Atkins v. Garrett

252 F. 280, 1917 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 769
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Louisiana
DecidedJuly 16, 1917
DocketNo. 1075
StatusPublished

This text of 252 F. 280 (Atkins v. Garrett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Atkins v. Garrett, 252 F. 280, 1917 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 769 (W.D. La. 1917).

Opinion

JACK, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The right of the plaintiff to demand the rescission of the sale of stock for nonpayment of the note given for the purchase price is based on article 2564 of the Civil Code of Louisiana, which provides that the dissolution of ihe sale of movable effects shall take place of right, if demanded, on nonpayment of the purchase price.

[ 1 ] I. It is contended by defendant that the plaintiff, having elected to file suit for judgment on the note, could not thereafter dismiss such suit and sue for rescission of the sale. Counsel argues that this suit on 1lte note was an affirmance of tlie contract, and plaintiff was thereby estopped from an action to annul. The authorities cited are from the common law, whereas the remedy invoked in this suit is peculiar to the civil law. “By the law of England,” says Benjamin on Sales (book V, part 1, p. 622, of 2d London edition), “differing in this respect from the civil law, the buyer’s default in paying the price will not justify an action for the rescission of the contract, unless that right be expressly reserved.” Hence these common-law cases, in which the annulment of sales were sought on the ground of fraud or error, have no analogy to the case at bar, in which a sale originally in every respect valid and binding is sought to be rescinded, not because of any fraud in its inception and execution, but because of the purchaser’s default thereafter in failing to pay the purchase price.

The plaintiff had the right to sue, either to enforce payment of the note, or for the rescission of the sale; but there is no reason why, having first resorted to the former remedy; he should he cut off from the latter, and in fact the Louisiana Supreme Court has so specifically held. Canal Bank v. Copeland, 15 La. 79.

[282]*282[2] II. The fact that the plaintiff, prior to the institution of the present suit, had disposed of the identical certificate No. 136, covering the 50 shares of stock sold defendant, is no bar to the prosecution of this suit, because of lack of interest. Plaintiff, at the time he disposed of this certificate, and continuously for over a year after filing the suit, owned other stock more than sufficient to cover the 50 shares sold the defendant. It was not sacramental that he should have kept attached to defendant’s note as collateral that particular certificate. A certificate is not the stock itself, but merely the evidence of it. As is said by Cook in his work on Corporations (4th Edition, section 469):

“One share of stock does not differ from another share of the same capital stock. Each is but an undivided -interest in the corporate rights, privileges, and property. Accordingly it is held that a pledgee need not retain in his possession the identical shares of stock which were pledged to him, but the rights of the pledgor are fully preserved, if similar stock is retained by the pledgee until the termination of the pledge.”

Counsel for defendant cites Barron v. Jacobs, 38 La. Ann. 370, and Castle v. Floyd, 38 La. Ann. 583, in which case it was held that plaintiffs were without interest to sue for the rescission of sales of real estate where, after such sales, they had sold their interest in the property to third parties. See, also, George v. Knox, 23 La. Ann. 354; Templeman v. Pegues, 24 La. Ann. 537. So, in the case at bar, were it not for the reconventional demand of defendants for damages for the wrongful conversion and sale of such stock, it might be that this plaintiff would be without interest to demand the resolution of the sale. But, in view of' this reconventional demand, he certainly has a vital interest in sustaining his claim for rescission, and, while plaintiff’s suit was, of course, filed prior to the reconventional demand of defendant, plaintiff’s claim for rescission is, in effect, in defense to defendant’s claim for damages.

[3] III. The plaintiff was under no obligation; as a condition precedent to his suit, to tender payment to defendant of the dividends received by him on the pledged stock. In McKenzie v. Bacon, 41 La. Ann. 6, 5 South. 640, it was held that the vendee of real estate, against whom a judgment of resolution of the sale has been obtained, owes to the vendor rents and revenues. If plaintiff is entitled to a rescission of tire sale, he would be entitled to keep these dividends. The resolution of the contract would place the parties in the same position they were at the time it was entered infix The plaintiff would be entitled to a return of his stock, with its dividends, and the defendant would be entitled to the return of his note, without the payment of interest. (No interest has been paid on the note.)

[4] IV. I now come to the main issue in the case. Did the defendant, at the time of his tender, February 1, 1916, over four months after the institution of the present suit for the resolution of the sale, have the right to make payment of the note, demand the surrender of his stock held as collateral, and put an end to the litigation?

Ordinarily payment is the end of the law, and, as was said in the recent case of Watson v. Feibel, 139 La. 375, 71 South. 585, on which defendant relies:

[283]*283"The resolution of the sale is allowed ‘only after the vendor has exhausted every remedy for obtaining payment’ [the court quoting from the French commentator, ToullierJ. Can a vendor, to whom payment in principal, interest, and costs is tendered, and who refuses to accept, be said to have exhausted every remedy for obtaining payment?”

Again, in Perkins v. Frazer, 107 La. 393, 31 South. 774, the court said:

•'The spirit of the law is against the enforcement of the resolutory condition, and in favor of the contract being carried out, if possible.”

In the case of Watson v. Feibel, plaintiff, after making formal demand on defendant for the payment of the purchase price, the next day brought suit to rescind the sale. Defendant failed to answer within the time prescribed by law, and plaintiff caused a judgment by default to be entered against him. Thereafter, and before the judgment was confirmed, defendant made to plaintiff a tender of payment, which was refused for the reason assigned, that an offer of performance came too late after being put in default. The court, after a very thorough review of the jurisprudence and of the French commentators, reversed the decision of the lower court, rescinding the sale, and held that payment might be made at any time before final judgment.

In the Watson-Feibel Case, however, the sale was not of personal property, as in the case at bar, but of real estate, and, as the articles of the Code covering the two- are not the same, the case is not decisive of the issue now before tins court. Article 2S61 covers the sale of both real and movable property:

“If ilie buyer does not pay the price, the seller may sue for the dissolution of the sale.”

Article 2562 covers the case of the sale of immovables:

“The dissolution of the sale of immovables is summarily awarded, when there is danger that the seller may lose the price and the thing itself.
“if that danger doesi not exist, the Judge may grant to the buyer a longer or shorter time, according to circumstances, provided such term exceed not six months. .

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Related

Canal Bank v. Copeland
15 La. 75 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1840)
Perkins v. Frazer & Nason
107 La. 390 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1901)
Woodstock Iron Works v. Standard Pulley Mfg. Co.
40 So. 236 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1905)
Johnson v. Levy
43 So. 46 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1907)
Watson v. Feibel
71 So. 585 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1916)
Morrison v. Wimberly
14 La. Ann. 713 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1859)
George v. Knox
23 La. Ann. 354 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1871)
City of New Orleans v. Rigney
24 La. Ann. 235 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1872)
Templeman v. Pegues
24 La. Ann. 537 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1872)
Barron v. Jacobs
38 La. Ann. 370 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1886)
Heirs of Castle v. Floyd
38 La. Ann. 583 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1886)
Enders v. Gingras, Mulhaupt & Co.
38 La. Ann. 773 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1886)
McKenzie v. Bacon
41 La. Ann. 6 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1889)
Clover v. Gottlieb
23 So. 459 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1898)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
252 F. 280, 1917 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 769, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/atkins-v-garrett-lawd-1917.