Art. 2631.Use of Executory Proceedings

Executory process is Louisiana's civil-law mechanism for enforcing a secured debt without a full lawsuit on the underlying obligation. Article 2631 defines it as the procedure used to seize and sell property, without previous citation and judgment, to enforce a mortgage or privilege on that property. In practical terms, a creditor holding the right paperwork can go straight to seizing and selling the collateral instead of filing an ordinary suit, waiting for the defendant to answer, taking the case to trial, and obtaining a judgment before any seizure can happen.

What justifies skipping the trial is the phrase at the center of the article: the mortgage or privilege has to be evidenced by an authentic act importing a confession of judgment. An authentic act is a document executed before a notary and witnesses under Louisiana law, carrying a strong presumption that it is genuine and that its contents are what they appear to be — a higher form of proof than an ordinary signed contract. When that act imports a confession of judgment, the debtor agreed in advance, at the time of borrowing, that if the debt went unpaid the creditor could seize the pledged property without having to sue first. Article 2632 defines that confession of judgment precisely.

Because the debtor already agreed to this in writing, before a notary, the courts treat the underlying obligation as established before the seizure ever begins. There is no trial to test whether the debt is owed, because the debtor's own notarized commitment already establishes it. The rest of this chapter builds procedural safeguards around that shortcut — what the creditor must submit to prove entitlement, how the debtor learns about the proceeding, and how the debtor can still object — but the starting point is always this: a creditor with an authentic act importing a confession of judgment does not need to sue on the debt before seizing and selling the property that secures it.

Article 2631 closes with a reminder that executory process is not limited to mortgages secured this way; it is also available in other cases allowed by law, meaning wherever some other statute extends the procedure beyond the core situation this chapter describes.