SEQUESTRATION, Louisiana practice. The Code of Practice in civil cases in Louisiana, defines and makes the following provisions on the subject of sequestration. Art. 269. Sequestration is a mandate¹ of the court, ordering the sheriff, in certain cases, to take in his possession, and to keep a thing of which another person has the possession, until after the decision of a suit, in order that it be delivered to him who shall be adjudged entitled to have the property or possession of that thing. This is what is properly called a judicial² sequestratian. Vide 1 Mart. R. 79; 1 L. R. 439; Civil Code of Lo. 2941; 2948.

2. - Art. 270. In this acceptation, the word sequestration does not mean a judicial deposit, because sequestration may exist together with the right of administration, while mere³ deposit does not admit it.

3. - Art. 271. All species of property, real or personal, as well as the revenue proceeding⁴ from the same, may be sequestered⁵.

4. - Art. 272. Obligations and titles may also be sequestered, when their ownership is in dispute.

5. - Art. 273. Judicial sequestration is generally ordered only at the request of one of the parties to a suit; there are cases, nevertheless, where it is decreed by the court without such request, or is the consequence of the execution of judgments⁷.

6. - Art. 274. The court may order, ex officio, the sequestration of real property in suits, where the ownership of such property is in dispute and when one of the contending parties does not seem to have a more apparent right to the possession than the other. In such cases, sequestration may be ordered to continue, until the question of ownership shall have been decided⁸.

7. - Art. 275. Sequestration may be ordered at the request of one of the parties in a suit in the following cases: 1. When one who had possessed⁹ for more than one year, has been evicted¹⁰ through violence, and sues to be restored to his possession. 2. When one sues for the possession of movable property, or of a slave, and fears that the party having possession, may ill treat the slave or send either that slave, or the property in dispute, out of the jurisdiction¹¹ of the court, during the pendency of the suit. 3. When one claims the ownership, or the possession of real property, and has good ground to appre-hend, that the defendant¹² may make use of his possession to dilapidate or to waste the fruits or revenues produced by such property, or convert them to his own use. 4. When a woman sues for a separation from bed and board, or only for a separation of property from her hushand, and has reason to apprehend¹³ that he will ruin her dotal property, or waste the fruits or revenues produced by the same during the pendency of the action. 5. When one has petitioned for a stay of proceedings¹⁴, and a meeting of his creditors¹⁶, and such creditors fear that he may avail himself of such stay of proceedings, to place the whole, or a part of his property, out of their reach. 6. A creditor¹⁵ by special mortgage shall have the power of sequestering¹⁷ the mortgaged property, when he appre-hends that it will be removed out of the state before he can have the benefit of his mortgage, and will make oath of the facts which induced his apprehension¹⁸.

8. - Art. 276. A plaintiff wishing to obtain an order of sequestration in any one of the cases above provided, must annex¹⁹ to the petition in which he prays for such an order, an affidavit²⁰, setting forth²¹ the cause for which he claims such order, he must besides, execute his obligation in favor of the defendant, for such sum as the court shall determine, with the surety of one good and solvent²² person, residing within the jurisdiction of the court, to be responsible for such damages as the defendant may sustain, in case such sequestration should have been wrongfully obtained.

9. - Art. 277. When security is given in order to obtain the sequestration of real property which brings a revenue, the judge must require that it be given for an amount sufficient to compensate²³ the defendant, not only for all damage which he may sustain, but also for the privation of such revenue, during the pendency of the action.

10. - Art. 278. The plaintiff when he prays for a sequestration of the property of one who has failed, is not required to give such security, though that property bring in a revenue.

11. - Art. 279. A defendant against whom a mandate of sequestration has been obtained, except in cases of failure, may have the same set aside, by executing his obligation in favor of the sheriff, with one good and solvent surety, for whatever amount the judge may determine, as being equal to the value of the property to be left in his possession.

12. - Art. 280. The security thus given by the defendant, when the property sequestrated consists in movables or in slaves, shall be responsible that he shall not send away the same out of the jurisdiction of the court; that he shall not make an improper²⁴ use of them; and that he will faithfully present them, after definitive²⁵ judgment⁶, in case he should be decreed to restore the same to the plaintiff.

13. - Art. 281. As regards landed property, this security is given to prevent the defendant, while in possession, from wasting the property, and for the faithful restitution²⁶ of the fruits that he may have received since the demand, or of their value in the event of his being cast in the suit.

14. - Art. 282. When the sheriff has sequestered property pursuant to an order of the court, he shall, after serving the petition and the copy of the order of sequestration on the defendant, send him return in writing to the clerk of the court which gave the order, stating in the same in what manner the order was executed, and annex to such return a true and minute inventory²⁷ of the property sequestered, drawn²⁸ by him, in the presence of two witnesses.

15. - Art. 283. The sheriff, while he retains possession of sequestered property, is bound to take proper care of the same and to administer the same, if it be of such nature as to admit of it, as a prudent²⁹ father of a family administers his own affairs. He may confide³⁰ them to the care of guardians³¹ or overseers, for whose acts he remains³² responsible, and he will be entitled to receive a just compensation for his administration, to be determined³³ by the court, to be paid to him out of the proceeds of the property sequestered, if judgment be given in favor of the plaintiff.