Bologna Brothers v. Morrissey

154 So. 2d 455
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 21, 1963
Docket9946
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 154 So. 2d 455 (Bologna Brothers v. Morrissey) 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
Bologna Brothers v. Morrissey, 154 So. 2d 455 (La. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

154 So.2d 455 (1963)

BOLOGNA BROTHERS et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
Mike T. MORRISSEY, Deceased, and Elizabeth M. Morrissey, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 9946.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

May 21, 1963.
Rehearing Denied June 20, 1963.

*456 Brunini, Everett, Grantham & Quin, Vicksburg, Miss., Sevier, Yerger & Sevier, Tallulah, for appellants.

Kizer, Heaton, Craig & Cangelosi, Baton Rouge, Lancaster & Baxter, Tallulah, Teller, Biedenharn & Rogers, Vicksburg, Miss., for appellees.

Before HARDY, GLADNEY and AYRES, JJ.

GLADNEY, Judge.

The obligations herein sued upon arose out of business transactions between Bologna Brothers, a Louisiana partnership engaged in the State of Louisiana in selling whiskey at wholesale, and Mike T. Morrissey, engaged in the business of selling whiskey in the City of Vicksburg, Mississippi. This suit was instituted in the Parish of Madison by Bologna Brothers as the holders and owners of certain promissory notes, made and executed by Mike T. Morrissey and Elizabeth M. Morrissey in the State of Mississippi, for the recovery of an indebtedness of $40,000.00 with interest and attorney's fees. While suit was pending Mike T. Morrissey died on February 20, 1960, and his legal heirs were substituted as parties defendants. All defendants are residents of the State of Mississippi and jurisdiction was acquired through attachment of property in Madison Parish. In response to plaintiffs' petition, an exception of no cause and no right of action was filed and by the court referred to the merits, after which issue was joined by answer, and the cause was tried on its merits. Judgment was rendered favorable to plaintiffs, as prayed for, with maintenance of the lien and privilege resulting from the writs of attachment. From this decree the defendants have appealed.

During December of 1953 Morrissey purchased from plaintiffs, who conducted wholesale establishments in Baton Rouge and Bogalusa, Louisiana, whiskey of the value of $75,000.00. On December 22, 23 and 29, 1953, the whiskey was placed upon Morrissey's truck in Baton Rouge for the purpose of being transported to Morrissey's place of business in Vicksburg. In connection with each purchase Morrissey sent his truck, driven by his driver, Melvin Fendley, who was fully authorized by Morrissey under power of attorney to sign invoices, accept deliveries and act for and on behalf of his principal in securing and transporting the whiskey to Vicksburg. In each instance a representative of the Department of Revenue of the State of Louisiana witnessed the loading of the liquor into Morrissey's truck, and issued an export transportation permit to Morrissey, permitting his driver, Fendley, to transport the merchandise out of the State of Louisiana to Morrissey's premises at Vicksburg, Mississippi. By this procedure under LSA-R.S. 26:372 such exported beverages were not subject to the Louisiana tax. In order to secure such permit Fendley swore that the alcoholic beverages were purchased from *457 plaintiff in Louisiana. After deliveries were made to Morrissey, the latter's checks given in payment of the invoices for the whiskey were dishonored.

On January 22, 1954, Morrissey caused some ten promissory notes to be drawn up by Leo Boolas, a certified public accountant in Vicksburg. These notes, each in the sum of $5,000.00, were payable at one year intervals, to Bologna Brothers at the Merchants National Bank & Trust Company of Vicksburg. The notes were signed by Elizabeth M. Morrissey and Mike T. Morrissey, as co-makers. On August 30, 1956, two of these notes were renewed by the same parties. All of the notes were executed, delivered and made payable in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Mrs. Morrissey, while admitting to her signature on the notes, testified she knew that her late husband was engaged in the liquor business, but that she had no interest in the business and never took part in it in any way, she having signed the notes as a good wife to help her husband. It was further shown that the property of Mrs. Morrissey seized and attached in this suit in Madison Parish, was her separate property, having been inherited from an aunt.

The defense does not deny Mike T. Morrissey purchased the whiskey in question from plaintiffs as alleged, nor do the defendants deny Morrissey sold the whiskey in the course of his business in Vicksburg, and that the whiskey has not been paid for. Their reason for non-payment of the obligations is on the basis of a Mississippi prohibition statute which provides that if any person gives credit to another for intoxicating liquor, he shall lose the debt.

Plaintiffs insist the particular sales under consideration were made in Louisiana, that the notes sued upon, although executed in Mississippi, were given for Louisiana purchases and were valid in Louisiana as Louisiana contracts. The trial court found that when the liquor was loaded on Morrissey's truck in Louisiana, Bologna Brothers lost control of it and it became Morrissey's property, and that the sale in question was a Louisiana sale, consummated and completed in this state. According to defendants the sales took place at Vicksburg, Mississippi, where they contend Bologna Brothers maintained a large stock of merchandise and sold to Morrissey for cash and delivered it to him from a separate enclosure in Morrissey's warehouse. The trial judge could see no connection between what was called the enclosed whiskey and the whiskey sold by Bologna Brothers to Morrissey in December of 1953, and concluded that the notes, although executed in Mississippi, were in payment of a Louisiana obligation and were, therefore, governed by the laws of this state, and not Mississippi.

On the appeal appellants urge that the judgment of the trial court is in error in finding that the sales of liquor from Bologna Brothers to Morrissey in December of 1953 were completed in Louisiana rather than in Mississippi, and also was in error in its application of the law of the State of Louisiana in determining the validity of the notes sued upon. It is further argued by appellants that when the children of Mike T. Morrissey after his death were made substituted parties, such was done with reservation of their rights and without prejudice under articles 801-805 of the LSA Code of Civil Procedure, and accordingly, the judgment as rendered should have been limited to their liabilities as heirs of Morrissey to the assets of his succession.

The appellants charge the trial court first erred in not finding the liquor sales in question were completed in Vicksburg, at which place full ownership passed to Mike T. Morrissey. In support of this contention Mrs. Alice Woody and Carlisle Long testified as to the manner in which stocks of liquor purchased from Bologna were handled on the Morrissey premises during a period in the latter part of 1953 or the first part of 1954. During 1953 an employee of Morrissey named Johnny Serio was in charge of the stock and some time in 1954 he was succeeded by Carlisle Long. Serio did not testify. The effect of the *458 testimony is that the liquor purchased from Bologna was kept in an enclosure which was separated from that of other whiskey purchased by Morrissey; that when Serio was in charge the whiskey removed from the Bologna stock was accounted for by a check from Morrissey, counter-signed by Serio, which check was promptly deposited to the account of Bologna; and that after Long took charge the withdrawals were handled on a cash basis. Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
154 So. 2d 455, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bologna-brothers-v-morrissey-lactapp-1963.