General Motors Acceptance Corporation v. Sneed

119 So. 417, 167 La. 432, 1928 La. LEXIS 2078
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 26, 1928
DocketNo. 29478.
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 119 So. 417 (General Motors Acceptance Corporation v. Sneed) 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
General Motors Acceptance Corporation v. Sneed, 119 So. 417, 167 La. 432, 1928 La. LEXIS 2078 (La. 1928).

Opinions

BRUNOT, J.

Nine suits were filed by the plaintiff in the district court of Webster parish, La., against various defendants, for different amounts. The cause of action and the pleadings in each suit are the same, and, except as above noted, the suits! are identical in all respects.

These suits were consolidated in the district court and tried together, hut, for some reason which is not disclosed by the r'ecord, two judgments were rendered, one in the Kelly Sneed Case and another in the cases of the eight other defendants. From these two judgments plaintiff took an appeal to the Court of Appeal, Second Circuit. That court heard the cases as one, and rendered its judgment accordingly. After a rehearing was refused by that court, this court, on the application of the plaintiff, ordered the record sent up for review. Shortly after this order was complied with, J. L. Longino, one of the appellees, through counsel, filed the following motion herein:

“The attorneys of J. L. Longino, respondent, with respect move and pray that the application for writ, of certiorari to have this case reviewed in this court, should be denied, and the order granted therefor revoked, as i+ in effect gives the appellant two appeals in the same case where only questions of fact are involved.”

There is coupled with said motion an answer to the appeal, in the alternative, in which respondent prays that the damages awarded to him by the lower court be in[435]*435creased to the full amount claimed in his pleadings, as plaintiff in reconvention.

Plaintiff is a nonresident corporation, authorized to do business in this state. It is engaged in the purchase of promissory notes secured by chattel mortgage on automobiles. The defendants purchased automobiles from the Reagan Motor Company, of Minden, La., a commercial partnership composed of J. L. Longino and T. T. Reagan. The cars were sold by this company for a small cash payment and notes, secured by chattel mortgage on them, were given to represent the balance of the purchase price. These notes were unconditionally indorsed by the Reagan Motor Company, and were transferred to the plaintiff. Plaintiff foreclosed on nine series of ■the notes secured by chattel mortgages. In its pleadings it asserts the vendor’s lien upon the mortgaged property; it makes the Reagan Motor Company and the individual members thereof parties defendant; it prays for a sequestration of the mortgaged automobiles ; for an attachment commanding the sheriffs of Webster, Natchitoches, and Bossier parishes to seize and take into their possession the property rights and credits of J. L. Longino, within their respective jurisdictions, sufficient to satisfy its claim, interest, cost, and attorney’s fees; and that the First National Bank, of Minden, be made garnishee. Finally, the prayer in each suit is for judgment against the mortgagor and against the Reagan Motor Company, and J. L. Longino and J. T. Reagan, individually and in solido, for the full amount claimed in the petition, with recognition of plaintiff’s vendor’s lien upon the property sequestered; for judgment maintaining the attachment, recognizing plaintiff’s lien and privilege resulting from the attachment and garnishment ; and ordering the sale of said property and the payment of the proceeds thereof to plaintiff by preference and priority over other creditors. There is a supplemental petition reciting that the Reagan Motor Company transferred all of its property and assets to the Waller Motor Company, of Minden, for a cash consideration, and praying for service thereof.

J. L. Longino moved to dismiss the writs of sequestration and attachment sued out by plaintiff for several reasons, viz. that the writs were premature; that the amounts for which the writs issued are not certain and definitely fixed; that the allegations of the petition are not sufficient basis for the issuance of the writs and the amount of the attachment bond is insufficient; that the allegations with reference to the necessity for the writs are untrue; and that plaintiff was in possession of the mortgaged property prior to and at the time the suit was filed. This defendant then, in reconvention, sets up claims for damages aggregating the sum of $50,000, for which he prays for judgment with legal interest thereon from March 5, 1927; for the dissolution of the writs of sequestration and attachment; and for fifteen hundred dollars as attorney’s fees for dissolving the writs. The cases were heard on these issues. The district judge, ad hoc, in the Kelly Sneed Case, rendered the following judgment:

“For the reasons assigned, it is ordered; adjudged and decreed that there be judgment in favor of J. L. Longino, plaintiff in motion, and against the General Motors Acceptance Corporation, defendant in motion, dissolving the writ of attachment herein sued out, at the cost of General Motors Acceptance Corporation, defendant in motion.

“It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed that there be judgment in favor of J. L. Longino, plaintiff in reconvention, and against the General Motors Acceptance Corporation, defendant in reconvention, in the full sum of One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars, with legal interest thereon from judicial demand until paid.” .

[437]*437The judgment in the other eight consolidated cases merely increases the allowance for attorney’s fees $250, and specifically maintains the writ of sequestration at the cost of J. L. Longino.

On appeal, the Court of Appeal only increased the allowance for attorney’s fees and dissolved the writ of sequestration quoad the defendant J. L. Longino.

While this latter ruling is correct, it is erroneously based upon the theory that the property sought to be sequestered was in the possession of the plaintiff at the time the writ of sequestration issued. We do not think the record warrants this conclusion. When the writ issued, the automobiles were in the physical possession of the purchasers of them, and beyond the control of J. L. Longino or the Reagan Motor Company. This, in our judgment, is an unanswerable reason in support of the correctness of the conclusion reached by the Court of Appeal. As to the increase of the allowance for attorneys fees, we think the judgment of the district court fairly fixes the value of those fees, and that judgment should be amended only to the extent that the writ of sequestration should be dissolved quoad J. L. Longino, alone, at plaintiff’s cost, and in all other respects it should be affirmed.

Mr. Coleman Lindsey, the judge ad hoe in this case, has written' such a carefully prepared and exhaustive opinion that we take the liberty of incorporating herein his reasons for dissolving the attachment and awarding damages for its wrongful issuance:

“On Motion to Dissolve the Writ of Attachment.

“Plaintiff alleges in its ox-iginal petition that J. L. Longino has mortgaged, assigned or disposed of, or is about to mortgage, assign or dispose of his property, x-ights and credits, or some part thereof, with intent to defraud your petitioner or give an unfair preference to some of his creditors, and that he has converted or is about to convert his property into money or other evidences of debt, with intent to place it beyond the reach of your petitioner and some of his other creditors.”

“Based upon these allegations, plaintiff prayed for and obtained a writ of attachment directing the seizure of the property of Longino in the parishes of Webster, Bossier and Natchitoches. Under this writ considerable, property was seized. In fact, it appears that all' of the property of Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
119 So. 417, 167 La. 432, 1928 La. LEXIS 2078, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/general-motors-acceptance-corporation-v-sneed-la-1928.