Fallin v. J. J. Stovall & Sons, Ltd.

74 So. 911, 141 La. 220, 1916 La. LEXIS 1891
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJune 30, 1916
DocketNo. 21799
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 74 So. 911 (Fallin v. J. J. Stovall & Sons, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fallin v. J. J. Stovall & Sons, Ltd., 74 So. 911, 141 La. 220, 1916 La. LEXIS 1891 (La. 1916).

Opinions

Statement of the Case.

MONROE, C. J.

Defendant, having obtained judgment against plaintiff, caused execution to issue, by virtue whereof the sheriff seized, as the property of plaintiff, and on his premises, one mule, 700 pounds of seed cotton, and seven acres of peanuts hanging by the roots, also, on the premises of plaintiff’s father, one bale of lint cotton. Plaintiff thereupon filed a sworn petition alleging that the property seized which he specified belonged to him, and that the mule and peanuts were not subject to seizure, and praying that the sheriff be enjoined from further proceeding in the matter of their seizure, and he obtained the injunction as prayed for. His father at the same time filed a petition of intervention, setting up title to the seed and lint cotton, alleging that he had bought it from his son, and had credited $79.88 as the price upon his son’s indebtedness to him, amounting to $126. In the alternative he alleged that, should it be held that he is not the owner of the cotton, he is entitled to a lien and privilege on it to secure the sum of $75 which he advanced for the purchase of provisions and supplies used in the making of the cotton and other crop seized, and which were furnished with the understanding that the money was to be reimbursed from said crops. The petition, like that of plaintiff, was verified by the affidavit of the petitioner, and an order was made thereon for the separate appraisement of the property described, etc. Some two weeks later plaintiff filed a supplemental petition making the sheriff a party defendant, and praying for judgment against him in solido with the original defendant. Defendant then answered, putting the petitions at issue, and the case was tried, with the result that there was judgment for plaintiff perpetuating the injunction, ordering that the mule and peanuts be returned to plaintiff, and condemning Stovall & Sons to pay to plaintiff $25 as attorney’s fees. What disposition was made of the intervention or of the cotton therein claimed does not appear. Defendant (Stovall & Sons) took the appeal, and several months after it had been lodged in this court plaintiff filed an answer, praying that the award in his favor be increased by an allowance of $53 for loss of the serv[223]*223ice of the mule. Defendant has moved that the prayer be not considered, on the ground that plaintiff was granted a devolutive appeal, which he abandoned, and cannot now be heard asking for an amendment of the judgment.

The immediate questions to be here decided concern the peanuts, but the decision of those questions involves a consideration of most of the facts developed on the trial, which facts we find to be as follows:

At the time of the seizure defendant was married, had a dependent family, and did not own property to the value of $2,000. He was farming upon a tract of land containing 120 acres, for which, according to his oral testimony, he had five years before agreed to pay $750, in annual installments, but had paid only $150, and, as we infer, was considerably in default with respect to such payments. He also testified that he had received a bond for title, and upon the request of defendant’s counsel stated that (with the consent of his own counsel) he would produce it, which he never did. The judgment under which the seizure was made was rendered in March, 1915, and had been anticipated for some time, and the seizure was made in October. Plaintiff appears to have had some misgivings from the time of the institution of the suit lest, under the judgment when obtained, two mules and a cow owned by him should be seized, and, probably in February, he attempted to negotiate an arrangement with Leslie Caskey, a young neighbor, the purpose of which was to place Caskey in the position of an apparent vendee of those animals, and thus to screen them from the pursuit of the defendant. Caskey appears to have declined to take care of both mules, but there were transactions about one of them and the cow concerning which, as the parties subsequently disagreed, there is a conflict in their testimony. The purpose of those transactions is, however, made entirely clear by the testimony of plaintiff.

Thus, after having made a good many statements which were irreconcilable with each other, he was asked what his idea was in returning to Caskey immediately $20 which he had received as the price of the cow, and his reply was:

“Simply because this man [referring to Caskey’s father, who was a party to the negotiations] came to me, simply because I didn’t know anything about the law, and he claimed they [referring to the defendant herein] would -get my stuff, and they overpersuaded me because I didn’t know what to do.”

He subsequently concluded, and was probably advised, that his mules and cow were exempt from seizure, and towards the conclusion of his testimony, in reply to questions propounded by his own counsel, he said that he realized that they were exempt, and that “it wouldn’t be necessary to sham them off” to protect himself. The other mule was sent to his father’s place, but, as at the time of the trial plaintiff had become satisfied that it was exempt, he frankly admitted that he still owned it. He alleged in his petition that the sheriff had “seized the following property belonging to your petitioner: One bale of cotton, marked B. F. F. No. 22; * * *

700 pounds of seed cotton, more or less.” And he made affidavit that he had “read and considered” the petition, and that the allegations of fact therein contained were true; but, when called as a witness, he testified that he had sold the cotton to his father some two or three weeks before the seizure, as it lay, in the seed, on his premises; that there were 1,997 pounds of it; that a week later, at the request of his father, he hauled, say, 1,297 pounds of it to a public gin (leaving the remaining 700 pounds on his place) and directed that it be ginned and baled for account of his father; that upon the same day, after it had been ginned and baled, he hauled the bale of lint cotton, which was marked with his initials, to his father’s premises (where it was seized), and there delivered it, hut that he then realized that [225]*225lie needed the seed to feed Ms cow with, so he bought it back, for about $8, which he paid in cash, and took it home with him. He accounts for the fact that the man in charge of the gin marked the bale with his initials, instead of his father’s, by saying that it must have been a mistake, and he was corroborated in that by the man himself, who was Ms brother-in-law, and who in the two years that he worked at the gin had made but one other such mistake. It soon developed that plaintiff did not know the difference between selling and giving in payment, and that, what he meant to say was that he had given the cotton to his father in payment, or part payment, of a debt of $126 that he owed him, which debt is said to have originated as follows, to wit: His father paid $35 for him as the balance of the price of a wagon that he bought in 1914, and settled a debt of $65, which he had contracted to Caskey for money received, either as a loan (according to plaintiff’s testimony) or as the nominal price of the mule to which we have referred (according to Caskey’s testimony), and the balance of $26 represented money loaned to him by his father during the year 1915.

Charles F. Fallin, the father, alleges in his intervention, and swears to the truth of his allegations, as follows:

“That he is the owner of one bale of cotton marked B. F. F. No.

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Bluebook (online)
74 So. 911, 141 La. 220, 1916 La. LEXIS 1891, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fallin-v-j-j-stovall-sons-ltd-la-1916.