Bonacorso v. Turnley

98 So. 2d 295
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 19, 1957
Docket4505
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 98 So. 2d 295 (Bonacorso v. Turnley) 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
Bonacorso v. Turnley, 98 So. 2d 295 (La. Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

98 So.2d 295 (1957)

Charles A. BONACORSO, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
William H. TURNLEY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 4505.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

November 19, 1957.

*296 D'Amico & Curet, Baton Rouge, for appellant.

Watson, Blanche, Fridge, Wilson, Posner & Thibaut, Baton Rouge, for appellee.

TATE, Judge.

This is an action by a real estate broker for his commission against both the owner, Turnley, of certain property listed with him and also against the person procured by the broker to lease-purchase the property, a Mrs. Stewart. Judgment was rendered by default against the latter defendant and she has not appealed. Only the judgment of the district court sustaining the owner's exception of no cause of action is before this court.

According to the petition, plaintiff-appellant Bonacorso secured from defendant Mrs. Stewart a written offer to lease-purchase certain property from defendant-appellee Turnley and then secured from the owner Turnley a written acceptance of Mrs. Stewart's offer. This "agreement to purchase" provided for the payment of a commission of $800 to plaintiff upon the owner's acceptance of the offer to leasepurchase.

Specifically, the form containing Mrs. Stewart's offer to lease-purchase provided:

"6. A deposit of Eight Hundred & no/100 Dollars ($800.00) has been paid *297 by me [Mrs. Stewart] to Charles A. Bonacorso, Real Estate Broker, Agent, and this shall be applied as part of the purchase price named above. This deposit is to be noninterest bearing, and is not to be considered as earnest money, the parties hereto reserving the right to demand specific performance. In event the title is not valid and cannot be in a reasonable time and at a reasonable expense be made valid, this contract shall be null and void and the deposit shall be returned. The commission of Charles A. Bonacorso is earned upon acceptance of the offer and does not depend upon the passing of sale, which commission is fixed at $800 to be retained by the said Charles A. Bonacorso, out of the down payment or deposit."

The form containing Turnley's acceptance of the offer provided:

"I [W. H. Turnley] accept the offer as signed above and agree to pay to Charles A. Bonacorso, Real Estate Broker, Agent, the commission of Eight Hundred & No/100 Dollars ($800.00) which has been included as part of the purchase price as stated above, and he is authorized to retain said amount from the deposit on down payment by the purchaser."

This litigation results from the circumstance that the sum of $800 deposited with plaintiff was in the form of a check, and— according to the petition—this check proved worthless.

The District Court, in sustaining Turnley's exception of no cause of action, apparently accepted defendant Turnley's argument that these quoted provisions could be construed as constituting an affirmative declaration by Turnley that the sum of $800 in cash had been deposited with plaintiff, in reliance upon which declaration and subject to which representation Turnley accepted Mrs. Stewart's offer, and as being an agreement by plaintiff with Turnley to accept said deposit in full payment of any obligation of Turnley to him for the real estate commission.

Defendant argues further that plaintiff cannot proceed against both Turnley and Mrs. Stewart for his commission since they are not solidarily obligated and that, in any event, plaintiff cannot obtain a judgment against him for the amount of the commission, after having obtained a judgment by default against Mrs. Stewart for the same amount.

In disposing of an exception of no cause of action, all allegations of the petition must be considered true, and doubts about the sufficiency of the petition should be resolved in petitioner's favor. Unless the petition clearly fails to set forth a cause of action, the exception must be overruled. Lusco v. McNeese, La.App. 1 Cir., 86 So.2d 226, Verret v. Calcasieu Parish School Board, La.App. 1 Cir., 85 So.2d 646, Meadows v. Preferred Accident Insurance Co., La.App., 49 So.2d 765, at page 767, Johnson v. Graham, La.App. 2 Cir., 35 So.2d 278, Columbia Oil Co. v. Police Jury of Natchitoches Parish, La.App. 2 Cir., 194 So. 91.

Viewing plaintiff's petition in the light of this principle, this court believes that plaintiff has alleged facts which, if proven, will show that defendant Turnley did incur an obligation to pay plaintiff the brokerage commission for which he sues. In the excerpt from Turnley's written acceptance quoted above and incorporated in the petition by reference, defendant-appellee clearly agreed to pay this commission. We do not view the authority given plaintiff in the quoted provision to retain his commission from moneys deposited with him as an agreement by plaintiff to look only to that fund for payment. On the contrary, the stipulation seems to be one in plaintiff's favor, designed to give him added assurance of payment and not one designed to limit his rights to obtain payment.

*298 If we entertained any doubts on this score, they would be readily dispelled by the additional allegations of the petition that defendant Turnley and Mrs. Stewart later ignored the "agreement to purchase" of which plaintiff had been the procuring cause and entered into a substantially similar agreement for the lease-sale of the property. Under well settled principles of our jurisprudence, defendant owner became obligated for the payment of the brokerage commission if it can be proved under these allegations that plaintiff broker was the procuring cause of the real estate contract entered into pursuant to listing of the property with him. Grace Realty Co. v. Peytavin Planting Co., 156 La. 93, 100 So. 62, 43 A.L.R. 1096, Womack Agencies v. Fisher, La.App. 1 Cir., 86 So.2d 732.

The next question, whether or not defendant-appellee's obligation to plaintiff was extinguished, must also be resolved in plaintiff's favor. There is nothing in the petition to show that, in accepting Mrs. Stewart's check, plaintiff expressly declared an intention to discharge Turnley. Accordingly, the acceptance of the check did not operate—as defendant suggests—as a novation discharging Turnley. Arts. 2192, 2194, LSA-Civil Code.[1] A delegation by which one becomes obligated to another for a debt also owed by a third person does not discharge the obligation of the third person unless the common creditor expressly declares that such is his intention. Isaacs v. Van Hoose, 171 La. 676, 131 So. 845; Knapp v. Guerin, 144 La. 754, 81 So. 302; Smith v. Brown, 12 La.Ann. 299; Jackson v. Williams, 11 La.Ann. 93; Bonnemer v. Negrete, 16 La. 474, 35 Am.Dec. 217; Jacobs v. Calderwood, 4 La.Ann. 509; Gordon v. McCarty, 9 Mart., O.S., 268; Baron v. Guidry, 1 Cir., 17 App. 32, 134 So. 410; Zaeringer Realty Co. v. New Orleans Hosp., Malt & E. Co., Orl. 10, La. App. 648, 121 So. 193. See also Comment The Requisites and Effects of Novation: A Comparative Study, 25 Tulane L.Rev. 100, 114.

Nor is there merit in the argument that, because plaintiff has sought recovery from Mrs. Stewart on the basis of the allegedly worthless check which she deposited with him, he cannot simultaneously proceed against defendant Turnley to recover his brokerage commission. Although "an election is binding on the party making it, and he cannot afterward pursue an inconsistent remedy, though full recovery was not had in the first action", Brown v. Lancaster, 218 La.

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Bluebook (online)
98 So. 2d 295, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bonacorso-v-turnley-lactapp-1957.