Collin v. Gill

216 So. 2d 620, 1968 La. App. LEXIS 4410
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 2, 1968
DocketNo. 3215
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 216 So. 2d 620 (Collin v. Gill) 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
Collin v. Gill, 216 So. 2d 620, 1968 La. App. LEXIS 4410 (La. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

BARNETTE, Judge.

The plaintiff, Ashton P. Collin, brought suit aganist G. Wray Gill seeking payment of the balance alleged to be due on a certain chattel mortgage note in the principal sum of $5,000 with interest and attorney’s fees. The defendant admitted signing the note in question but pleaded alternatively want of consideration, payment, and prescription. There was judgment for plaintiff for $3,300 with interest and attorney’s fees. The exception of prescription was specifically overruled. The defendant has appealed suspensively.

Suit was filed March 5, 1965. The note in question is dated “July 1st, 1959,” payable to “ ‘Myself’ ” and endorsed in blank by the maker, “G. W. Gill Sr.” It is in the principal sum of $5,000 payable in five quarterly installments of $500 each, beginning “October 1st, 1959,” with the “final installment of $2,500.00 due January 1st, 1961,” with interest at 6 percent from “date” until paid. It provides for payment [621]*621of attorney’s fees of 25 percent of principal and interest in the event of suit for collection, and contains the usual acceleration clause at the option of the holder. The note is paraphed for identification with an act of sale ánd chattel mortgage of the same date.

After issue was joined, but before trial below, a stipulation of agreement was signed by attorneys for plaintiff and defendant and approved by the plaintiff. The defendant did not sign the stipulation indicating his approval. The substance of the stipulation was that defendant would pay $3,500 in full settlement within 30 days if plaintiff would agree to withhold further action during that period and then dismiss the suit in the event of payment within the time agreed. In default of payment within 30 days, it was agreed that plaintiff would then have judgment for the full amount of the note, less credits, and defendant would waive all rights to contest the suit or to appeal.

On trial below the plaintiff filed the note in evidence without objection. When plaintiff offered the stipulation, defendant objected on the ground that it was evidence of an attempt to compromise and further that it was never approved by defendant. It was admitted in evidence with defendant’s objection going to its effect. With this the plaintiff rested his case.

After first denying his attorney was given authority to execute the stipulation on his behalf, defendant testified at length about a series of oil and gas lease transactions between himself and the plaintiff to explain how and why the note was given. Much of his testimony was an attempt to alter or contradict by parol testimony the terms of a written instrument, namely, the act of sale and chattel mortgage. No basis for such evidence as an exception to the parol evidence rule was laid and we think it was therefore inadmissible; but this is not material to a decision in this case.

The act of sale and chattel mortgage, with which the note is properly identified, names Ashton P. Collin and Son, a partnership, as the vendor and mortgagee and the defendant, G. W. Gill, Sr., purchaser and mortgagor. It purports to sell and convey title of a certain truck and trailer to Gill for the price of $5,000, for which the note was given, with chattel mortgage on the truck and trailer being given as security for payment. There is nothing unusual about the sale and mortgage and the instrument is in proper form. It was offered in evidence by defendant.

The defendant attempted to show by a lengthy explanation of his oil and gas business relations with plaintiff that no consideration was given for the note, and that the purported sale and chattel mortgage, as well as the note, were executed as an accommodation to the plaintiff. He further testified that the truck and trailer were given in part payment of $7,500 for a mineral interest. While no valuation was specifically placed on the truck and trailer, there was testimony that Collin was supposed to pay $2,500 and the truck and trailer would make up the difference. Apparently this payment was never made and the transfer of mineral interest was never consummated, which defendant testified resulted from the failure of a Mississippi oil venture. This took place between April and July, 1959. The act of sale and chattel mortgage and note were executed on July 1, which, according to defendant, was an accommodation on his part in an effort to help Collin protect the truck from possible seizure by the driller, E. B. Duncan.

Sometime thereafter Duncan took the truck and trailer to Shreveport, Louisiana, in assertion of a claim for payment of an amount alleged to be due him. In June, 1960, the defendant Gill procured the release of the truck and it was returned from Shreveport to New Orleans.

In November, 1960, the truck was sold to T & R Demolishing & Construction Co., Inc., for $1,700. Lawrence Rodriguez, President of T & R, testified that the purchase was made at the office of Mr. Collin’s attorney and that as part payment [622]*622he gave his note for $700. The note dated November 15, 1960, payable to Ashton P. Collin in that amount, was filed in evidence. It is payable at the rate of $200 per month beginning December 15 and signed “T & R Demolishing & Const. Co. Inc, Lawrence Rodriguez, President.” It is endorsed “Lawrence Rodriguez” and “G. W. Gill.” A notation on the back of the note dated December 19, 1960, shows payment of $500 “leaving a balance of $200” and signed “Ashton Collin.” The truck was later sold by T & R. The assignment of title, filed in evidence, purports to be signed by T & R Demolishing & Construction Co. by Lawrence Rodriguez, President, and “George W. Gill.”

The defendant contends that with the sale of the truck to T & R the $5,000 note and the mortgage were cancelled, but the note was not returned to him. In support of this contention defendant filed in evidence an undated statement addressed to him on a printed statement form of Ashton P. Collin & Son. The statement shows the $5,000 note followed by notations of dates and amounts of payments totaling $1,700 from February 18, 1960, to February 25, 1961. Among the items of credit shown is a check for $200 dated July 15, 1960, returned marked “NSF,” but later made good by payment on August 2, 1960. The defendant acknowledges the check and it is filed in evidence.

From these facts there is only one conclusion which we can reach; that is, when the sale of the truck was made to T & R, Collin was to receive the payment therefor in consideration for release and cancellation of the chattel mortgage which he held as security for Gill’s note. There is no other explanation for Gill’s endorsement of T & R’s note and the purchase payments being made to Collin.

The defendant argues that the above statement must be construed as a final and complete discharge of the alleged note because it ends with the word “Balance” followed by no further figure. Counsel interprets this to mean that no balance is due. We do not agree. We might just as reasonably speculate that Collin did not take the trouble to compute the exact balance because of the difficulty in computing the interest on the changing balances from the respective dates of payment.

The credits amounting to $1,700, as shown by the statement filed in evidence by defendant, are more than alleged by plaintiff. However, plaintiff’s counsel in brief filed in this court makes no issue on this point and accepts defendant’s figure of $1,700 credit and asks for affirmance of the judgment for $3,300 plus interest and attorney’s fees.

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361 So. 2d 463 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1978)
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Bluebook (online)
216 So. 2d 620, 1968 La. App. LEXIS 4410, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/collin-v-gill-lactapp-1968.