by law, and for the payment of such damages as may be sustained by his failure to discharge such duties. ART. 3359.-The fees, to which the register of mortgages and the parish judges performing the same duty, are entitled, for recording acts delivered to them and giving certificates, are regulated by special laws. CHAPTER III. Of the Effects of Mortgages and Privileges. SECTION I. Of the Effects of Mortgages and Privileges with regard to the Debtor. ART. 3360.—The mortgage has the following effects: 1. That the debtor cannot sell, engage or mortgage the same property to other persons, to the prejudice of the mortgage which is already acquired to another creditor; 2. That if the mortgaged thing goes out of the debtor's hands, the creditor may claim it in whatever hands it may have passed, in so much that the third possessor of it is obliged, either to pay the debt for which the thing is mortgaged, or to leave it to be sold, that the creditor may be paid out of the proceeds thereof; 3. That the mortgagee has the benefit of being preferred to the mere chirographee or personal creditors, and even to the other mortgagees who are posterior to him in the date of their mortgage or of its registry. ART. 3361.-When the things mortgaged are in the debtor's possession, the creditor may, in case of failure of payment, proceed against him in the usual manner, by citing him to obtain judgment against him, if the original title does not amount to confession of judgment, and causing afterwards the thing mortgaged to be seized and sold; and if the title amount to a confession of judgment, he may, on his oath that the debt is due, obtain from the judge an order for an immediate seizure of the thing; but if the thing mortgaged is out of the debtor's possession, but in the hands of a third possessor, he must then proceed against this third possessor by what is called the action of mortgage, as is directed in the following section. SECTION II. Of the Effect of Mortgages against third Possessors, and of the Hypothecary Action. ART. 3362.-The creditors who have either a privilege or mortgage on immoveable property or on slaves, may pursue their claim on them in whatever hands they may happen to pass, to be paid out of their proceeds according to their rank, provided that their titles have been registered according to law. ART. 3363.-The third possessor of the immoveable property or slaves mortgaged, is bound either to discharge the principal together with all interest of the debt for which the property was mortgaged, to whatever sum they may amount, or to relinquish the property, without any reservation. ART. 3364.-In case the third possessor fail to comply with either of these obligations, every mortgage or privileged creditor is entitled to cause the immoveable mortgaged or subject to privilege to be sold, if thirty days after amicable demand of payment from the debtor, the debt has not been discharged. ART. 3365.-The creditor, who shall institute this action against a third possessor, must make oath, at the foot of his petition, that the debt for which he prays the seizure of the thing on which he has a mortgage or privilege, is really due to him, and that he has demanded payment of it without success, thirty days before he presents his petition. ART. 3366.-The third possessor, who is not personally liable to the debt, may, notwithstanding, within ten days from his being served with an order of seizure, oppose the sale of the property mortgaged, which is in his possession, if he has good cause to show in support of such opposition, as that the mortgage has not been registered or other plea, or if there is other property mortgaged for the same debt within the possession of the principal debtor or debtors, in which last case the possessor may demand that his property be previously discussed, in the form directed under the title of suretyship, and during the discussion the sale of the property mortgaged and in the possession of the third person, shall be suspended. ART. 3367.-The plea of discussion cannot be opposed to the creditors, who have either a privilege or a special mortgage on the property found within the possession of a third person. ART. 3368.-The third possessor, who wishes to avoid the action of mortgage, may, before or after the order of seizure, declare that he relinquishes the property affected to the mortgage, of which he has possession. This relinquishment may be made by all third possessors, who are not personally bound for the debt, and who are capable of alienating, and it does not deprive them, before the sale, of the right of retaking the property mortgaged, which was in their possession, on discharging the debt, together with the interest and costs. ART. 3369.-The act of relinquishment shall be executed before a notary public in the presence of two witnesses, and notified to the creditor or creditors who have brought the hypothecary action. On the petition of the first of the interested persons who sues, a curator is appointed to the property relinquished, and under him the sale of the property is conducted in the manner prescribed by law. ART. 3370.-The deteriorations, which proceed from the deed or neglect of the third possessor, to the prejudice of the creditors who have a privilege or a mortgage, give rise against the former to an action of indemnification; but he can claim for his expenses and improvements only to the amount of the increased value which is the result of the improvement made. ART. 3371.-The fruits or income of the property mortgaged are due by the third possessor, only from the time when the order of seizure was served on him, and in case of the discontinuance of the suit during one year, only from the day when a new order of seizure shall be served on him. ART. 3372.-The services and incorporeal rights that the third possessor holds on the property before its possession, are renewed after his relinquishment, or after the sale in execution made upon him. His own creditors, after those who held their titles under the preceding proprietors, exercise their rights of mortgage in their order, on the property relinquished or sold at auction. ART. 3373.-The third possessor, who has either discharged the mortgage debt, or relinquished the property mortgaged, or suffered it to be sold in execution, has, according to law, an action of warranty against the principal debtor. CHAPTER IV. How Mortgages Expire or are Extinguished. ART. 3374.-Mortgages are extinguished: 1. By the extinction of the thing mortgaged; 2. By the creditor acquiring the property of the thing mortgaged; 3. By the extinction of the mortgagor's right, 4. By the extinction of the debt, for which the mortgage was given; ART. 3375.-Occupancy is a mode of acquiring property by which a thing, which belongs to nobody, becomes the property of the person who took possession of it, with the intention of acquiring a right of ownership upon it. ART. 3376.-It follows, from the above definition, that occupancy can only be a lawful mode of acquiring property, when the thing in occupancy has no owner; when it is of a nature which admits of its being taken possession of, and retained by the acquirer with the intention of keeping it as his own property. ART. 3377.-There are five ways of acquiring property by occupancy, to wit: By hunting; By fishing; By invention (finding) that is, by discovering precious stones on the sea shore, or things abandoned, or a treasure; By captures from the enemy. ART. 3378.-Wild beasts, birds and all the animals which are bred in the sea, the air, or upon the earth, do, as soon as they are taken, become instantly by the law of nations, the property of the captor: for it is agreeable to |