Foster v. Kaplan Rice Mill, Inc.

13 So. 2d 850, 203 La. 245, 1943 La. LEXIS 970
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 17, 1943
DocketNo. 37085.
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 13 So. 2d 850 (Foster v. Kaplan Rice Mill, Inc.) 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
Foster v. Kaplan Rice Mill, Inc., 13 So. 2d 850, 203 La. 245, 1943 La. LEXIS 970 (La. 1943).

Opinion

ODOM, Justice.

Plaintiff alleged that he was employed as manager of the Kaplan Rice Mill, Inc., in the month of July, 1939, at an annual salary of $6,000, payable monthly, and that he served continuously in that capacity until about April 25, 1941, when he was notified that his services would not be needed after June 30, 1941.

He alleged that his contract of employment was entered into with C. J. Montgomery, Sr., who represented the corporation as president, and who, in addition to-his being president of the corporation, owned approximately 60 per cent of its capital stock.

According to plaintiff’s petition, he was to receive, in addition to his annual salary of $6,000, a percentage of the net profits made by the corporation each year, and he-alleged that for the company’s fiscal year-ending June 30, 1941, it earned a net profit of approximately $125,000, the exact amount of which he did not know, and that,, for the purpose of ascertaining the exact amount earned, the company should produce its books, and that he was entitled to a 10 per cent commission on whatever amount was shown by the books to be the exact amount of the profits earned between June 30, 1940, and June 30, 1941.

He alleged that he had been paid the full amount of his salary up to June 30, 1941, but that the company had refused to pay the commissions.

Plaintiff alleged in Paragraph 12 of his; petition “that in case it is urged and established that C. J. Montgomery, Sr. exceeded' his authority as President of defendant in agreeing to pay, and in subsequently paying, petitioner more than three per cent (3%) of the net profits for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1940 and in employing your petitioner for another year on the same terms; then in such event, he [Montgomery] is *249 liable personally for the full ten per cent of such net profits for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1941. Your petitioner hereby makes said C. J. Montgomery, Sr. a party defendant, and alleges in the alternative that in case it be urged and established that he exceeded his authority as President of defendant, petitioner is entitled to recover judgment against said Montgomery for all, or such portion thereof for which the corporation may be found not liable”.

His prayer is in accordance with the allegations of the petition.

The suit was filed July 14, 1941, and service was made on both the corporation and Montgomery on July 15.

On September 2, 1941, exceptions of vagueness were filed on behalf of both the corporation and Montgomery. On November 17, the exceptions of vagueness were “fixed for trial for this day and taken up, argued and to -be hereafter submitted”. According to an extract of the minutes of date May 25, 1942, the exception of vagueness filed by the defendant Kaplan Rice Mill was maintained by the court, and the plaintiff Foster was ordered “to supply the averments of fact complained of as being wanting, and more particularly the facts upon which he relies to show the authority of C. J. Montgomery, Sr., to represent Kaplan Rice Mill, Inc., in the execution of the contract upon which plaintiff seeks recovery”, and the court further ordered plaintiff to supply such averments of fact "on or before June 8, 1942 and in default to suffer dismissal of his suit; and granting defendant, Kaplan Rice Mill, Inc. ten days, from the filing by plaintiff of his amended and supplemental petition or other pleading showing compliance with the present order, within which to file its answer”.

The minutes of the court copied in the record further recite:

“The exception of vagueness filed by defendant, C. J. Montgomery, Sr., was taken up and tried as per previous assignment and is now submitted in the Parish of Vermilion, and the court, for reasons orally assigned, overruled said exception.”

Up to Saturday, June 13, 1942, plaintiff had not amended his petition as ordered by the court, and on that day counsel for Kaplan Rice Mill, Inc., filed a motion to dismiss plaintiff’s suit as in case of non-suit. On the same day the court signed an order dismissing plaintiff’s suit as in case of non-suit “in so far as the Kaplan Rice Mill, Inc., is concerned”.

On June 16, 1942, within three days after the judgment ordering plaintiff’s suit dismissed as in case of non-suit, plaintiff filed formal motion to set aside the judgment on the ground that plaintiff’s counsel “had no knowledge of any requirement that plaintiff filed an amended petition until receipt of the order dismissing the suit for failure to do so”. Plaintiff prayed that “a rehearing [be] granted, and plaintiff permitted- an opportunity to file an amended petition”.

The trial judge permitted the motion for rehearing to be filed and set the motion down for trial. Evidence was adduced by both the plaintiff and the defendant, and, according to the rqinutes of January 11, 1943, the trial judge, after hearing and *251 •considering all the testimony, “granted a new trial and rehearing to plaintiff”, and .granted to plaintiff “a delay up to and including January 25, 1943, within which to ■comply with the court’s order of May 25, 1942”.

In connection with his ruling granting to plaintiff a new trial, the trial judge, in ■commenting on the merits of the case, said:

“On the merits the evidence clearly ■shows that the attorney for defendant [plaintiff] acted in good faith and that his failure to comply with the order of court '[of date May 25, 1942, ordering plaintiff ■to amend on or before June 8, 1942] within the designated time resulted from a mis- . appreciation of the terms of the order.”

The Kaplan Rice Mill, Inc., appealed suspensively from the order granting to plaintiff a new trial, and in this court plaintiff filed a motion to dismiss the appeal.

The motion to dismiss the appeal must ■prevail. Article 558 of the Code of Practice reads as follows:

“The party who believes himself aggrieved by the judgment given against 'him, may, within three judicial days after ■■such judgment has been rendered, pray for a new trial, which must be granted if there be good ground for the same; provided, that said new trial shall be prayed for and passed before the adjournment of the ■ court.”

Act No. 10 of 1926 provides in Section 1:

“That a party who believes himself aggrieved by a judgment given against him, may, within three judicial days after such judgment has been rendered, pray for a rehearing, which must be granted if there is a good cause for same.”

Section 2 of that act provides: “That the Judges of the District Courts of the State of Louisiana may revise their judgments by granting, a rehearing as herein-above provided”.

The judgment ordering plaintiff’s suit dismissed as in case of non-suit, was rendered and signed on June 13, 1942;. and on June 16, 1942, which was within three judicial days thereafter,' the plaintiff filed a formal motion for a new trial or rehearing. This motion was timely filed, under the Code of Practice and the act above quoted. The language of the Code of Practice and of Section 1 of Act No.

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Bluebook (online)
13 So. 2d 850, 203 La. 245, 1943 La. LEXIS 970, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foster-v-kaplan-rice-mill-inc-la-1943.