Homer Electric Shop v. J. D. Waldrip & Son

139 So. 539, 19 La. App. 117, 1932 La. App. LEXIS 238
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 16, 1932
DocketNo. 4113
StatusPublished

This text of 139 So. 539 (Homer Electric Shop v. J. D. Waldrip & Son) 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
Homer Electric Shop v. J. D. Waldrip & Son, 139 So. 539, 19 La. App. 117, 1932 La. App. LEXIS 238 (La. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

STEPHENS, J.

The Homer Electric Company brought this suit to recover from J. D. Waldrip & Son, an alleged commercial partnership, and the individual members thereof, J. D. Waldrip and L. B. Waldrip, in solido, the sum of $1,128, which represents the balance due on the purchase price of an electric light plant. The plaintiff further sued for recognition and enforcement of a vendor’s lien and chattel mortgage on the light plant.

Judgment was rendered as prayed for, by default, against L. B. Waldrip. J. D. Wald-rip filed an answer and denied therein that a partnership existed between him and his son L. B. Waldrip, and, in the alternative, averred that, if the court should hold that such a partnership did exist, the purchase of the light plant was foreign to the purpose for which the partnership was organized and to the business it conducted, and that said equipment did not inure to the benefit of the partnership, and that its purchase by L. B. Wald-rip in its name was unauthorized and not binding on the same. It was admitted in the answer that a “semblance of a partnership” did at one time exist under the name of J. D. Waldrip & Son, but that it was dissolved long-prior to the purchase of the electric lighting eqifipment from plaintiff.

A trial on the issues as thus made resulted in a judgment-for the plaintiff against the defendant J. D. Waldrip, and he prosecutes this appeal.

The defendant appellant, J. D. Waldrip, filed in this court an exception of no cause or right of action, a motion to remand, and, in the alternative, with reference to the motion to remand, a plea of estoppel, which said exception, motion, and plea will be hereinafter discussed.

The merits of this controversy were dis[540]*540posed of to our satisfaction, and in accordance with our own convictions, by the learned trial judge, who discusses the facts and the law applicable thereto in a written opinion with painstaking thoroughness. The opinion, which we adopt as our own on the questions involved, is as follows:

“Plaintiff alleges in its petition that it sold and delivered to J. D. Waldrip & Son for the price and sum of $1,503 one generator No. 1-1501, serial No. 33S388, and one sot of batteries, KKG 7 batteries; that plaintiff accepted from defendants as part of the purchase price of said property one old light plant valued in the trade at $375, leaving due on the purchase price thereof the sum of $1,128; that as an evidence of this indebtedness the defendant partnership, through L. B. Wald-rip, one of the partners, executed its promissory note for said amount, payable to its own order and duly indorsed, due in 24 monthly installments of $47 eac-h, and secured its payment with a chattel mortgage on the property sold by plaintiff to defendants. The note and chattel mortgage are each dated December 16, 1929, and are attached to and made a part of the petition.

“Service of the petition was made on the partnership and on each of its members. Answer was filed only by J. D. Waldrip, who denied liability on the following, among other grounds: That, in truth and in fact, a partnership never did exist between himself and L. B. Waldrip, a fact well known to plaintiff; that he (J. D. Waldrip) individually owned the filling station and garage business conducted under the name of J. D. Waldrip & Son, another fact known to plaintiff, and that L. B. Waldrip, who signed the note and chattel mortgage, was without authority to bind him in the transaction. In the alternative, defendant pleads that the buying of the equipment and the signing and indorsing of notes are beyond and foreign to the purpose and scope of the business of the partnership, and that, in any event, the sale of defendant’s old light plant by L. B. Wal-drip to plaintiff, without defendant’s knowledge or consent, was illegal, null, and void, and, being so, that the whole transaction is illegal, null, and void, and defendant is entitled to the return of his old light plant or to judgment for the value thereof. He prays that plaintiff’s demands be rejected, with costs, and for judgment in reconvention against plaintiff for the value of the old light plant, etc.

