Cadle Co. v. Johnson

714 So. 2d 183, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 1757, 1998 WL 248006
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 15, 1998
DocketNo. 97 CA 0946
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 714 So. 2d 183 (Cadle Co. v. Johnson) 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
Cadle Co. v. Johnson, 714 So. 2d 183, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 1757, 1998 WL 248006 (La. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

I2FOIL, Judge.

At issue in this appeal is whether the trial court erred in allowing the makers of a promissory note to urge defenses to payment of the note. We hold that all of the defenses raised by the makers are barred by federal law, and reverse.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On April 3,1991, plaintiff, The Cadle Company (Cadle), filed this suit on a promissory note seeking to recover the balance owed thereon from the makers of the note, Bobby and Kim Johnson. The note in question was made payable on demand to the order of First National Bank, and plaintiff alleged that it is the holder in due course of the note. Plaintiff sought to recover the balance of $112,699.73, interest in the amount of $29,-499.69, calculated through March 1, 1991, attorneys fees in the amount of 25% of the amount due, and all costs of the proceeding.

Defendants answered, asserting that Cadle is not a holder in due course and is therefore subject to all defenses to payment of the note that First National Bank was subject to. Defendants plead the defenses of: (1) lack of consideration; (2) duress; (3) misrepresentation; (4) fraud; and (5) violation of the Louisiana securities law.

Cadle filed a motion for summary judgment, and offered a copy of the promissory note. Cadle also argued in its motion for [185]*185summary judgment that defendants were precluded by federal law from asserting the alleged affirmative defenses to payment on the note.

Cadle’s motion for summary judgment was granted by the trial court. However, that ruling was reversed by another panel of this court, which held that Cadle failed to put forth sufficient evidence of ownership of the note to warrant the imposition of summary judgment because it introduced only a copy of the note and did not justify its failure to produce the original note. The ease was remanded to the trial court. The Cadle Company v. Johnson, 92-1745 (La.App. 1 Cir.1993), 621 So.2d 217.

| ⅞ Thereafter, a trial was held at which Ca-dle introduced the original promissory note, executed on January 27, 1988, by Bobby and Kim Johnson, payable to First National Bank on demand in the amount of $112,699.73. On May 4, 1989, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) acquired the note and all related documentation as the receiver of First National Bank. In March of 1990, FDIC sold that note to the Cadle .Company II, Inc. (Cadle II) as part of a bulk sale of similar assets. On February 27, 1991, the note was assigned by Cadle II to Cadle.

It is not disputed that defendants never made a payment on the note. At trial, they sought to offer evidence justifying their failure to pay, which was objected to by plaintiff on the basis that federal law precludes defendants from urging the relied upon defenses to the payment of the note. The trial judge allowed the defendants to put on evidence in support of their defenses.

Bobby Johnson testified that the note sued on was a consolidation of two notes secured by him prior to his marriage to Kim Johnson. Mrs. Johnson stated that the bank forced her to sign the note sued on under the threat of calling in Bobby’s notes. Bobby testified that the purpose of the original loan was to secure the purchase of bank stock. According to Bobby, he was told by First National Bank’s vice-president that his business loans would be called unless he agreed to purchase stock in First National Bank. He testified that he agreed to purchase 10,000 shares of stock and borrowed the money from First National Bank to do so. Bobby stated that he never saw the stock, and never received anything of value for the loan.

Defendants also introduced an interoffice memorandum dated August 5, 1987 from Wayne McCants, the Vice-President of First National Bank, to the Bank’s Senior Loan Committee regarding Mr. Johnson. The memo indicated that Johnson purchased 10,-000 shares of stock the previous year. According to Cadle’s record custodian, Arlene Hauser, this memorandum was in the original bank file turned over to Cadle II by the FDIC.

Ms. Hauser testified that there was nothing in the file directly linking the stock purchase and the note sued on. She referenced the memorandum from 14Wayne McCants, and a notation that stock was pledged to secure the original loans as indicating indirectly that the sale of stock was involved in the loan. She noted that there was no stock in the file at the time of the transfer. She also testified that after reviewing the file, she learned that First National Bank had loaned money on some of the stock transactions.

At the conclusion of the trial, the judge found that federal law did not preclude the defenses urged by the Johnsons, and she upheld those defenses, dismissing plaintiffs suit. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

Plaintiff argues that the defendants are precluded from raising defenses to payment of the note under the D’Oench, Duhme estoppel doctrine, which precludes the maker of a note from offering a “secret agreement” as a defense to payment when the note has been acquired by the FDIC. In Albuquerque Federal Savings & Loan Association v. De-ville, 615 So.2d 1002 (La.App. 1st Cir.), unit denied, 617 So.2d 936 (La.1993), the origin of the doctrine and the purposes behind it were explained as follows:

In D’Oench, Duhme & Co. v. Federal Deposit Ins. Corporation, 315 U.S. 447, 62 S.Ct. 676, 86 L.Ed. 956 (1942), the United States Supreme Court held that the maker of a note could not assert as a defense to its enforcement a secret agreement be[186]*186tween the note’s maker and the lending bank when the note had been acquired by the federal insurer. The D’Oench, Duhme decision and its progeny have developed a well known federal common law doctrine immunizing the FDIC and the RTC, as receivers and conservators of defunct financial institutions, from claims and defenses based on agreements not firmly established in the failed financial institution’s official records.... The doctrine bars defenses or claims based on oral or secret agreements between the financial institution and borrower which alter or condition the terms of existing unqualified obligations. It also precludes the enforcement of any defense based on a written agreement that is not found within the bank’s records ... There are two central policy justifications for the D’Oench, Duhme’s bar to oral agreements and collateral writings. The first concern is to ensure that bank examiners may accurately assess the condition of a bank based on its records. A second justification for the rule is that the obligor, who in theory is better able to protect himself by insisting that the collateral terms be put in writing and properly recorded by the bank, should suffer the loss caused by the record omissions, rather than the federal insurer or the bank’s innocent depositors and creditors....
Albuquerque Federal Savings & Loan Association v. Deville, 615 So.2d at 1005-1006 (Citations partially omitted).

_JjjThe protection of the D’Oench, Duhme doctrine has been extended by the federal courts to protect entities to whom the FDIC, acting in its capacity as receiver of failed banks, has transferred assets formerly belonging to a failed bank. First Union National Bank of Florida v. Hall,

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Bluebook (online)
714 So. 2d 183, 1998 La. App. LEXIS 1757, 1998 WL 248006, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cadle-co-v-johnson-lactapp-1998.