Art. 2642.Assertion of Defenses; Appeal

Because executory process skips a trial on the underlying debt, a defendant who disputes that debt or the way the proceeding was conducted needs some avenue to raise it. Article 2642 supplies two, usable separately or together.

The first is an injunction proceeding to arrest the seizure and sale, governed by Articles 2751 through 2754. This lets the defendant go back into court and ask a judge to halt the sheriff's sale on the ground that the creditor was not entitled to executory process, or that some procedural requirement was not met. The second is a suspensive appeal from the order directing issuance of the writ of seizure and sale — an appeal that, if properly taken, stops the sale from proceeding while the appellate court reviews the order.

A suspensive appeal comes with a strict clock and a demanding bond. It has to be taken within fifteen days of service of the notice of seizure under Article 2721, and it follows the general appellate articles with one added requirement: the security posted has to exceed the balance due on the debt by one-half, counting principal, interest through the date of the appeal order, and attorney fees, though not court costs. That higher bond reflects the stakes of freezing a sale the creditor has already been found entitled to pursue on the papers.