PRIVILEGE. Exemption from such bur dens as others are subjected to. State v. Betts, 24 N. J. L. 557. See Brenham v. Wa ter Co., 67 Tex. 542, 4 S. W. 143; Ripley v. Knight, 123 Mass. 519. See a full title in Jacob, Law Dict.
In Civil Law. A right which the nature of a debt gives to a creditor, and which entitles him to be preferred before other creditors. Dalloz, Dict. Privilege; Domat, Lois Civ. 'liv. 2, t. 1, s. 4, n. 1; 43 La. Ann. 1078, 1194.
Privilege is "a real right in a thing (jus in re) springing from the nature of a debt which has been contracted with reference to that thing, and securilia,g,the debt by a prefer ence on the proceeds ,the• thing when it is sold under legal process." Howe, Stud. Civ. L. 86.
"A mortgage under the civil law is to all intents and purposes what it is in 'equity in the English law or the law of Connecticut, a security for a debt given by the agreement of the debtor. But a debtor cannot, by his mere agreement, proprio vigore, confer a privilege.
"If he contracts a debt, which by its na ture has a privilege under the law, then the privilege exists, as a method of securing the debt. It inheres in the thing with reference to which the debt has been contracted, fol lows it into the hands of third persons (in the absence of some law of recordation pro viding to the contrary), and as a rule would prime a mortgage of the same property."1 "The one is legal ; the other conventional. This former is sometimes called by the civil ians a privileged hypothecation ; the latter a mere hypothecation." Howe, Stud. Civ. L. 88.
The civil law privilege became, by adop tion of the admiralty courts. the admiralty lien; Howe, Stud. Civ. L. 89; The J. E.
Rumbell, 148 U. S. 1, 13 Sup. Ct. 498, 37 L. Ed. 345.
Creditors of the same rank of privileges are paid in concurrence, that is, on an equal footing. Privileges may exist either in mov ables or immovables, or in both at once. They are general or special, on certain mov ables. The debts which are privPeged on all the movables in general are the following, which are paid in this order. Funeral charg es. Law charges, which are such as are oc casioned by the prosecution of a suit before the courts. But this name applies more par
ticularly to costs, which the party cast has to pay to the party gaining the cause. It is in favor of these only that the law grants the privilege. Charges, of whatever nature, occasioned by the last sickness, concurrently among those to whom they are due. See LAST SICKNESS. The wages of servants for the year past, and so much as is due for the current year. Supplies of provisions made to the debtor or his family during the last six months by retail dealers, such as bakers, butchers, grocers, and during the last year by keepers of boarding-houses and taverns. The salaries of clerks, secretaries, and oth er persons of that kind. Dotal rights due to wives by their husbands.
The debts which are privileged on particu lar mova,b/e8 are—the debt of a workman or artisan, for the price of his labor, on the movable which he has repaired or made, if the thing continues still in his possession ; that debt on the pledge which is in the credi tor's possession; the carrier's charges and accessory expenses on the thing carried ; the price due on movable effects, if they are yet in the possession of the purchaser; and the like. See LIEN.
Creditors who have a privilege on move ables in Louisiana are (1) vendors for pur chase money, (2) architects, mechanics, con tractors, etc., for construction, rebuilding and repair of houses, etc., (3) material men, (4) those who have worked by the job in the manner required by law or police regulation on levees, bridges, ditches, and roads of a proprietor ; Code § 3249-51.
In regard to privilege, Domat says, "We do not reckon in the rftimber of privileges the preference which the creditor has on the movables that have been given him in a pawn, and which are in his custody. The privilege of a creditor is the distinguishing right which the nature of his credit gives him, and which makes him to be preferred before other creditors, even those who are prior in time, and who have mortgages." Domat, pt. 1, lib. iii. tit. i. sec. v.