Burglass v. Wright

159 So. 176
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 4, 1935
DocketNo. 14894.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 159 So. 176 (Burglass v. Wright) 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
Burglass v. Wright, 159 So. 176 (La. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

LECHE, Judge.

On September 30, 1930, plaintiff sold and delivered to James H. Wright a certain lot of furniture for the price and sum of $822.30. Wright paid in cash the sum of $80, and for the balance of the purchase price, the sum of $742.30, he executed a chattel mortgage in favor of plaintiff, wherein plaintiff retained his vendor’s lien and privilege upon the said furniture. Wright also executed his promissory note in the said sum, and the chattel mortgage was duly and properly recorded on October 1, 1930. On January 31, 1931, Wright placed the furniture which he had thus purchased from petitioner in storage with the O. K. Storage & Transfer Company, Inc. He then became delinquent in his monthly payments to petitioner under the terms of the chattel mortgage, and also became delinquent in the payment of the monthly storage charges to the O. K. Storage & Transfer Company. On or about January 12, 1933, Wright was adjudged a voluntary bankrupt in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The following order, which we quote from counsel’s brief, was entered by the referee in bankruptcy:

“Let there be waiver and disclaimer entered by the Bankrupt estate of any right, title, claim, interest, advantage or ownership *177 In, to or against any of the honsehold effects bought by the Bankrupt from A. Burglass, which household effects are presently stored with the O. K. Storage Co. and on- which there is presently due the O. K. Storage Co. the sum of $124.98 as storage charges conditioned upon the payment by A. Burglass of the sum of Fifty Dollars ($50.00) cash with the reservation to the O. K. Storage Co. of their rights as against the furniture stored by the Bankrupt with them;
“Let the settlement of the storage charges due the O. K. Storage Co. of $124.98 be eliminated from any consideration in these bankruptcy proceedings, and let the settlement of the storage charges due the O. K. Storage Co. of $124.98 be by and as between the Ó. K. Storage Co. and A. Burglass.”

The bankruptcy court thus disclaimed any further interest in the matter, leaving to the parties their right to settle the matter as between themselves and independently of the bankruptcy proceedings. Thereafter, on March 80,1933, plaintiff filed this suit against Wright and the O. K. Storage & Transfer Company, Inc., praying for a money judgment against Wright and praying’ that petitioner’s vendor’s privilege and chattel mortgage lien be declared superior to any lien, privilege, or claim of the O. IC Storage & Transfer Company, Inc., and asking that the court order said company to turn the merchandise over to the civil sheriff for the purpose of being sold at public auction, etc. The O. K. Storage & Transfer Company, Inc. answered, pleading the priority of its privilege for storage and preservation of the property over the vendor’s privilege and chattel mortgage lien of plaintiff, and further pleading that, by reason of plaintiff’s course of action and cón-duet in permitting and encouraging it to incur necessary charges and expenses for the preservation of said property, he is estopped to urge his alleged privileges as prior to its rights. This defendant further prayed for judgment in reconvention against plaintiff in the sum of $132.98, being the amount due them for storage up to and including March 31, 1933, together with interest on said amount from the date of plaintiff’s suit. No answer being filed by Wright, judgment by default was entered against him as prayed for, and further judgment was entered in favor of defendant O. K. Storage & Transfer Company, Inc., and against plaintiff on the reconventional demand, decreeing that plaintiff was estopped from enforcing, or attempting to enforce, the lien resulting from his chattel mortgage on the stored furniture, and that, out of the proceeds of the sale by the civil sheriff, the sum of $152.40 be paid to the O. K. Storage & Transfer Company, above and in preference to the claim of plaintiff under his chattel mortgage.

From this judgment plaintiff has appealed.

Two questions are presented here, the first, a question of law, being whether or not plaintiff’s vendor’s privilege and chattel mortgage primes the subsequently accruing privilege or lien of the O. K. Storage & Transfer Company for the storage and preservation of the property. The second question, one of fact, is whether or not plaintiff’s conduct was such as to encourage the storage and preservation of the property on the faith of his guaranty, and consequently estopping him from now asserting his priority. We will consider the second question first, because, if the plea of estoppel is good, it is immaterial whether or not plaintiff’s chattel mortgage primed defendant’s privilege, and a consideration of that point will be unnecessary.

A careful reading of the transcript in this case reveals that certain oral testimony in support of the plea of estoppel was admitted by the learned trial judge over the objection of counsel. The rulings of the trial judge were correct and proper in the circumstances. This proceeding is entirely different from one in which it is sought to prove that defendant had guaranteed the debt of a third person. In such a case strict rules of evidence are adhered to, and such proof must be in writing. In support of the plea of estop-pel, the rules are much more lenient. In the case of Breaux et al. v. Albert Hanson Lumber Co., Ltd., 125 La. 421, 51 So. 444, 446, the court said;

“We hold that the bad faith of this plaintiff was susceptible of proof by parol, and that the oral testimony admitted to that end was admissible.
“It may also be proven by oral testimony all that is needful to sustain the plea of es-toppel. In this instance this plaintiff, by his representation and connivance, estopped himself from charging the defendants with trespass and wrongdoing.”

Now, perhaps, for the very reason that the strict rules of evidence are somewhat abated in supporting the plea of estoppel, he who urges the plea is held to a strict proof of his allegations in support thereof. In the case of Young et al. v. Longshoremens’ P. U. Ben. Association, 8 Orl. App. 146, the court said: “The facts upon which estoppel N based must be proved by the party urging the plea.”

*178 And in Hebert v. Champagne, 144 La. 659, 81 So. 217, 218, Chief Justice Monroe said: “The burden of proof in such case rests upon the pleader, and he must prove the very facts upon which the estoppel is based., In order that one should be denied his right, or deprived of his property, by reason of an equitable estoppel, it should appear that the person pleading the estoppel has been misled, by the other, to his prejudice.”

The general rule is very clearly stated in 21 C. J. p. 1250, § 267, as follows: “Under the rule tha.t he has the burden of proof who has the affirmative of the issue, the burden of ’ proof is on the party alleging and relying on an estoppel to establish all the facts necessary to constitute % by a preponderance of the evidence, subject of course to the proper presumptions which may be indulged under the facts of the particular ease. Where the evidence is evenly balanced the burden is not sustained.”

The evidence in this case in support of the plea of estoppel consists entirely in the testimony of Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
159 So. 176, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burglass-v-wright-lactapp-1935.