TITLE XX - OF PLEDGE

Art. 3133. The pledge is a contract by which one debtor gives something to his creditor as a security for his debt.

Art. 3133.1. This Title shall apply to pledges of movables that are delivered prior to the time Chapter 9 of the Louisiana Commercial Laws becomes effective, including without limitation those pledges that may secure future obligations and lines of credit, as well as to pledges entered into on or after the time Chapter 9 of the Louisiana Commercial Laws becomes effective that are exempt or otherwise excluded from coverage thereunder. [Acts 1989, No. 137, §16, eff. Sept. §1, 1989; Acts 1990, No. 1079, §7, eff. Sept. 1, 1990]

Art. 3134. There are two kinds of pledge:

The pawn.

The antichresis.

Art. 3135. A thing is said to be pawned when a movable thing is given as security; and the antichresis, when the security given consists in immovables.

CHAPTER 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS

Art. 3136. Every lawful obligation may be enforced by the auxiliary obligation of pledge.

Art. 3137. If the principal obligation be conditional, that of the pledge is confirmed or extinguished with it.

Art. 3138. If the obligation is null, so also is the pledge.

Art. 3139. The obligation of pledge annexed to an obligation which is purely natural, is rendered valid only when the latter is confirmed and becomes executory.

Art. 3140. Pledge may be given not only for an obligation consisting in money, but also for one having any other object; for example, a surety. Nothing prevents one person from giving a pledge to another for becoming his surety with a third.

Art. 3141. A person may give a pledge, not only for his own debt, but for that of another also.

Art. 3142. A debtor may give in pledge whatever belongs to him.

But with regard to those things, in which he has an ownership which may be divested or which is subjected to incumbrance, he can not confer on the creditor, by the pledge, any further right than he had himself.

Art. 3143. To know whether the thing given in pledge belonged to the debtor, reference must be had to the time when the pawn was made.

Art. 3144. If at the time of the contract the debtor had not the ownership of the thing pledged, but has acquired it since, by what title soever, his ownership shall relate back to the time of the contract, and the pledge shall stand good.

Art. 3145. One person may pledge the property of another, provided it be with the express or tacit consent of the owner.

Art. 3146. But this tacit consent must be inferred from circumstances, so strong as to have [leave] no doubt of the owner's intention; as if he was present at the making of the contract, or if he himself delivered to the creditor the thing pawned.

Art. 3147. Although the property of another can not be given in pledge without his consent, yet so long as the owner refrains from claiming it, the debtor who has given it in pledge, can not seek to have it restored until his debt has been entirely discharged.

Art. 3148. Tutors of minors and curators of persons under interdiction, curators of vacant estates and of absent heirs, testamentary executors and other administrators named or confirmed by a judge, can not give in pledge the property confided to their administration, without being expressly authorized in the manner prescribed by law.

Art. 3149. An attorney can not give in pledge the property of his principal without the consent of the latter, or an express power to that effect.

Nevertheless, where the power of attorney contains a general authority to mortgage the property of the principal, this power includes that of giving it in pledge.

Art. 3150. The property of cities and other corporations can only be given in pledge, according to the rules and subject of [to] the restrictions prescribed on that head by their respective acts of incorporation.

Art. 3151. [Repealed. Acts 1980, No. 150, §3, eff. Jan. 1, 1981]

Art. 3152. It is essential to the contract of pledge that the creditor be put in possession of the thing given to him in pledge, and consequently that actual delivery of it be made to him, unless he has possession of it already by some other right.

Art. 3153. But this delivery is only necessary with respect to corporeal things; as to incorporeal rights, such as credits, which are given in pledge, the delivery is merely fictitious and symbolical.