he apply for a stay of execution of any kind. That judgment in Suit No. 4686, dated June 28, 1929, became executory, under Louisiana law, on July 9, 1929. Wilson, therefore, caused a writ of fieri facias to issue under the judgment directing the sheriff to sell the properties. The sheriff seized the properties and gave public notice that he would sell them on August 24, 1929, for not less than two-thirds of its appraised value.
"On August 23, 1929 — one day before the scheduled sale — Smith filed his application for, and was granted, a devolutive appeal from the judgment in Suit No. 4686 to the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit, returnable on or before October 1, 1929. The appeal was perfected on September 17, 1929 — 24 days after the sheriff\'s sale.
"On August 24, 1929, the sheriff sold the properties for two-thirds its appraised value, or $666.66, to B. S. Landis, a defendant herein. The sale was recorded on September 14, 1929. That the proceeds of the sale went to Wilson is undenied.
"On appeal from the judgment rendered in Suit No. 4686, on original hearing, Smith v. Wilson, 13 La.App. 437, 125 So. 302, the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit affirmed; but, on rehearing, Smith v. Wilson, 13 La. App. 679, 128 So. 682, on June 2, 1930 — months after the sheriff\'s sale — reversed itself and the lower court, declaring the judgment rendered in Wilson\'s Suit No. 4590, on December 3, 1928, null and void for the reason that the writ of attachment for jurisdiction in Suit No. 4590 was invalid. The appellate court did not rule on Wilson\'s reconventional demand in Suit No. 4686; nor, of course, did it declare the nullity of the sheriff\'s sale, theretofore made, on August 24, 1929, the legality of which was not at issue.
"On February 6, 1931, Landis, a defendant herein and the purchaser at the sheriff\'s sale of the properties herein involved, transferred to C. L. Snyder an undivided one-half interest in and to the properties, and, on September 21, 1948, by a correction deed, transferred that same undivided interest to the widow and heirs of C. L. Snyder, the other defendants herein.
"On July 31, 1950, Smith purchased the properties involved in this action from Mrs. Dahlberg, and on August 3, 1950, recorded his deed.
"On September 21, 1950, alleging himself a resident of Texas, Smith filed this action against Landis and the widow and heirs of Snyder, all citizens of Louisiana, praying that the sheriff\'s sale to Landis on August 24, 1929, be declared null and that defendants be decreed to have acquired no rights or interests thereunder.
"In limine litis, before issue joined, defendants questioned the jurisdictional amount involved in this controversy; but, our ruling was that there was over $3,000, exclusive of interest and costs, involved. This Court, therefore, has jurisdiction of the parties and of this controversy. 28 U.S.C. § 1332; 28 U.S.C.A. § 1332.
"As thus drawn, the decisive issue in this action is dependent upon the validity of the
...
