tract, and to mention them in his act, under penalty of damages towards the party who may suffer by his neglect in that respect.

C. C. 2611 (2589); 3 R. 400; 2 A. 100; 12 A. 127; D. Sec. 449, 2394, 2404, 2514. Acts 1855, p. 55. Acts 1868, No. 176. Acts 1870, No. 101.

ART. 3365. [3329.]-If a person who has given a mortgage on his property, takes advantage of the neglect to register the mortgage, and engages the same property afterwards to another person, without informing him of the first mortgage, he shall be considered guilty of fraud, and shall be subject to such damages towards the party suffering thereby as the nature of the case may require.

2 A. 100; 13 A. 571.

ART. 3366. [3330.]-To obtain an inscription of a public act or judgment, the creditor, either in person, or by an agent, shall present an authentic copy of the act or judgment to be recorded, to the register of mortgages of the place where the inscription is to be made.

C. C. 3348; 5 A. 225; 6 A. 350; 23 A. 534.

ART. 3367. [3331.]—If it be an act under private signature bearing a mortgage, the creditor can only have it registered when it has been acknowledged by the mortgagor, or proved by the oath of one of the subscribing witnesses, unless the register be acquainted with the signature of the parties, and shall agree, on his own responsibility, to make the inscription, on the original act being presented to him.

(Am'd.) C. C. 2261, 3375 (3338); 2 A. 251; 5 A. 225; 11 A. 122.

ART. 3368. [3332.]—The inscription of acts on which privileges are founded, when they are subjected to this formality, as also donations, shall be made in the same manner as that of mortgages.

C. C. 2775 (2746), 3262 (3229), 3273 (3240); 4 A. 471; 6 A. 350. ART. 3369. [3333.]—The registry preserves the evidence of mortgages and privileges during ten years, reckoning from the day of its date; its effect ceases, even against the contracting parties, if the inscriptions have not been renewed before the expiration of this time, in the manner in which they were first made.

But this rule does not obtain with regard to the mortgages to which husbands are subjected for the dowry and other claims of wives, and tutors and curators towards minors, interdicted and absent persons, whose estates they administer.

The reinscription of mortgages is also dispensed with in certain cases provided for by special laws.

(Am'd.) C C. 3348, 3411 (3374), 3544 (3508); C. N. 2154; C. P. 739; 13 L. 238; 6 R. 419, 422; 11 R. 20; 1 A. 219; 2 A. 100, 520, 768, 776, 799; 4 A. 471; 6 A. 471; 9 A. 193; 11 A. 390; 13 A. 571; 14 A. 106; 16 A. 280; 19 A. 132; 20

A. 216, 223, 385, 486, 508; 21 A. 204; 22 A. 279, 337, 390; 23 A. 244, 261, 275; 24 A. 193; D. Sec. 450, 727, 2391, 2397, 2399, 2400. Acts 1842, p. 232. Acts 1843, p. 52. Acts 1853, No. 193, Const. 1868, Art. 123.

ART. 3370. [3334.]—It shall be the duty of notaries, and other public officers acting as such, to cause to be recorded without delay all acts creating mortgages, which shall be executed by them, whether such mortgages be conventional or legal.

It shall also be the duty of judges to cause to be recorded all legal mortgages resulting from appointments made by them of tutors of minors or of curators of interdicted persons or absentees; and in default thereof such notaries or judges shall be liable to an action in damages, and even to be removed from office, as the case may be.

1 A. 219.

SECTION 2.

Of the Erasure of Mortgages.

ART. 3371. [3335.]-Inscriptions of mortgages and privileges are erased by the consent of the parties interested and having capacity for that purpose; this consent to be evidenced by a release, or by a receipt given on the records of the court rendering the judgment on which the mortgage is founded.

C. C. 3385 (3348); Ĉ. N. 2157; 1 A. 209; D. Sec. 2401, 2418, 3727, 3728, 3729. Acts 1855, p. 317.

ART. 3372. [3336.]-Inscriptions of mortgages and privileges may be also erased by virtue of a judgment ordering such erasure, in one of the cases hereafter enumerated.

C. N. 2157; 1 A. 219; 9 A. 336; 24 A. 257, 328.

ART. 3373. [3337.]—This erasure shall be made on a presentation of the acts, receipts and judgments which operate a release of the mortgages and privileges to be erased, in the same manner as directed for their inscription.

C. N. 2158; 9 A. 336, 540. Acts 1843, p. 105.

ART. 3374. The recorder of mortgages for the parish of Orleans, and the parish recorders of the several parishes of the State, are authorized and required to cancel from their records any mortgage for which a release may have been granted by an authentic act, upon the mere presentation of the certificate of the notary public before whom such act was executed, or of his successor in office, stating by said act a release was granted and the erasure allowed; this certificate shall be filed in the office of the recorder of mortgages where such cancelling is asked for. (New Article.) D. Sec. 3173. Acts 1866, p. 206.

ART. 3375. [3338.]—If the release has been given by an act

under private signature, the erasure shall only take place when it has been acknowledged by the mortgagor, or proved by the oath of one of the subscribing witnesses, unless the register be. acquainted with the signature of the party who has subscribed the act, and shall agree, on his own responsibility, to make the erasure on the presentation of the original.

(Am'd.) C. C. 3367 (3331).

ART. 3376. [3339.]—He who shall have subscribed in favor of another, an act bearing a mortgage or privilege to secure the payment of a debt or the execution of an obligation, may, on the payment of the debt or performance of the obligation, require of the creditor a release of the mortgage or privilege, provided he will defray the expense of the act which it may be necessary to prepare for this purpose; and if the creditor refuse to grant this release, the other party shall have an action to compel him to grant it, and he shall be condemned to pay the costs.

