Art. 2338.Judgment Creditor Having Superior Privilege; Price Insufficient to Satisfy Inferior Mortgage

Articles 2335 and 2337 deal with a seizing creditor whose claim ranks below someone else's mortgage or lien. Article 2338 covers the opposite situation, where the seizing creditor is the one holding the superior security interest, mortgage, lien, or privilege on the property. Because that creditor sits at the front of the line for payment, a low sale price threatens no one ranked ahead of him, since no one is.

That is why Article 2338 lets him choose to push the sale through even when the bidding will not cover the full amount of his own claim, let alone any inferior claims behind it. Accepting less than full satisfaction is his call to make, since accepting a shortfall affects only his own recovery and leaves nothing for the junior creditors to lose that they were not already going to lose anyway.

Paragraph B supplies a safeguard for when that superior seizing creditor is not there to make that call. If he is absent or unrepresented at the sale, the sheriff cannot let the property go for less than the amount needed to fully satisfy his writ and costs, since no one is present to consent to a discount on his behalf. Under Article 2344(G), a creditor who bids in an online auction, or who tells the platform he is present or will not bid, counts as present for purposes of this rule.