“The evidence shows that J. D. Waldrip entered into the filling station and garage business at Quitman about the year 1926, and from that time until about July 1, 1930, conducted said business under the name of J. D. Waldrip & Son. He bought and sold gasoline, oil, cigarettes, auto parts, and other things. He charged batteries and repaired' cars, and regularly employed about three people in this business. On top of the station house or garage he had placed a large sign board with the words “J. D. Waldrip and Son Gas — Oil— Garage” printed thereon in very large letters. On the roadside both north and south of Quit-man he had boards or signs erected conveying about the same information. At least one suit was filed against a debtor of the business under the name of J. D. Waldrip & Son. Statements were mailed to customers under that name. Plaintiff received one such statement for the price of a tire and issued its check, dated October 17, 1929, in payment thereof, payable to J. D. Waldrip & Son. This check bears the indorsement of defendant.

“The evidence further shows that, prior to the date upon which the note and chattel mortgage were executed, plaintiff’s salesman, O. B'. Lay, stopped at this station on a number of occasions, and on each occasion found L. B. Waldrip there and, apparently, at least, in active charge of. the business conducted there. On November 15, 1929, said salesman and L. B. Waldrip" reached an agreement under which plaintiff was to deliver and sell to defendant partnership the light plant equipment in question, and under which plaintiff agreed to buy defendant’s old light plant and allow the sum of $375 on the sale price of the new equipment.

“The new equipment arrived during the early part of December, 1929, and immediately plaintiff had its workmen to unload and set up the new equipment and take out and ship away the old light plant then in use. On December 16, 1929, the partnership, through L. B. Waldrip, executed the note and chattel mortgage, as agreed upon theretofore, and made the basis of this suit. The new equipment was put into use as soon as it was installed.

“Later, on January 24, 1930, L. B. Waldrip issued his own check for $47, payable to General Motors Acceptance Corporation, the holder of the note, evidently for the purpose of paying the first installment on the note. On March 5, 1930, he issued another cheek to the same payee for $47 in the name of J. D. Waldrip by himself, for the purpose of paying another installment. However, both checks were turned down by the bank upon which they were drawn.

“It is further shown by the evidence that defendant J. D. Waldrip for a number of years has been employed by Davis Bros. Lumber Company as timber buyer, and that he devotes all of his time to that work. He devoted none of his time to the filling station and garage business conducted under the name of J. D. Waldrip & Son and visited it no oftener than every two weeks. Mr. Wald-rip testified that he employed Billy Bond as manager of the business during the entire year of 1929. He also testified that his son, [541]*541L. B. Waldrip, worked at the station some, but that he had no authority to make purchases for the business. He did not state who, if anybody, did have that authority. Billy Bond testified that he was employed as manager and did some of the buying, but that some of the buying was done by others.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Kelly Springfield Tire Co. v. Oakley
138 So. 673 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1932)
E. B. Hayes Machinery Co. v. Eastham
84 So. 898 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1920)
American Photo Player Co. v. Simon
92 So. 307 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1922)
Key v. Box
14 La. Ann. 497 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1859)
City of New Orleans v. Gauthreaux
32 La. Ann. 1126 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1880)
United Chemical Co. v. Gulf States Steamship Co.
4 La. App. 623 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1926)
Redmond & Son v. Wood
6 La. App. 389 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1927)
Frankelite Co. v. Winteler Electric Co.
120 So. 505 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1928)
Dayton Scale Co. v. Capps
120 So. 94 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1929)
Chadick-Hayes Provision Co. v. Pine Grove Grocery Co.
121 So. 348 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1929)
Triangle Machine Co. v. Dutton & Adams
127 So. 54 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1930)
First Natl. Bank v. Knighton Bros.
134 So. 706 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
139 So. 539, 19 La. App. 117, 1932 La. App. LEXIS 238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/homer-electric-shop-v-j-d-waldrip-son-lactapp-1932.