ART. 3377. [3340.]-If the debt for which a mortgage has been granted, or for which there exists a privilege, is payable at several terms, the debtor may, on the payment of each installment, require a release from the creditor of the mortgage or privilege, in relation to the installments thus paid, on the terms prescribed in the foregoing article.

ART. 3378. [3341.]-But in the case supposed in the preceding article, and in all others where partial releases are given, the mortgage or privilege shall only be finally erased on payment of the last installment of the debt, to insure which payment the whole property burdened shall always remain bound, until the complete discharge of the debt, together with the interest and costs that may have accrued.

ART. 3379. [3342.]-If a debtor who had given a mortgage to his creditor on a certain portion of his property, or who had subscribed in his favor an act importing a privilege, has neglected, on paying the debt, which gave rise to the privilege or mortgage, to obtain the release of it, and if the creditor should afterwards absent himself from the State, leaving behind no representative or attorney, he may obtain a decree for his release from any competent judge of the creditor's last place of residence, by proving to the judge, either by testimony in writing or by sufficient oral testimony, according to the nature and amount of the debt, that it has been fully discharged.

15 A. 334; 24 A. 257, 328.

ART. 3380. [3343.]-When such a demand shall be made before a judge of the last place of residence of the absent creditor, he shall direct that such creditor be cited by notices posted up at the usual places, and shall appoint a person to represent the absent creditor in the case.

ART. 3381. [3344.]-When a person, who has obtained a judgment on which an appeal lies, has had it recorded, if this judgment is afterwards reversed or confirmed in part only, the party against whom the inscription had been made, may, on motion before the judge who rendered the judgment, after due notice to the other party, obtain an order for the erasure or reduction of inscription, as the case may require; and if it be a case for erasure, it shall be made at the expense of the party making the inscription.

ART. 3382. [3345.]-If a debtor, who has granted a mortgage, or signed an act from which there results a privilege, has given notes payable to order and duly paraphed as hereafter directed, each holder of such notes may, on their being paid, raise the mortgage or release the privilege, to the amount of the note or notes thus paid, of which he was the bearer.

C. C. 3377 (3340).

ART. 3383. [3346.]-Even the drawer of these notes may, if he has paid any of them in bank or in the holder's hands, obtain from the notary who paraphed them as hereafter directed, a certificate by which the said notary shall declare that the note or notes were secured by an act importing a mortgage or privilege, which was passed before him, mentioning the date of the act, the name of the contracting parties, and the objects which were subjected to the mortgage or privilege; and the register of mortgages shall, on the presentation of this certificate, raise the mortgages, according to the amount of the notes mentioned in the certificate, either partially, or entirely, as hereafter directed.

18 A. 169; 20 A. 424.

ART. 3384. [3347.]-Every notary before whom an act shall have been passed, by which notes to order have been given for the payment of a debt bearing a privilege or mortgage, shall attest each of the notes by putting his name on them, mentioning the date of the act from which the privilege or mortgage is derived, under the penalty of, damages.

4 A. 303.

ART. 3385. [3348.]—The recorder, to whom partial releases shall be presented resulting from payments made on a debt bearing a privilege or mortgage, shall make mention of these partial releases on the margin of the record of the act by which the privilege or mortgage is secured, but he shall not erase it entirely, until the whole debt for which it was given, shall have been discharged.

C. C. 3371 (3335); D. Sec. 2401.

Of Mortgages.

SECTION 3.

Of the Office of Mortgages and of the Duties of Recorders.

ART. 3386. [3349.]-There is established in each parish an office for the recording of mortgages, privileges and donations. Acts 1855, p. 406. Acts 1857, p. 71.

ART. 3387. [3350.]-This office is kept in the parish of Orleans by a particular officer, called the recorder of mortgages. Out of the parish of Orleans, the duties of this recorder are performed by the different parish recorders, within the limits of their respective parishes.

(Am'd.) Acts 1855, pp. 321, 345.

ART. 3388. [3351.]—The recorder of mortgages for the parish of Orleans has his office in the city of New Orleans, and must keep two registers:

The first to record all acts from which there results a conventional, judicial or legal mortgage, or privilege.

And the second to record all donations which have to undergo that formality.

(Am'd) C. C 3391 (3354); C. N. 2201; 2 A. 800; 6 A. 242; 17 A. 224; 20 A. 571; D. Sec. 451. Acts 1826, p. 162.

ART. 3389. [3352.]-These registers shall be numbered at each page and signed ne varietur on the first and last page, by one of the judges or a justice of the peace for the parish of Orleans.

C. N. 2201; 5 A. 154; 6 A. 242.

ART. 3390. [3353.]—The parish recorders must keep the same number of registers as the recorder of mortgages for the parish of Orleans, and shall number their pages, and have them signed ne varietur on the first and last page by the parish judge of their parish or two justices of the peace for their parish. C. N. 2201; 5 A. 154. Acts 1855, p. 39.

ART. 3391. [3354.]—Besides the registers above mentioned, the recorder of mortgages, and the parish recorders performing the same duties in the different parishes, shall keep a separate register, in which they shall set down from day to day, and according to their date, the title of the different acts transmitted to them to be recorded, for the purpose of establishing with cxactness the time of such transmission.

This register shall be open to the inspection of all persons who may wish to examine it, during the hours at which the office is kept open, but it can not be removed.

(Am'd.) C. C. 2254, 3388 (3351); 5 A. 154; D. Sec. 451, 3082. Acts 1826, p. 162.