John C. Williams represents that, a few months earlier, he had obtained a writ of seizure and sale for a plantation called "Arlington" and several slaves attached to the plantation. He had sold the plantation and slaves to one Robert Duer in July 1836, securing the debt with a "conventional special mortgage" on the property. Williams claims that he filed the suit to "give effect" to the mortgage, because Duer had lapsed in paying the agreed upon installments on the debt. However, Duer had subsequently filed his opposition and stopped seizure of the property. The court had then extensively reviewed the case and ruled that its first order for seizure and sale would stand. Duer had appealed and the Supreme Court had again suspended the original writ of seizure. Williams now claims that, since the original sale contract, he has relinquished his mortgage on some of the slaves; and the slaves are now mortgaged to other creditors for more than they are worth. He believes that a sale of the property and slaves will no longer be sufficient to secure payment on the debt. He therefore wants to have a lien placed on the new cotton crop and prays that it be seized and sold before Duer sells it for his own profit.
Result: Granted; rescinded; appealed; reversed and remanded.
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Repository: East Baton Rouge Parish, Clerk of Court Archives, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
