Gladney v. Trahan

63 So. 2d 615, 222 La. 721, 1953 La. LEXIS 1207
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided February 16, 1953·No. No. 40697·Published

Opinions

MÓISE, Justice.

Pearl- Riley Hogan died intestate during the early part of 1941. ’ -Her...succession wás [723] opened by Frank W. Gladney, her Attorney. The petition alleges that Edward Riley, her father, and Emmett C. Riley, a brother, were her sole heirs; that her succession was solvent, and that there was no need of an administration. There was judgment putting the heirs in possession of the property left by the decedent. Edward Riley, the decedent’s father, died on August 14, 1941. Emmett was then the sole heir of the two ■ successions. Emmett died in May 1942. Frank W. Gladney, Attorney and Accountant, and his wife, Mrs. Sara Gary Gladney, had in their possession and control the funds of the three successions.

In 1944, the administrator, Joseph Sidney Trahan, brought suit against both Mr. and Mrs. Gladney for an accounting. Mrs. Gladney reconvened, praying for judgment in the sum of $4,900, with interest, on two notes which she alleged were due to her by the succession. On July 27, 1948, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff administrator in the amount of $2,-025.46, with interest, against Frank Gladney, and in the amount of $6,342.10, with interest, against Mrs. Gladney. The reconventional demand was dismissed on the ground that Mrs. Gladney's claim was not proper in a suit for an accounting, and that •she had not presented-sufficient evidence to support her ownership of the notes. Her rights were reserved. On appeal, we affirmed this judgment. 217 La. 456, 46 So. 2d 734. The judgment against Mr. Gladney has been satisfied.

The basis of plaintiff’s demand in the instant suit is the two above-mentioned mortgage notes — one for $2,400 dated April 3, 1939, with 8% interest and 10% attorney’s fees, the other, $2,500, dated March 25, 1941, with 8% interest and 15% attorney’s fees. The first note is signed by Mrs. Pearl Riley Hogan, and the -second, by Edward Riley and Emmett Riley. The makers are now deceased, and Mrs. Gladney contends that she has come into possession of these notes by means of purchase. The $2,500 note was purchased from the brother of Mrs. Gladney, Norton Gary,-who loaned the succession $2,500, at the time the succession of the Rileys needed no funds. The $2,400 note was purchased at a time when the holder was threatening to execute against the Riley succession. Mrs. Gladney brought an injunction suit to enjoin the execution of the judgment rendered against her in the prior suit, praying that that judgment be credited with the sum of $4,900, plus interest, and etc.

The trial court granted a preliminary injunction, and on trial of the merits awarded the plaintiff judgment in the sum of $4,900, with interest at the rate of 8% from July 27, 1948, the same to be compensated against the judgment rendered adversely to the plaintiff in suit No. 21,787 of the 19th Judicial District Court in and for the Parish of East Baton Rouge, in the sum of $6,342.10, with legal interest fiom July 27, 1948, until paid. The rule for a permanent injunction was made absolute only to the extent of the judgment.

[725] From this judgment, the plaintiff appeals and asks that this Court recognize the full validity of the notes, -in principal, interest and attorneys’ fees, allowing compensation against the former judgment, and on the balance due, award her 8% interest from July 27, 1948, together with 10% attorneys’ fees.

Defendant did not answer the appeal.

The perplexities of this record become the problems of the judge. In our previous opinion, 217 La. 456, 46 So.2d 734, we questioned the insufficiency of the proof as to the validity of the notes. Our learned brother below, with rigid impartí-, ality, found that what is right is right. We, therefore, quote with approval his reasons for judgment:

“As to the $2500.00 note it is claimed that this money was needed to help pay succession debts and that it was borrowed from Mrs. Gladney’s brother, Norton Gary, less a discount of $250.00. Thereafter, the note was acquired by Mrs. Gladney, which money she claims to have borrowed from the Fidelity Bank. It is also in evidence that she paid a note for $2400.00 held by one Emanuel Levy on about January 12, 1942, for which the administrator was liable.
“There can be no doubt, that the $2400.00 note was a valid subsisting obligation of the succession, and had it not been paid there undoubtedly would have been a foreclosure of the mortgage by which its payment was secured.
“As to the $2500.00 note, as was observed in the previous suit, there was apparently no necessity whatsoever for borrowing this money.
“However, the evidence fails to show that Mrs. Gladney did not purchase the note from Norton as she claims and as her husband claims.
“At any rate, in the computation of the liability of Wm. F. Gladney in suit No. 21,787 the administrator was given credit for the proceeds of this note, that is $2250.00. It could not therefore, now be said that the succession can escape the payment of the same, having derived the benefit of the money borrowed.
“On' the trial of the suit No. 21,787, in which the liability of both W. Frank Gladney and his wife were determined, it was shown that considerable sums of money were collected from time to time for the account of the three successions involved, which sums were not credited as of the dates they were received on either of the note alleged to have been held by Mrs. Gladney, except perhaps on the Levy note, the interest on' which was paid up to Apr. 3, 1941.

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Gladney v. Trahan, 63 So. 2d 615, 222 La. 721, 1953 La. LEXIS 1207 (La. 1953).

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21 So. 2d 64 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1944)
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