A B C Supermarket, Inc. v. American Employers Ins. Co.

214 So. 2d 291, 283 Ala. 13
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedAugust 29, 1968
Docket5 Div. 823
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 214 So. 2d 291 (A B C Supermarket, Inc. v. American Employers Ins. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A B C Supermarket, Inc. v. American Employers Ins. Co., 214 So. 2d 291, 283 Ala. 13 (Ala. 1968).

Opinion

LAWSON, Justice.

This is a suit on a promissory. note brought in the Circuit Court of Macon County by American Employers Insurance Company, a corporation, against ABC Supermarket, Inc., A. C. Bulls and others as trustees of ABC Supermarket, Inc., a dissolved corporation.

The complaint contained one count, which reads:

“And the Plaintiff claims of the Defendants the sum of FOUR THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($4,500) due by promissory note made by ABC Supermarket, Inc., a ■Corporation, on September 12, 1963, .to Nolin Manufacturing Company, Inc,, a Corporation, and payable on the 10th day of September, 1964, with interest thereon, which said note was duly assigned for valuable consideration to American Employers Insurance Company, a Corporation, on July 30, 1964, said note being duly assigned and endorsed to the Plaintiff before maturity.
“Plaintiff further claims the sum of ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($1,500) as a reasonable attorney’s fee which the Defendants agreed to pay by virtue of a clause contained in said note.”

The defendants filed what they denominated an answer to the complaint but which the trial court and the parties treated as constituting five separate pleas, which read:

“1. The Defendants saith that the obligation, the demand for the recovery of which this suit was brought had been paid prior to the commencement of this action.
“2. The Defendants affirmatively aver that the Plaintiff had notice of the equities existing between Defendants and the Plaintiff’s assignor of the said note.
[16]*16“3. The Defendants affirmatively aver that Plaintiff had notice of defect of title of its assignor of the said note.
“4. The Defendants affirmatively aver that the Plaintiff did not receive the said note in the ordinary course of business.
“5. The Defendants affirmatively aver the following: On July 8, 1958 and on September 26, 1958, respectively, Defendants [sic] ABC Supermarket, Inc., as conditional buyer, entered into separate conditional sales contracts for the purchase of certain chattels, with Nolin Manufacturing Company, Inc., as conditional seller under both contracts. Said contracts were filed for record in the Office of Judge of Probate of Macon County, Alabama prior to the execution of the subject note, and appear in the records of said Office respectively in Mortgage Book 268, at Page 458 and Mortgage Book 268, at Page 461. At all times pertinent hereto, the chattels remained on the premises of Defendant, ABC Supermarket.
“Each of the said contracts provided, in part:
“ 'Buyer further agrees to keep said property insured, at Buyer’s own expense, in the name of the holder hereof, against loss or damage by fire or theft, with insurance companies acceptable to the holder hereof for an amount not less than the amount owing hereunder, said policies to be delivered to the holder hereof, and if Buyer fails to so insure, the holder hereof shall have the right to do so at the Buyer’s expense.’
“The Plaintiff issued policies of insurance against loss of said chattels. Thereafter on or about, to-wit, September 10, 1963, Defendant ABC Supermarket, executed the subject note with Plaintiff’s assignor, Nolin Manufacturing Company, as payee thereof, which said note represented additional security for the payment of monies due under said contracts.
“The said chattels were destroyed by a fire which destroyed the entire plant of Defendant ABC Supermarket, on or about to-wit, May 14, 1964. Pursuant to the terms of the said insurance policies, Plaintiff paid Nolin Manufacturing Company for the loss of said chattels. On or about the time of said loss payment, and after the date of said fire, Nolin Manufacturing Company assigned and transferred the subject note to Plaintiff.
“The Defendants allege that in view of the foregoing, the said subject note was paid by payment of the insurance loss payment; that the Plaintiff had actual knowledge of the existence of the said contracts; that the Plaintiff knew that the subject note was additional security for the payment of the said contracts; that Plaintiff knew of the destruction of the entire plant of Defendant ABC Supermarket, prior to the time it was assigned the subject note.”

The defendants demanded a trial by jury.

Plaintiff’s demurrers to Pleas 2, 3 and 4 were sustained but demurrers to Pleas 1 and 5 were overruled.

Plaintiff filed replications as follows:

“1. For that the amount sued for has not been paid by the Defendant.
“2. For that the Plaintiff purchased the note sued upon from Nolin Manufacturing Company, Inc. for valuable consideration before maturity and without a notice of any equities, or defenses, between the defendants and Nolin Manufacturing Company.
“3. For that the payment to Nolin Manufacturing Company, Inc., was not on a policy issued to the defendants or issued under and by virtue of the clause contained in the conditional sales contracts referred to in Plea no. 5.”

The defendants joined issue on the replications. Thereafter the defendants [17]*17filed a “Motion for Continuance” and a “Motion to Dismiss.” Both of those motions were grounded on allegations to the effect that there was a similar action pending in the “United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division, * * * ” These motions were denied by the trial court. After the cause had been set for trial the defendants filed a “Renewal of Motion for Continuance” assigning the same grounds as in the original motion for continuance. The last filed motion for continuance was overruled.

The defendants’ demand for a jury trial was apparently withdrawn, for the record shows that “THIS CAUSE came on to be heard before the HONORABLE L. J. TYNER, Presiding Judge, of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Alabama, and without a Jury, * * * ”

At the conclusion of the hearing the trial court rendered a judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendants in the amount of $5,972.50, which amount included the face amount of the note sued on, interest and attorney’s fees. The defendants were taxed with the costs.

After their motion for new trial was overruled, the defendants appealed to this court.

We will consider those assignments of error which are adequately argued in brief of appellants in the order in which they are argued in that brief.

Assignment of Error No. 4 reads: “The Court erred in overruling Appellants’ Motion to Dismiss and Motion to Continue.” There is no merit in this assignment of error. Pendency of a former suit for the same cause of action can be availed of as a defense only by plea in abatement. Holley v. Younge, 27 Ala. 203; Herrington v. City of Eufaula, 36 Ala.App. 348, 55 So.2d 758. See Strother v. McCord, 222 Ala. 450, 132 So. 717; Logan v. O’Barr, 271 Ala. 94, 122 So.2d 376. It would be without benefit to appellants if we ignored the captions of the two motions presently under consideration and treated those motions as efforts on the part of counsel to plead in abatement, because neither motion is verified. Where the facts averred in a plea in abatement do not appear on the record, the plea must be verified.

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214 So. 2d 291, 283 Ala. 13, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/a-b-c-supermarket-inc-v-american-employers-ins-co-ala-1968.