Bank of Eudora v. Crowe

2 La. App. 669, 1925 La. App. LEXIS 230
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 9, 1925
DocketNo. 2259
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2 La. App. 669 (Bank of Eudora v. Crowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bank of Eudora v. Crowe, 2 La. App. 669, 1925 La. App. LEXIS 230 (La. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

CARVER, J.

Plaintiff sues to recover the amount of three notes executed by defendant on November 7, 1917, all payable to his own order and by him endorsed in blank, as follows:

One due December 1, 1920, for $164.89.

One due December 1. 1921, for $151.21, and

One due December 1, 1922, for $141.63; besides interest and attorney’s fees on all three notes.

The notes were originally secured by mortgage on certain land, but by agreement between the plaintiff and defendant the mortgage was released in order to enable defendant to obtain a loan from the Federal Land Bank and the sum was deposited in the Bank of Oak Grove to the credit of the Clerk of Court to respond to • the judgment.

The defense is, failure of consideration.

This defense was sustained as to the note due December 1, 1920, which plaintiff acquired after maturity; but judgment went against defendant on the other two, which plaintiff acquired before maturity.

Defendant appealed; dnd plaintiff’s counsel, in his brief, asks that the judgment' of the lower court be amended by giving it judgment for all three .notes.

We do not find in the record, though, any motion asking such amendment, nor do we find in the minutes any notation of such motion; so the request cannot be considered.

See Morris vs. Cain, 39 La. Ann. 712, 1 South. 797, 2 South. 418, and cases therein cited.

On May 26, 1917, defendant bought from one R. J. Walker a certain tract of land for $9036.00, wholly on credit, giving his notes for the price, as follows:

One for $486.00, due December 1, 1917.

One for $686.00, due December 1, 1918.

One for $768.00, due December 1, 1919.

One for $841.00, due December 1, 1920.

One for $905.00, due December 1, 1921.

One for $860.00, due December 1, 1922.

One for $815.00, due December 1, 1923.

One for $770.00, due December 1, 1924.

One for $725.00, due December 1, 1925,

and

One for $2180.00, due December 1, 1926.

On November 7, 1917, defendant sold to Charles Little a part of the land for something less than the amount of the notes given to Walker, all of which, though, Little assumed in the deed. The difference between the purchase price which Little was to pay and the amount of the notes held by Walker was adjusted by defendant agreeing to pay part of the debt due by Walker, as follows:

On the note due December 1, 1918, $188.26.

On the note due December 1. 1919, • $176.57.

On the note due December 1, 1920, $164.89.

On the note due December 1, 1921, $153.21, and

On the note due December 1, 1922, $154.63.

[671]*671Instead of merely providing that, as between defendant and Little, defendant should pay these amounts on the notes held by Walker, notes for said amounts, due at said times, were executed by defendant, payable to his own order, endorsed by him in blank and secured by mortgage on certain property, which notes were by the Notary paraphed to indentify them with the act and were then delivered to Little.

Little paid the notes held by Walker, maturing December 1, 1917, December 1, 1918, and December 1, 1919, and defendant paid his notes maturing in 1918 and 1919.

Little defaulted as to the note held by Walker, due December 1, 1920, and on December 31, 1920, pledged the three notes sued on to the plaintiff.

Little paid nothing more on the notes held by Walker who, in 1923, foreclosed on the seven remaining unpaid and had the property sold at sheriff’s sale.

The, price realized at the sale left an amount due by Little much larger than 'the amount of the notes sued on herein.

On the trial defendant offered parol testimony to show that by agreement with Little he was not to pay • the notes given by him unless Little paid the notes held by Walker.

We deem it unnecessary to pass on this question, because we think the act of sale itself .shows that Little’s assumpsit was the consideration not only for the land sold by defendant but also for the notes given by him to Little, to which plaintiff objected.

Little’s failure to pay the note held by Walker dué December I, 1920, was in .our opinion, a failure. of the consideration ■which defendant could plead against him asi a defense to the notes sued on herein; but as to the two- unmatured notes, this equity could) not, in our opinion, defeat a holder in due course.

1 The negotiable instrument law, Act No. 64 of 1904, provides, in section 57:

“A holder in due course holds the instrument free from any defect. of title of prior parties, and free from defences available to prior parties among themselves, and may enforce payment of the instrument for the full amount. thereof against all parties liable thereon.”

Defendant’s counsel cites section 52, which provides:

“A holder in due course is a holder who has taken the instrument under the following conditions:
“1. That it is complete and regular upon its face;
“2. That he became the holder of it before it was overdue, and without notice that it had been previously dishonored, if such was the fact;
“3. That he took it in good faith and for value;
“4. That at the time it was negotiated to him he had no notice of any infirmity in the instrument or defect in the title of the person negotiating it.”

He argues that inasmuch as the Notary’s paraph identified these notes with the act of sale from defendant to Little, and that act showed that the consideration of the notes sued on was Little’s assumpsit of the notes held by Walker, therefore plaintiff was charged with notice of the failure of consideration.

We do not think so.

True, that act did show that the assumpsit was the consideration of the notes sued on. True,, too, Little failed to pay the note held by Walker, <jue December I, 1920. But the record contains no proof that plaintiff knew or had reason to believe that Little had not paid that note.

Section 59 of the negotiable instrument law provides:

“Every holder is deemed prima facie to be a holder in due course; but when it is shown that the title of any person who [672]*672has negotiated the instrument was defective, the burden is on the holder to prove that he or some person under whom he claims acquired the title as holder in due course. But the last mentioned rule does not apply in favor of a party who became .bound on the instrument prior to the acquisition of such defective title.”

Under this section the bank must be presumed prima facie to be a holder in due course, and

Section 56 provides:

“To constitute notice of an infirmity in the instrument or defect in the title of the person negotiating the same, the person to whom it is negotiated must have had actual knowledge of the infirmity or defect, or knowledge of such facts that his action in taking the instrument' amounted to bad faith.”

It was held in Abat vs.

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Related

Martin v. Watson
273 So. 2d 677 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1973)
Keith v. Lee
127 So. 139 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1930)

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Bluebook (online)
2 La. App. 669, 1925 La. App. LEXIS 230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bank-of-eudora-v-crowe-lactapp-1925.