Dupuis v. Davis

139 So. 662, 19 La. App. 160, 1932 La. App. LEXIS 247
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 16, 1932
DocketNo. 4228
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 139 So. 662 (Dupuis v. Davis) 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
Dupuis v. Davis, 139 So. 662, 19 La. App. 160, 1932 La. App. LEXIS 247 (La. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

CULPEPPER, J.

This is an action in damages for alleged failure by defendant to deliver movables sold to plaintiff, embracing the value of the articles themselves, and for expenses incurred, worry and vexation, time lost, etc., in an effort to secure delivery, and for attorneys’ fees in prosecuting the suit. From a judgment rejecting his .demands, plaintiff has appealed.

The property involved had belonged to defendant’s father, and upon his death, a short time previous, defendant acquired same at administrator’s sale of her father’s estate. It appears that defendant was not very well informed as to the exact quantity and number of articles which constituted a portion of the property, particularly certain tools, etc., as they had all been kept on the late premises of her father near Lake Long in Avoyelles parish, some eighteen or nineteen miles from Marksville, and a Mr. Henry St. Romain, up until about the time the alleged sale took place, had been taking care of the premises and property to prevent depredations and pilfering; while defendant, whose home was in Oklahoma, had been residing temporarily in Marksville looking after the winding up of her father’s estate.

Plaintiff, having been informed by some one other than defendant, so he testified, that defendant desired to sell some tools and a plane attachment that goes with a gasoline engine, and being specially desirous of such plane attachment for use in dressing lumber, he, in company with Robert Edwards and Perry Rousseau, called on defendant at her rooming house in' Marksville, on Sunday morning, September 20, 1930, with the view of buying the tools and plane attachment, especially the latter named article. Plaintiff testifies defendant told him “she had the tools belonging to the place and wanted $25.00 for the engine, bench saw and all the tools belonging to the place”; and plaintiff then asked if she had a plane, and defendant replied that “she thought she had a tool like that,” and he told her, “That’s what I wanted.” Plaintiff then, according to his testimony, asked, if in case he should go out’ to the place and find what he wanted and bring it home, whether it would be satisfactory for him to [663]*663settle with her afterwards, and she told him she did not know, hut for him to see Mr. Winston Joffrion, her lawyer, and whatever Mr. Joffrion told him about it- would be satisfactory to her. Plaintiff then went immediately to Mr. Joffrion who, plaintiff testifies, assured him it would be all right. Mr. Jof-frion, testifying in this connection, says plaintiff asked him if Mrs. Davis (defendant) “could sell him an engine, bench saw, plane and tools located on the Davis estate at Lake Long,” and that he advised plaintiff that “she could pass a legal title to him and that anything she did would be all right.”

During the afternoon of the day the conversations as above related took place, plaintiff, in company with Robert Edwards, went to the Davis home place, and looked at the property, made a list, according to his and Edward’s testimony, of the various tools he found, and the next morning called on defendant at Marksville, and (quoting) “told her about all the tools I seen and she said it was all right, but I told her she didn’t have no plane like I -wanted and that was a valuable tool, and I would give her $20.00 for the gasoline engine, bench saw and all the tools belonging to the place, which she accepted.”

Robert Edwards, on this point, testified that defendant said (quoting), “All the tools that belonged to Mr. Davis, you can have them” (having reference to such tools as she had acquired at her father’s succession sale). Asked if defendant said she knew the exac-t tools shown on the list were there, Edwards answered, “She remembered a lot of them.” Asked if she said she had made a check, he said, “No.” The list in question is document marked “Plaintiff A-l,” filed in evidence. Edwards testified that defendant did not read the list.

Plaintiff, it appears, gave defendant a •check for $20 in payment of the gasoline engine, the bench saw, and the tools. After signing and delivering the check, plaintiff mentioned that he had noticed some cypress lumber, also some wire, while on his trip to ■see about the tools, etc., and offered defendant, so he testified, $6 for the lumber and wire, and after some hesitancy defendant accepted the offer, and later according to agree-. ment, plaintiff left another cheek to cover this •sum with Mr. Joffrion.

It appears that defendant was on the eve •of returning to her home in Oklahoma at the .time these transactions were had with plaintiff, and due to her hurry and anxiety to go she made the sales hurriedly and without giving much attention to their details, and in ■fact sold the property at quite a sacrifice.

Regarding delivery of the property sold, -plaintiff, according to his testimony, in which he was corroborated by Edwards to a large . extent, asked defendant as soon as the deals -were made, where she would deliver the property, and she told him she could not deliver them because she was leaving right away for Oklahoma and was in a hurry to get away, but said she had a man, Mr. Henry-St. Ro-main, down on the place, who would deliver them to plaintiff, or if he did not do so, to see Mr. Joffrion and he would make the delivery for defendant as her attorney. On cross-examination plaintiff was again asked if defendant agreed to go down to the place and make delivery there, and answered (quoting): “No. She said she was leaving. She says, T got my trunk packed.’ She told me whenever I called for it, Mr. St. Romain would deliver it to me and in case he refused to see you” (Mr. Joffrion) “you would make them do it.” This was during the early morning of Monday, September 21st.

Plaintiff sent his truck immediately from his home in Marksville, by Robert Edwards, to get the property. When he arrived, Mr. St. Romain was not there, and Edwards, after telling Mr. St. Romain’s son, who was there, what .he had come for, the young man refused to let Edwards take any of the tools, because he said his father owned some of the tools on the place and he did not know which ones belonged .to him and which belonged to defendant. Edwards got the gasoline engine, bench saw, and a crosscut saw, and brought them back to plaintiff. Plaintiff reported to Mr. Joffrion what had happened, and the latter, to assist plaintiff, gave him a written order, which reads as follows:

“Please deliver to Mr. Forest .Dupuis all the tools which belonged to the R. F. Davis Succession, as he purchased these from Mrs. Opal Davis Marshbank.

“W. K. Joffrion, Atty.”

This order does not show to have been addressed to any one, Mr. Joffrion testifies plaintiff asked him for some evidence to show he had purchased the tools and lumber, and for that reason the order was given. Mr. Joffrion also testified that plaintiff told him that Mr. Henry Bordelon was the one who had prevented him from taking the tools and lumber.

Plaintiff testifies he sent his truck back Tuesday, the 22d, and his driver returned without the tools and lumber and reported that Mr. Bordelon and Mr. St. Romain refused to deliver them. Asked if he was prevented from 'getting them by Mrs. Davis, plaintiff said he was not. He admitted that Mrs. Davis wanted plaintiff to get them. Again he admits that it was Mr. Bordelon who refused to permit him to remove them, Bordelon claiming that everything belonged to him, and that he had bought everything.

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Related

Dupuis v. Bordelon
161 So. 644 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
139 So. 662, 19 La. App. 160, 1932 La. App. LEXIS 247, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dupuis-v-davis-lactapp-1932.