Noël, a slave belonging to the estate of the late Antoine Coindet, is suing Benjamin Metoyer, one of the estate's testamentary executors, for failing to emancipate him according to the conditions of an 1817 bill of sale. Noël presents that in 1817 Alexis Cloutier sold him to Coindet on the condition that he would be freed upon Coindet's death. Coindet has recently died, having appointed Benjamin Metoyer and Jean Jacques Paillette testamentary executors of his will. Paillette is now in France and thus cannot act; as for Metoyer, he refuses to carry out the emancipation formalities, thus violating the dead man's wishes. Noël vouches that he is "above thirty years of age and has led at all time the conduct required by law to entitle him to his emancipation." He therefore asks the court to set him free and to cite Metoyer to answer the charge and pay the costs of suit.
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Natchitoches Parish Courthouse, Natchitoches, Louisiana
