Burdon Central Sugar Refining Company v. Payne

[Syllabus from pages 127-128 intentionally omitted]

The circuit court of appeals for the Fifth circuit, desiring the instruction of this court for the proper decision of certain questions arising in the above-entitled cause, certified the statement of facts set out in full in the margin, and thereon propounded the following questions: 'First. It being shown that the cane sold by appellees, J. U. Payne & Co. et al., to the Ferris Sugar-Manufacturing Company, Limited, pursuant to the contract between the parties, was grown on lands not embraced within the limits of the premises leased to the Ferris Sugar-Manufacturing Company, Limited, are appellees, under the laws of Louisiana, considered in connection with the provisions of the contract, entitled to the lessor's privilege to secure the payment of the purchase price of such cane? 'Second. Under the terms of the thirteenth article of the contract between the Paynes and the Ferrises, and to secure the payment of the price of the sugar cane sold and delivered under said contract, have the appellees, H. M. Payne, J. U. Payne, and the members of the firm of J. U. Payne & Co., an equitable lien upon the bounty money collected from the United States by the receiver in this suit?

'Third. If the second question shall be answered in the affirmative, can such equitable lien, under the laws of Louisiana, be so enforced in the present suit as to appropriate the bounty money to the payment of the claim of the Paynes, to the exclusion of the general creditors of the Ferris Sugar-Manufacturing Company?' J. D. Rouse, Wm. Grant, and W. H. Saun ders, for appellant.

Charles E. Fenner and James David Coleman, for appellees.

Mr. Chief Justice FULLER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.