Hodges v. General Motors Acceptance Corp.

141 So. 783
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 20, 1932
DocketNo. 4303
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 141 So. 783 (Hodges v. General Motors Acceptance Corp.) 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
Hodges v. General Motors Acceptance Corp., 141 So. 783 (La. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

DREW, J.

Plaintiff alleged ownership.of a Chevrolet automobile, 1928, model, serial No. 176849, motor No. 4864297, purchased by him from the Calhoun Chevrolet Company; that defendant took possession of the said car in Concordia parish, La., without any legal right, and is now holding said car in Con-cordia parish, without any right, title, or claim to same.

Plaintiff further alleged that defendant had stored said car, and that it was about to be sold for the storage charges; that he was entitled to be restored to possession of the car or to recover damages for the illegal seizure and holding of said car by defendant, to the amount of the value of the ear, which he alleged to be more than $300.

He further alleged that defendant is a corporation organized under the laws of the state of New York, and W. B. Spencer, P. S. Gidiere, Esmond Phelps, and Charles E. Dunbar, Jr., or any one of them, are agents of the said corporation for the service of legal process in the state of Louisiana, all of said agents residing in the city of New Orleans.

Plaintiff prayed for judgment against defendant requiring it to deliver said automobile to him in good condition, within a reasonable time to be fixed by the court, and in default thereof, for judgment against defendant in the sum of $300, with legal interest from judicial demand until paid.

Defendant excepted to the jurisdiction of the court ratione person®, alleging that, in accordance with the laws of Louisiana, it had designated its domicile in this state at New Orleans, Orleans parish, La., with agents for service of legal process, as set out in plaintiff’s petition. The exception was overruled.

Defendant then filed a plea of prescription of one year, based on the ground that the action was one in tort. This plea was referred to the merits. The judgment rendered shows the plea to have been overruled.

Defendant answered, setting up title in itself and denying that plaintiff had any right, title, or interest in the automobile or to the possession of it; and further averred that the Calhoun Chevrolet Company had sold the said automobile to plaintiff largely on a credit and delivered said car to him in Louisiana; that plaintiff gave to the Calhoun Chevrolet Company a chattel mortgage, by notarial act duly recorded in Concordia parish, La., on said car for the balance of the purchase price; and that the chattel mortgage notes for the purchase price were transferred to [784]*784defendant herein for a valuable consideration; and that, while this condition existed and while the notes were unpaid, plaintiff, while driving the ear in said parish, wrecked it. That after plaintiff wrecked the car, he made no effort to salvage it and wholly abandoned it; that the Calhoun Chevrolet Company and defendant herein pulled said car in, and the defendant, under its agreement with the Calhoun Chevrolet Company, sent the car to Natchez, Miss., for repairs, and, after said, repairs were made, brought the ear to Ferri-day and tendered same to the said Calhoun Chevrolet Company, which refused to receive it. The car was then deposited and stored at its risk in Ferriday, La., in a garage.

That the Chevrolet Company failed and refused to pay the notes, which it had indorsed and transferred to defendant herein, and suit was brought by defendant against the Calhoun Chevrolet Company which resulted in final judgment in favor of defendant herein, with certain rights reserved to the Calhoun Chevrolet Company, all of which will be shown by judgment in said suit No. 5073, on the docket of the Seventh judicial district of Louisiana, in suit styled, General Motors Acceptance Corporation v. Calhoun Chevrolet Company et al., and also by judgment of this court, on appeal, 14 La. App. 258, 129 So. 168, which judgment is made part of this answer; that the Calhoun Chevrolet Company and plaintiff illegally failed to accept said car and illegally permitted the storage to accrue, which would not have been incurred, except for a violation of their obligation, as shown.

It further alleges that, by reason of the above facts, plaintiff is estopped to make the claims he has set up in his petition, which estoppel it especially pleads.

It further avers that the automobile was sold under the law, to pay the storage.

Defendant further alleges, in the alternative only, that the plaintiff is a party interposed for the said Calhoun Chevrolet Company and has no interest in this suit whatever, on account of his abandonment of said automobile, and that this suit has been instituted solely at the instance of J. Lee Calhoun and the Calhoun Chevrolet Company, solely for its benefit; that the said plaintiff does not occupy such relation to the said Calhoun Chevrolet Company as to permit him to sue for its benefit.

In reconvention, it alleges, in the event the court should hold that plaintiff had not abandoned the said car, that plaintiff is justly and legally indebted unto defendant in the sum of $165, for storage of said car and cost of selling same, and prays as follows:

1.That plaintiff be held to have abandoned all claim to said car, which caused all of the expenses herein, and that he is estopped from making the claim set out in his petition, and that said plea of estoppel be sustained.

2. That the claim is one in tort or trespass, and that, more than one year having elapsed since the date plaintiff could have sued herein, the plea of prescription of one year should be sustained.

3. Prays in the alternative only that, if this suit is not dismissed as above prayed for, then plaintiff be held to be a party interposed for the Calhoun Chevrolet Company, and that it be held that plaintiff is without Interest to bring such suit, and that suit be dismissed at plaintiff’s cost.

4. Further prays in the alternative that the reconventional demand herein be sustained, and that defendant recover judgment against plaintiff in the sum of $165, paid by defendant, together with interest at the rate of 5 per cent, from judicial demand, being the amount paid by plaintiff for storage of said car, and costs.

J. Lee Calhoun intervened in the suit alleging that in a prior suit, entitled General Motors Acceptance Corporation v. Calhoun Chevrolet Company and J. Lee Calhoun, judgment was rendered decreeing that the General Motors Acceptance Corporation delivered to him the automobile involved in this suit, upon his paying a judgment in favor of the General Motors Acceptance Corporation for $440, plus interest and attorney’s fees; that he has satisfied said judgment, and that defendant herein has refused to deliver the car to him. He prays for judgment against both plaintiff and defendant, decreeing that the automobile be delivered to him, and, in the alternative, prays that the mortgage on said automobile, described in the answer of defendant herein, be foreclosed, and that said automobile be sold, according to law, in the foreclosure of said mortgage; and that in-tervener be paid by preference and priority over all other creditors out of the proceeds of said sale, intervener reserving his rights to proceed against plaintiff for any balance due on said notes, after crediting thereon the proceeds of said sale.

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Bluebook (online)
141 So. 783, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hodges-v-general-motors-acceptance-corp-lactapp-1932.