Cowley Corp. v. Shreveport Packing Co.

440 So. 2d 1345, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 9466
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 24, 1983
Docket15598-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 440 So. 2d 1345 (Cowley Corp. v. Shreveport Packing Co.) 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
Cowley Corp. v. Shreveport Packing Co., 440 So. 2d 1345, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 9466 (La. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

440 So.2d 1345 (1983)

The COWLEY CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
SHREVEPORT PACKING COMPANY, INC. OF KANSAS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 15598-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

October 24, 1983.
Rehearing Denied November 10, 1983.
Writ Denied January 16, 1984.

*1347 William M. Comegys, III, Shreveport, for plaintiff-appellee.

Nelson & Achee by James S. Denhollem and Harry R. Nelson, Shreveport, for defendant-appellant.

Before HALL, FRED W. JONES, Jr., and NORRIS, JJ.

NORRIS, Judge.

In this suit on a promissory note, Shreveport Packing Company, Inc., of Kansas ("Shreveport Packing") suspensively appeals a judgment awarding the Cowley Corporation ("Cowley") $42,487.49 as the principal balance due, with interest, attorneys' fees and costs. Cowley has answered the appeal requesting that the amount of the judgment be increased to the original amount sued for. We affirm.

By authentic act dated May 31, 1971, Shreveport Packing Corporation conveyed to Shreveport Packing Company, Inc. of Kansas, certain property which it had previously operated as a "packing house". The sale was for $650,000 represented by one promissory note of even date with the Act of Sale made payable to "BEARER" at the *1348 principal banking house of the First National Bank of Shreveport, bearing interest at 8% per annum upon unpaid principal and payable in 120 successive monthly installments of $7,886.45 with each payment to be applied first to interest and then to principal with the payments commencing July 15, 1971 and being due on the same calendar day of each successive month thereafter until fully paid. This note was secured by a vendor's lien and mortgage on the conveyed property.

Cowley Corporation became the holder and owner of this note. Immediately after the execution of the documents pertaining to the sale, the note was placed with First National Bank of Shreveport for collection. Relying solely on the provisions of the "date note", the bank applied the initial ten payments by computing interest on the amount due on the principal balance of the note according to the number of days that had elapsed from the date of the previous payment. The figure which resulted was paid as interest then the remaining portion of the payment was applied to principal.

In May, 1972, either Richard Rock, president of Shreveport Packing or Gilbert Shanley, a partner in the accounting firm of Heard, McElroy and Vestal, accountants for all parties at the time, furnished an amortization schedule to the bank. The bank then contacted Les Cowley, who was president of Cowley at the time about utilizing the amortization schedule to allocate payments to interest and principal. Upon being informed that the terms of the schedule (the number of payments, the rate of interest, the amount of the payments, and the initial principal amount due) were identical to the terms of the note, Mr. Cowley informed the bank that he would agree to the bank's using the amortization schedule as a convenient guide for allocating interest and principal, thereby dispensing with the monthly necessity of computing interest due and principal. It is noteworthy that at this point no payments had been missed with the exception of the first payment which by agreement had been delayed 14 days. All other payments had been made within a few days of the due date. In confirmation of these instructions, J. Hugh Watson, the president of First National Bank, wrote a letter to Mr. Cowley which stated in part:

As you know, when we received the first ten payments of $7,886.45 each from Shreveport Packing Company, Inc., we deducted interest first and applied the balance to principal. Now that we have an amortization schedule, which you have approved, we have reallocated the application of the payments.
We had credited the first ten payments as follows:
Interest                        $ 45,155.83
Principal                         33,708.67
Unpaid principal balance after
  April, 1972 payment            616,291.33
The amortization schedule reflects that the allocation of these ten payments should have been:

Interest                        $ 42,248.23
Principal                         36,616.27
Principal balance                613,383.73
The May payment has been applied in accordance with the amortization schedule, leaving unpaid principal of $609,586.50 which is the amount reflected by the enclosed copy of our credit to your account.

The basic difference in the bank's computation and the computation per the amortization schedule at this point resulted from the first payment reflected on the note being due 45 days rather than 30 days from the date of the note and the fact that this payment was not actually made until July 29, 1971, some 14 days after it was actually due. Additionally, several of the first ten payments were either made or credited a day or two late. The bank's date note method of computation had taken into account these late payments in computing interest due whereas the amortization schedule presumes that all payments are made timely.

Subsequent to this turn of events, Mr. Cowley consented to extensions of time for *1349 payment of the following installments: August 15, 1972; November 15, 1972; December 15, 1972; December 15, 1973; November 15, 1974; December 15, 1974 and June 15, 1974. Between the date on which the note was executed and the date of the final payment actually made by Shreveport Packing in June, 1981, the following payments were made to "catch up" the missed payments: September 12, 1977 (2 extra payments); November 15, 1979 (1 extra payment); January 8, 1980 (1 extra payment); March 12, 1980 (1 extra payment); July 11, 1980 (1 extra payment); November 13, 1980 (1 extra payment).

From May, 1972 until December, 1979 the bank continued to allocate interest and principal as per the amortization schedule. Tax returns on behalf of both parties were filed based on allocations of interest furnished by the bank. In December, 1979, Cowley instructed the bank to correct its books to reflect balances derived from the allocation of interest and principal according to the strict terms of the note and to allocate any further payments in the same fashion. This resulted in a principal balance of $206,807.78 as of December 12, 1979, which differed from the principal balance reflected by the bank in November, 1979 of $167,625.17 based on the amortization schedule. Cowley then reported the additional interest income on its May, 1980 tax return resulting in an increased tax of $12,000.

By check dated June 8, 1981, Shreveport Packing forwarded $7,857.81 as the 120th installment. This was the amount provided for the 120th payment on the amortization schedule rather than the amount provided for in the note. On the check was the following notation: "Cowley payment # 120—final payment on $650,000 loan according to amortization schedule." The bank received and deposited this check to the Cowley account, apparently without informing Cowley of the notation on the check.

Shortly thereafter, Cowley again informed Shreveport Packing that a principal balance remained due on the note. Shreveport Packing disputed this, the parties attempted to negotiate their differences to no avail, and this suit was filed on August 21, 1981. At trial, Cowley contended that because the note was a "date note" and certain payments were not made timely, that there was an unpaid principal balance of $48,790.85 as of June 15, 1981.

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Bluebook (online)
440 So. 2d 1345, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 9466, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cowley-corp-v-shreveport-packing-co-lactapp-1983.