Gresham v. Graves

3 La. App. 153, 1925 La. App. LEXIS 571
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 10, 1925
DocketNo. 2432
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 3 La. App. 153 (Gresham v. Graves) 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
Gresham v. Graves, 3 La. App. 153, 1925 La. App. LEXIS 571 (La. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

ODOM, J.

Plaintiff brings this suit to recover of defendant the sum of $596.15, the value of four bales of cotton which, he alleges he had delivered to defendant, the four bales being represented by negotiable cotton warehouse tickets which he deposited with defendant as collateral security for a debt which he owed him, the tickets being numbered 12, 300, 12, 574, 13, 819, and 14, 001.

[154]*154He alleges that on a date subsequent to that on which said tickets were pledged, he paid his indebtedness to defendant and demanded the return of the tickets, which was refused by defendant.

Defendant, in answer, denied receipt of the two tickets numbered 13, 819 and 14, 001, but alleged, on information and belief, that the cotton represented by said tickets was delivered to the mercantile firm of Caldwell Brothers and was sold by them and the proceeds thereof applied' as a credit on an open account due by plaintiff to that firm.

But it was admitted, in answer, that the other two tickets numbered 12, 300 and 12, 574, representing each one bale of cotton, were pledged to defendant as collateral security for a debt of $137.50 which plaintiff owed him and that after said tickets were so pledged to him the plaintiff informed him that Caldwell Brothers would take up the note which plaintiff owed defendant and take over the two cotton tickets which he held as security and that Caldwell Brothers did take up said note and that he turned over to Caldwell Brothers the cotton which he held in pledge and that he had nothing further to do with said cotton.

There was judgment in the district court in favor of plaintiff for $108.61, from which judgment defendant appealed.

Plaintiff did not appeal from the judgment nor has he moved in this court that the judgment be amended.

OPINION.

There is involved in this case both a question of fact and a question of law.

Our learned Brother of the district Court wrote an elaborate opinion on both the facts and the law involved, and while we agree with him in his final conclusion as to the facts we think he erred in his interpretation and application of the law.

On the question of fact, he held, as we understand his opinion, that in the last analysis, Graves, the defendant, held only two cotton tickets representing two bales of cotton as collateral security for the $137.50 note which the plaintiff owed him and that plaintiff had prevailed upon Caldwell Brothers to take up this note, which they did by paying the defendant the amount of the debt, and he found that when Caldwell Brothers paid defendant the amount of his debt there was nothing said about the surrender by defendant to Caldwell Brothers of the cotton tickets held as collateral along with the note which Caldwell Brothers had taken up but that defendant did surrender both tickets to them and that the proceeds of the sale of both bales of cotton represented by the tickets exceeded the amount of the debt by $108.61; and he he.ld that the proceeds of one bale of cotton was sufficient to satisfy the debt. He held, further, that as a matter of law defendant should have surrendered to Caldwell .Brothers along with the note that they took up only so much of the collateral as was necessary to pay and satisfy the note, and therein we’think he erred.

The facts which it is necessary to narrate in connection with this point, are as follows:

The defendant, Graves, was during these transactions an employee of the mercantile establishment of. Caldwell Brothers at Bernice, Louisiana. The plaintiff is a land owner and planter in that vicinity and had a white man named Bays and a colored man named Everett cultivating his land under the share system, half and half.

To make the crop of 1923 it was necessary that the plaintiff, the land owner, arrange for supplies not only for himself but for Bays and Everett, his tenants, also.

The defendant, its • seems, had some idle capital which he used in buying notes and in furnishing supplies to farmers, making collections in the fall when cotton was gathered and marketed.

[155]*155In the early part of 1923, the plaintiff ar-c ranged with defendant to advance to his tenant Bays the sum of $125.00, and on February 2nd, plaintiff and Bays executed their joint note payable to defendant for $137.50 to cover the amount to be advanced and interest thereon at 10%, the note falling due on October 1st.

The money was not actually paid by defendant to either Bays or plaintiff but it was understood that Graves, the defendant, should arrange with the mercantile establishment of Caldwell Brothers to advance to said Bays during the year supplies to the amount of $125.00 for which the defendant should be responsible and for which he actually paid.

Bays, the tenant, purchased goods and supplies from Caldwell Brothers during the year amounting to considerably more than the amount of the note.

The defendant paid Caldwell Brothers the $125.00 less a discount of 5% which Caldwell Brothers allowed him.

Just what arrangement the tenant Bays and the plaintiff made with Caldwell Brothers to supply Bays more than the amount which defendant had paid is not certain but it is shown that Bays’ account at Caldwell Brothers during that year amounted to considerable more than $125.00.

The plaintiff having become responsible for the $137.50 note to defendant, in the fall of the year, after the cotton was ginned, delivered to defendant, he says, four cotton tickets representing four bales of cotton to secure said indebtedness; but the lower court found, as stated, that the defendant actually held only two tickets.

After these tickets had been delivered to defendant, plaintiff went to Caldwell Brothers and asked them to take up the note for $137.50, which they agreed to do, and plaintiff immediately told Graves, the defendant, that Caldwell Brothers would take up the note. Caldwell Brothers immediately paid Graves the amount of the note and Graves surrendered to them not only the note but the two cotton tickets as well. This was some time in the month of October. The testimony shows that plaintiff said nothing to either Caldwell Brothers or Graves as to what disposition Graves should make of the cotton tickets which he held as collateral to the note but merely told Graves that he had arranged with Caldwel Brothers to take up the note.

Caldwell Brothers, it seems, wanted the tickets along with the note and Graves says he thought he should surrender them, which he did.

The court held that it was his duty to surrender enough of the collateral to take care of the debt and no more.

All parties considered this transaction as a sale of the note by Graves to Caldwell Brothers at plaintiff’s request.

Article 2645 of the Civil Code provides:

“The sale or transfer of a credit includes everything which is an accessory to the same; as suretyship, privileges and mortgages.”

We find the rule stated in Daniel on Negotiable Instruments, Section 748, as follows:

“The assignment of a debt by whatever form of transfer carries .with it any bill or note by which it is secured, and the transfer by endorsement or assignment of a bill or note carries’ with it all the securities for. its payment, whether a mortgage or otherwise.”

The rule is stated as follows in 4 Cyc. page 69:

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Related

National Collection Service, Inc. v. Woodard
111 So. 2d 189 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1959)

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Bluebook (online)
3 La. App. 153, 1925 La. App. LEXIS 571, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gresham-v-graves-lactapp-1925.