Essay by Max Nathan, Jr.
The Louisiana mortgage law revisions that were adopted in 1991 and 1992, made both substantive and cosmetic changes in the law of mortgage. The cosmetic changes merely clarified existing rules by expressing them more artfully, as for example, delineating what property is susceptible of being mortgaged. Of the substantive changes, two are the most significant. The first is the creation of the powerful new mortgage to secure future advances, authorized by Civil Code article 3298. The second is the introduction of the rule that a mortgage is effective against third persons from the time it is filed for recordation, even if the mortgage is never actually recorded. Most of these changes were analyzed and discussed in the Louisiana Law Institute during the drafting process, during deliberations in the legislature, and in subsequent seminars. However, an innovation in terminology, replacing the term “given” (as in “to give a mortgage”) with the new term “establish” (as in “to establish a mortgage”) was hardly noticed. The word “establish” now appears in the section of the Civil Code on mortgages fourteen times in eleven articles.
About the Author
Max Nathan, Jr. Senior Partner, Sessions, Fishman & Nathan, New Orleans, Louisiana; Adjunct Professor, Tulane Law School; President, Louisiana Law Institute.
Citation
76 Tul. L. Rev. 483 (2001)