Diamond Paper Co. v. Penrite Creamery

142 So. 344
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 8, 1932
DocketNo. 980.
StatusPublished

This text of 142 So. 344 (Diamond Paper Co. v. Penrite Creamery) 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
Diamond Paper Co. v. Penrite Creamery, 142 So. 344 (La. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

LE BLANC, J.

On November 19, 1930, Diamond Paper Company obtained a judgment in the city court of Hammond, on an open account, in the sum of $114.23, against S. C. Pendarvis, trading as Penrite Creamery.

On December 22, 1930, the judgment having become final and executory, the judgment creditor had Dr. R. E. Warren cited as garnishee to declare under oath whether he had in his hands or under his control, directly or indirectly, any money, rights, credits, or other property whatsoever, belonging to the defendant, or in which he had or has any interest for the whole or in part.

In answer to the interrogatories propounded to him, Dr. AVarren declared that at the time they were served on him, he had the following property in his hands or under his control:

1. A cheek for $3.90 payable to the order of Penrite Creamery Company, dated Decemr ber 5, 1930, signed by Thomas S. Ellis, drawn on the Merchants’ & Farmers’ Bank & Trust Company, Ponchatoula, La.,',which was placed in his possession by error and in which he disclaims any interest.

2. The sum of $15.60 in currency which was left at his office by Dr. V. S. Gautreau or some one representing him through error, and-in which he also disclaims any interest.

These two items he says he was on the verge of returning to those who had left them with him, when the interrogatories were-served on him.

3. One full barrel of cleaning powder known under the trade-name of “Wyandotte.” Also three cartons cream-cheese containers and-three route books.

4. Thirty-six ten-gallon milk cans and about thirty-five milk bottles which had been heretofore seized by the sheriff of the parish-in the suit of the Citizens’ National Bank of Hammond against S. C. Pendarvis, and for all of which property, he (Dr. Warren) had-been appointed sheriff’s keeper.

On January 14, 1930, plaintiff, through its-counsel, filed a motion in which it is alleged that movers believe that the answers made-by the garnishee are evasive and incomplete and that there is good reason to believe that Dr. AVarren has property or effects in his possession or under his control belonging to the defendant, other than as shown by his answers. The motion contains a prayer to the effect that the garnishee be ruled into court to show cause, on a day stated, why judgment should not be rendered against him for the full amount claimed by plaintiff under its judgment against the defendant S. O. Pendarvis. To this motion, the garnishee filed an exception on the ground, as is therein stated, that the same “does not set forth any allegations which the defendant can answer, such allegations being required in proceedings of this nature.” The exception-which was overruled in the lower court is now urged before us.

Counsel’s contention is that the garnishment herein has tendered an issue which really should be made the subject of a suit. That issue is one involving the sale of the business: known as Penrite Creamery from S. C. Pen-darvis, defendant herein, to Dr. AVarren, the garnishee. The garnishment is not clothed-. *345 with the formalities of such a proceeding, it is claimed, until the answers of the garnishee have been traversed in such manner as to disclose a cause of action against the garnishee as fully as the defendant himself would have had to do had he brought suit in his own name directly against him. That contention seems to find support in a decision of the Supreme Court in the case of National Park Bank v. Concordia Land & Timber Company, 159 La. 86, 105 So. 231. In the present •case, however, the garnishee did not plead that the traverse of his answers under the motion filed by plaintiff did not disclose a ■cause of action, ivhieh was the plea he should have made under the ruling in the authority •cited, as it impresses us, but his exception merely set forth that the motion did not set forth any allegations which he could answer, “such allegations be required in a proceeding of this nature.” As worded, the exception seems to be one of vagueness rather than of no cause of action, and so it seems to have •been considered by counsel for the garnishee himself at the time he filed it, as is shown by the minutes of court of the day on which that was done. There seems to have been no reservation made to the ruling of the court which overruled it, and besides, there was no objection to the testimony tending to show the sale of the creamery from Pendarvis to Dr. Warren and the failure of the latter to have paid the purchase price. Indeed, as the note of evidence reveals, the garnishee joined issue on this, the sole question involved, so we consider it proper now to let the ruling of the lower court stand on the exception, and dispose of the case on the merits.

Counsel for plaintiff disclaims any intention on the part of his client of trying to hold the garnishee under the provisions of the Bulk Sales Law in this state (Act No. 270 of 1926), the only claim being that he should recover under the garnishment, the funds' seized in Dr. Warren’s hands that are due Pendarvis on the purchase price of the business which the latter sold him. As against such claim, Dr. Warren contends that he cannot be held as the alleged sale was never consummated, either by a complete meeting of the minds between them respecting the price, or by delivery of all the articles said to have been sold. This naturally brings for review before us the finding of facts made by the lower court which was in favor of the plaintiff, judgment having been rendered in its favor, and from which Dr. Warren has appealed.

Plaintiff, having tendered such issue, assumed the burden of proving the sale that is said to have taken place.

In reciting what transpired at the time of the purported sale by him to Dr. Warren, Pendarvis says that “the entire transaction was scattered.” We are not sure that we quite understand what he had in mind in using that term, but a consideration of all the testimony on the subject leáds us to remark that it is fairly expressive of what took .place, in that there does not at any time seem to have been a positive and definite agreement between them. According to him, it appears that negotiations began on a Saturday morning and lasted pretty much throughout the day. At that time, the sale was to be made on an inventory of all the property and at the list price of each article, and a chattel mortgage note held by the Citizens’ National Bank would be assumed by the purchaser. Pendarvis himself admits, however, that on Saturday they never did agree about the price and never- came to a definite settlement. They resumed negotiations on Sunday morning, when, according to him. Dr. Warren offered him a lump sum of $150, which he refused. It was then, he said, that the question of “good will,” for which Dr. Warren had on the previous day said he would pay the sum of $100, came up again, and he agreed then to make the price $250. According to his testimony, then the price was definitely agreed upon at $250 and the assumption of the chattel mortgage note, and' Dr. Warren was to call for and be delivered the property on the following day.

Dr. Warren does not dispute the fact that he was after buying Mr. Pendarvis’ business, especially after having learned that the latter had to sell. He states positively that the consideration he agreed to was the assumption of the mortgage note and the payment of $150 in cash, and that the “good will” was left out of it..

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Related

Calhoun v. Star Ins. Co. of America
105 So. 231 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1925)
National Park Bank v. Concordia Land & Timber Co.
105 So. 234 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1925)

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Bluebook (online)
142 So. 344, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/diamond-paper-co-v-penrite-creamery-lactapp-1932.