BG Wire Rope & Slings, Inc. v. Dyson

884 So. 2d 688, 2004 WL 2072051
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 17, 2004
Docket2003 CA 2390
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 884 So. 2d 688 (BG Wire Rope & Slings, Inc. v. Dyson) 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
BG Wire Rope & Slings, Inc. v. Dyson, 884 So. 2d 688, 2004 WL 2072051 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

884 So.2d 688 (2004)

BG WIRE ROPE & SLINGS, INC., Jimmy Lee Dyson and Rock Energy
v.
Tommy DYSON, Kurt L. Charpentier and Continental Steel Products, Inc.

No. 2003 CA 2390.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

September 17, 2004.
Rehearing Denied November 9, 2004.

*689 Jeffry L. Sanford, Baton Rouge, Bertha M. Hillman, Thibodeaux, Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellant Rock Energy.

Kenneth F. Tamplain, Jr., Robert N. Markle, New Orleans, Counsel for Defendants/Appellees Tommy Dyson and Kurt L. Charpentier.

Before: WHIPPLE, FITZSIMMONS, and DOWNING, JJ.

FITZSIMMONS, J.

Plaintiff, Rock Energy, Inc. (Rock Energy), appealed the trial court's dismissal of its suit to revive a judgment. We affirm.

To obtain a loan for $103,206.11, BG Wire Rope & Slings, Inc. (BG) entered into an agreement with Community Bank of Lafourche (bank) dated September 3, 1992 and entitled "ASSIGNMENT OF JUDGMENT." The agreement included the following three paragraphs:

As additional security for the payment of the aforesaid notes in principal, interest, and attorney fees, and the performance of all obligations of assignor, and in accordance with its obligations, assignor does hereby transfer, assign, set over and deliver unto Community Bank of Lafourche, its heirs, successors or assigns, all of its rights, titles, and interests in and to, and in any and all sums due and owing either now or in the future, which assignor has against Tommy C. Dyson, Kurt L. Charpentier, and Continental Steel Products, Inc. by virtue of that certain judgment rendered in the matter entitled "BG Wire Rope & Slings, Inc. and Jimmy L. Dyson vs. Tommy Dyson, Kurt Charpentier, and Continental Steel Products, Inc.[,]" No. 101,982 of the docket of the 32nd Judicial District Court, in and for the Parish of Terrebonne, State of Louisiana, a copy of which is attached hereto and made part hereof for greater reference.
And, said assignor hereby authorizes and directs [the debtors on the 1992 judgment], and/or the Sheriff of the Parish of Terrebonne by virtue of any writ of seizure and sale, their heirs, successors and assigns, to make any payments due and owing under said judgment to Community Bank of Lafourche, and said Community Bank of Lafourche is fully authorized to give receipt in its own *690 name and in the name of Assignor for all such payments.
All sums of money paid to the aforesaid assignee representing payments due pursuant to said judgment shall be applied by Assignee upon the payment of the above referenced promissory notes of BG Wire Rope & Slings, Inc.

The judgment noted in the "Assignment of Judgment" was rendered in June of 1992.

On June 25, 2002, Rock Energy, Inc. filed a "Petition to Revive Judgment" against Tommy Dyson, Kurt Charpentier, and Continental Steel Products, Inc., the debtor-defendants named in the 1992 judgment. In the petition, Rock Energy alleged that it was a holder in due course of the 1992 judgment. Rock Energy claimed to have acquired the 1992 judgment by an assignment from BG in March of 1994. Two of the named defendants in this suit, and in the 1992 judgment, Tommy Dyson and Kurt Charpentier, filed a peremptory exception raising the objection of no right of action. Mr. Dyson and Mr. Charpentier argued that BG had already assigned the judgment to the bank in September of 1992, and thus, BG had no right to assign the same judgment to Rock Energy in 1994. In May of 1997, the bank assigned the 1992 judgment to Mr. Dyson and Mr. Charpentier. On June 12, 1997, BG filed a pleading entitled "Satisfaction of Judgment," which stated that the 1992 judgment had been fully paid. To defeat the claim of Mr. Dyson and Mr. Charpentier to the 1992 judgment, which allegedly led to BG's filing of the satisfaction of judgment, Rock Energy argued that the September, 1992 "Assignment of Judgment" to the bank was only a pledge or posting of additional security for the loan made to BG. Therefore, BG had the right to assign the 1992 judgment to Rock Energy in 1994.

The issue considered at the hearing on the exception of no right of action was the proper characterization of the September 3, 1992 document entitled, "Assignment of Judgment." After reading the document, the trial court found that the words, "As additional security," did not derogate from the more apparent intent of the parties exemplified by the following clause: "assignor does hereby transfer, assign, set over and deliver unto Community Bank of Lafourche, its heirs, successors or assigns, all of its rights, titles, and interests in and to, and in any and all sums due and owing either now or in the future ...." Thus, BG held no rights or title in the judgment that could be transferred or assigned to Rock Energy in 1994.

On November 20, 2002, the trial court rendered a judgment granting the defendants' exception of no right of action and dismissed Rock Energy's suit to renew the 1992 judgment. Rock Energy filed a motion for new trial based on an affidavit by Richard Bouterie, the attorney who prepared the 1992 assignment of judgment to the bank. The trial court found that the affidavit was not newly discovered evidence. When asked by the court why Rock Energy did not submit the affidavit as evidence during the trial on the exception, counsel for Rock Energy stated that he believed that the intent of the document was clear from the words, "As additional security." Therefore, counsel argued, he did not realize that the intent of the document would be at issue. The trial court apparently disagreed and denied the motion for new trial.

Rock Energy appealed and asserted two assignments of error.[1] In the first assignment, *691 Rock Energy argues that the trial court erred in its grant of the exception of no right of action based on its finding that the document was a transfer for value rather than a mere security device. Secondly, Rock Energy protests the trial court's refusal to allow introduction of the affidavit at the hearing on the motion for new trial.

The peremptory exception raising the objection of no right of action tests whether the plaintiff has a real and actual interest in the suit. Sivils v. Mitchell, 96-2528, p. 3 (La.App. 1 Cir. 11/7/97), 704 So.2d 25, 27; see La. C.C.P. art. 927 A(5). Evidence may be admitted to support or controvert the exception of no right of action. La. C.C.P. art. 931.

An assignment of an asset as payment, and the pledging or offering of security to be held until a loan is paid, are not the same transaction and do not produce the same consequences. An assignment transfers title of the asset to the assignee, who then has the immediate right, upon signing of the agreement, to pursue payment of the loan from the assigned asset. With a pledged asset, the creditor must wait until the debtor defaults on the loan before the asset may be used for payment. However, use of particular terms within an agreement, such as "additional security" or pledge, does not alone characterize the agreement or invalidate a finding that the agreement was an assignment. Mahayna, Inc. v. Poydras Center Associates, 96-2089, p. 4 (La.App. 4 Cir. 4/30/ 97), 693 So.2d 355, 357, writ denied, 97-1741 (La.10/13/99), 703 So.2d 619.

After a thorough review of the record, we cannot say that the trial court erred in its finding that the document was an assignment, and not merely the granting of additional security or a pledge. We rely on the same language highlighted by the trial court and the two paragraphs that followed.

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Bluebook (online)
884 So. 2d 688, 2004 WL 2072051, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bg-wire-rope-slings-inc-v-dyson-lactapp-2004.