Ingram v. Reliable Finance Co., Inc.

410 So. 2d 768, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 6728
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 3, 1982
Docket8466
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 410 So. 2d 768 (Ingram v. Reliable Finance Co., Inc.) 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
Ingram v. Reliable Finance Co., Inc., 410 So. 2d 768, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 6728 (La. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

410 So.2d 768 (1981)

Fannie James INGRAM, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
RELIABLE FINANCE COMPANY, INC., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 8466.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

November 20, 1981.
On Rehearing February 3, 1982.
Rehearing Denied March 23, 1982.

*769 Craven & Scott, Samuel H. Craven, Alexandria, for defendant-appellant.

Irving Ward-Steinman, Alexandria, for plaintiff-appellee.

Before DOMENGEAUX, GUIDRY, FORET, SWIFT and YELVERTON,[*] JJ.

DOMENGEAUX, Judge.

This suit arises out of a loan transaction between Reliable Finance Company, Inc., (Reliable), defendant-appellant, and Fannie James Ingram, plaintiff-appellee, and two other co-borrowers not made party to this suit.

*770 On November 1, 1973, defendant loaned plaintiff along with her co-borrowers, the sum of $4,680.84. This debt was represented by a promissory note secured by a chattel mortgage on certain items owned by the plaintiff. When payments on the note became past due defendant filed suit against plaintiff on September 7, 1978, for foreclosure of the chattel mortgage under executory process (Suit No. 106631 in the Ninth Judicial District), and obtained a seizure of all of the items reflected on the chattel mortgage. The seized items were sold at a sheriff's sale on October 11, 1978 to Reliable, the plaintiff in the foreclosure suit and the defendant in the present suit. Plaintiff did not intervene in the original foreclosure sale, but did respond to a subsequent petition for deficiency judgment by asserting a claim of nullity arising out of defects in the executory proceedings. Plaintiff's exception was overruled and defendant was granted a deficiency judgment.

The present suit was instituted by the plaintiff to nullify the judgments of the previous suits brought by the defendant, and to collect damages, penalties and attorney fees. The trial court found in favor of the plaintiff and awarded plaintiff judgment in the amount of $1,500.00 for damages resulting from the illegal seizure under the executory proceedings. Additionally, the trial court refused to grant attorney fees or to nullify the judgments obtained under the executory and deficiency proceedings.

The defendant has appealed specifying that the trial court erred in (1) refusing to grant defendant's Exception of No Cause of Action, and (2) awarding damages.

The plaintiff has answered the appeal seeking (1) penalties and attorney fees under the Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z, and (2) nullification of the executory and deficiency proceedings.

Our jurisprudence is well settled that the exception of no cause of action is tried solely on the face of the petition and attached documents. In ruling on an exception of no cause of action, all well-pleaded facts in the petition and attached documents must be accepted as true and any doubt must be resolved in favor of the sufficiency of the pleadings to state a cause of action. Guillory v. Nicklos Oil & Gas Company, 315 So.2d 878 (La.App. 3rd Cir. 1975). After closely reviewing the plaintiff's petition and according it the proper weight we find that the defendant's exception was properly overruled.

Plaintiff and her co-borrowers obtained a loan from defendant Reliable for their personal use. Thus, they were extended "consumer credit" within the meaning of the Truth in Lending Act.[1] Reliable is a creditor who regularly extends credit which is payable by agreement in more than four installments and requires payment of a finance charge in connection with its loans.[2] Likewise, Reliable is a creditor within the meaning of the Truth in Lending *771 Act. Both the Act and Regulation Z require a clear and complete descriptive list of all security given in exchange of credit.[3] The failure of the lending creditor to include in debtor's copy of the Federal Disclosure Statement a description of the chattel mortgage acquired in connection with the extension of credit, constitutes a violation of the Truth in Lending Act. Wilson v. Shreveport Loan Corporation, 404 F.Supp. 375 (W.D.La.1975).

In the loan agreement before us there is an obvious discrepancy between the original Federal Disclosure Statement filed into evidence as D-1 and attached to this opinion as Appendix-1, and the ribbon copy of that statement filed into evidence as P-1 and attached to this opinion as Appendix-2. The defendant's original (see Appendix-1) contains some forty-five items listed as security in the form of a chattel mortgage. The plaintiff's ribbon copy (see Appendix-2) lists only fourteen of these items. Plaintiff testified that the thirty additional items located on defendant's Federal Disclosure Statement were added without her knowledge or consent after she received her copy. Considering the above, we find that the record supports the trial court's finding that the thirty items in question were added to defendant's Federal Disclosure Statement after plaintiff received her copy.

The failure to completely list the security in the plaintiff's copy of the Disclosure Statement clearly violated 15 U.S.C. § 1639(a)(8) and 12 C.F.R. § 226.8(b)(5). Wilson v. Shreveport Loan Corporation, supra. Once a violation of the Truth in Lending Act is determined there is no discretion as to the imposition of the penalty and attorney fees.[4]Grant v. Imperial Motors, 539 F.2d 506 (5th Cir. 1976); Owens v. Magee Finance Service of Bogulusa, Inc., 476 F.Supp. 758 (E.D.La.1979).

Accordingly, we amend the trial court's judgment and award plaintiff the statutorily imposed penalty of $1,000.00. Additionally, we grant plaintiff an award of attorney fees in the amount of $3,500.00.

The trial court made factual determinations which, we believe are supported by the record.

Rather than paraphrase, we quote herewith:
"Although the facts in this case were difficult to ascertain, the court is satisfied that plaintiff's copy of the federal disclosure statement (P-1) is a ribbon copy of defendant, Reliable Insurance Co., Inc.'s *772 federal disclosure statement (D-1), except that plaintiff's copy did not reflect some 30 items that are reflected by defendant's original. The court is convinced that these 30 additional items, which will be referred to as `add-ons', were added to defendant's federal disclosure statement after she signed same, and had obtained her copy (P-1).
The court is not so sure as to whether the chattel mortgage in question had all of the items, including the `add-ons', at the time Fanny Ingram signed it, although the xerox copy in evidence does indicate a different style or species of typewriting. Taking everything into account and weighing the evidence as carefully as possible, the court concludes that the so-called 30 `add-on items' were probably added to the original chattel mortgage after Fanny Ingram signed same, just as was done with respect to the federal disclosure statement.

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