Ellermann v. Matthew

165 So. 2d 850, 1964 La. App. LEXIS 1807
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 1, 1964
DocketNo. 1288
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 165 So. 2d 850 (Ellermann v. Matthew) 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
Ellermann v. Matthew, 165 So. 2d 850, 1964 La. App. LEXIS 1807 (La. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

SAMUEL, Judge.

This is a suit by which plaintiff seeks: (1) to be decreed the sole owner of certain immovable property in Hessmer Farms Subdivision in the Parish of Jefferson, and (2) an accounting from the defendants. The two defendants, Millard E. Matthew and Metairie Realty, Inc., respectively a real estate agent and a corporation of which Matthew was president, answered and re[852]*852convened praying for the rejection of plaintiff’s demands, alleging ownership of the property in Matthew and seeking to have him recognized as owner, and further seeking erasure and cancellation of a counter letter registered and recorded by the plaintiff, an accounting, damages and other incidental relief. Defendants also moved for judgment on the pleadings.

A petition of intervention was filed by Arthur P. Lacour who had entered into a contract with Matthew to purchase a lot in the subdivision. The contract provided that the act of sale was to be passed when 50% of the purchase price had been paid. The petition of intervention alleges, and the original parties in this suit concede, that more than the required 50% was paid and title was never transferred. Intervenor seeks a judgment in solido against all three litigants for the full amount paid by him under the contract.

Plaintiff acquired the property on November 16, 1956 for $16,000, consisting of $4,500 cash and a mortgage note for $11,-500. On November 2, 1957 he sold the property to Matthew for the sum of $46,800, represented by three promissory notes in the total amount of $35,300 and the assumption by Matthew of the existing $11,500 mortgage. A counter letter, also dated November 2, 1957 and in the usual form except that this counter letter was by authentic act, was executed by Matthew in favor of plaintiff. It recited that no consideration had passed in the act of sale between them and that plaintiff remained the sole and true owner of the property. The notary retained the original act of counter letter and copies thereof were given to plaintiff and Matthew.

On the same day, November 2, 1957, plaintiff and Metairie Realty entered into a contract by which the latter became the sole selling agent for Hessmer Farms and the property was to be subdivided at plaintiff’s expense and sold for a minimum of $2,000 per lot. This contract guaranteed plaintiff $1,800 of the sales price of each lot and the corporation was to receive $200 commission per lot plus any sum over $2,000 in the event lots were sold for more than that amount. By special provision thereof the contract was valid only for one year from its date. Subsequently the property was subdivided and the subdivision approved by the Jefferson Parish Council. Metairie Realty sold, or contracted to sell, various lots and collected payments thereon.

In order to expedite sales, and in an alleged effort to comply with the laws of Louisiana relative to bond for deed transactions, plaintiff and Matthew then entered into a written but undated agreement by which four things were contemplated: (1) cancellation of the prior mortgage between them and execution of a new mortgage on 19 lots only; (2) release from mortgage by plaintiff of five certain lots in exchange for Matthew’s personal note in the amount of $9,000; (3) payment to plaintiff of $3,600 in cash for two lots which had been sold for cash; and (4) provision for compensation to Metairie Realty on interest due.

In furtherance of this agreement plaintiff obtained a release of the $11,500 mortgage by substituting other collateral therefor. The November 2, 1957 mortgage by Matthew in favor of plaintiff was cancelled. On October 1, 1958 Matthew executed a new mortgage in the amount of $34,200 on 19 lots in favor of plaintiff, gave plaintiff his personal note in the sum of $9,000, and paid plaintiff $3,600 in cash. The five lots were released from mortgage as agreed.

Thereafter one or both of the defendants collected payments on sales, deducted a $200 commission and 75% of each sale in excess of $2,000 per lot, and made semimonthly returns to plaintiff. Matthew did not make a timely second return during the month of April, 1961 and plaintiff unsuccessfully demanded the return and an accounting. The parties disagreed and Matthew took the position that he was the owner of the property. Plaintiff then filed his counter letter and this suit.

[853]*853Subsequently, as previously anticipated by both plaintiff and Matthew and after the latter had devoted considerable time thereto, a portion of the property was expropriated by the state for highway purposes. The sum of $16,600, the consideration for such expropriation, was deposited in the district court registry where it is being held subject to final judgment herein.

The trial court denied and dismissed defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings. On the merits it rendered judgment in favor of Lacour, the intervenor, and against plaintiff and defendants, in solido, as prayed. It also decreed plaintiff to be the owner of the property and ordered: (1) cancellation of the $34,200 mortgage granted by Matthew in favor of plaintiff on October 1, 1958; (2) an accounting by the two defendants to the plaintiff of all funds received by them from purchases of the property; (3) payment by the defendants to plaintiff of all sums to which he was entitled under the judgment, allowing to defendants a credit of $21,207.06, being the amount stipulated by the parties as previously paid to the plaintiff; (4) that the commissions due to the defendants, or either of them, be computed at $200 on each lot sold or expropriated and 75% of the sales price in excess of $2,000; Tand made other detailed adjudications concerning which no complaint is made in this court. The re-conventional demand was dismissed. The two original defendants have appealed and plaintiff has answered the appeal.

In this court defendants contend that their motion for judgment on the pleadings should have been granted. While it is true that under the provisions of LSA-C.C. P. Art. 96 an appeal does not lie from the trial court’s refusal to render any judgment on the pleadings, we have considered defendants’ complaint under Comment (d) of Article 968 which states that the trial court’s action in overruling a motion for judgment on the pleadings may be considered under the appeal from the final judgment in the case, and we do not agree with the contention. The motion was based solely on plaintiff’s answer to a particular interrogatory in which he stated the counter letter was not prepared at the same time as it was dated, November 2, 1957, which was the date on which the first mortgage was passed between the litigants. The matter is before us now on the merits and we agree with the trial court’s conclusion that the counter letter was executed sometime between November 2, 1957 and October 1, 1958, the exact date being uncertain, and that the exact date is of no real consequence.

Defendants also contend that the trial court judgment on the merits is erroneous: (1) in decreeing plaintiff to be the owner of the property; (2) in holding that plaintiff was entitled to $1,800 on each lot sold plus 25% of the sale price of each lot in excess of $2,000; (3) in holding the defendants liable to the intervenor; and (4) in denying damages under the reconventional demand.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Gentry v. Biddle
916 So. 2d 347 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2005)
Bruno v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co.
337 So. 2d 241 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1976)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 So. 2d 850, 1964 La. App. LEXIS 1807, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ellermann-v-matthew-lactapp-1964.