Isaac v. Comision Reguladora Del Mercado De Henequen

14 So. 2d 865, 204 La. 1, 1943 La. LEXIS 1042
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJune 21, 1943
DocketNo. 36904.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 14 So. 2d 865 (Isaac v. Comision Reguladora Del Mercado De Henequen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Isaac v. Comision Reguladora Del Mercado De Henequen, 14 So. 2d 865, 204 La. 1, 1943 La. LEXIS 1042 (La. 1943).

Opinion

HAMITER, Justice.

Nacif Isaac, the assignee of a personal judgment obtained by one Nami Nebhan against Comisión Reguladora del Mercado de Henequen, which is a Mexican corporation and referred to hereinafter as Comisión, is appealing from a decision that dismissed on its merits a rule for a judgment against a garnishee, the Sterling Fire Insurance Company, and a codefendant in rule, the Insurance Company of North America.

The litigation, pending for a period of approximately two decades, presents for our consideration the following detailed, involved and complicated factual situation.

On July 1, 1919, the Comisión sustained a loss by the burning of a quantity of its sisal then in storage in a warehouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. After the fire a dispute arose between two insurance companies regarding their proportionate liability for the loss, both having previously written binders that provided fire coverage on the sisal. These companies were the Insurance Company of North America and the Sterling Fire Insurance Company, called herein, respectively, North America and Sterling.

In order that the insured might be compensated for the loss immediately, and to prevent' suit being filed against it, North America advanced to the insured Comisión, through certain insurance counselors known as Smyth, Sanford & Gerard, Inc., the sum of $16,090.29; and the insured, in turn, assigned its loss claim to the named insurance counselor firm, the assignment being executed and accepted in New York City on January 26, 1920.

As a result of this transaction or arrangement an action was brought against Sterling for the purpose of recovering the proportion of the sisal loss attributable to that insurer’s policy or binder. It was instituted in the name of the Comisión in the Circuit Court of Marion County, Indiana, by attorneys for North America, and is termed hereinafter the Indiana suit.

*5 After the ^occurrence of the mentioned fire, the advancement of funds by-North America, the assignment of Comision’s loss claim, arid the institution of the Indiana suit, Nami Nebhan brought ah action in the Civil District Court of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, against the Comisión claiming $65,048.10. He proceeded by attachment in view of the nonresidence of the defendant and named five garnishees, none of which was an insurance company. The commencement of that action, which we call the Louisiana suit or proceedings,, took place March 1, 1920. On the Comision’s entering a general Appearance, the proceeding became one in personam.

Some months later, by means of a supplemental petition filed by Nebhan, 49 insurance companies were made garnishees in the Louisiana suit, including Sterling. The garnishments, it appears, were issued because of a fire loss occurring in the City of New Orleans to certain sisal believed by Nebhan to have been the property of the Comisión; but it actually belonged to an organization known as the Eric Corporation. Sterling’s New Orleans attorneys answered the garnishment interrogatories in the negative, they then having in mind the Eric Corporation sisal loss and knowing nothing about the burning of Comision’s sisal in Indianapolis; however, they subsequently learned of the last-mentioned loss, • and on October 20, 1920, filed a supplemental answer in which all details of the Indiana suit, brought by the Comisión against Sterling, were given. This supplemental answer recited the existence of a dispute as to whether or not a certain insurance binder was in force at the time o'f the fire; and it further stated that nothing was due and owing by Sterling to the Comisión “unless it should be finally determined in said suit that it (Sterling) is liable for some amount, to the said Comisión under said binder.”

Trial of the Indiana suit began on March 28, 1921; and three days later the jury brought in a verdict in favor of Comisión and against Sterling for $8,402.-78. Thereupon Sterling filed a motion in that cause to stay all further proceedings, averring the pendency of the Louisiana garnishment against it and attaching thereto certified copies of the garnishment proceedings. The court, on May 5, 1921, overruled the motion and rendered judgment on the jury’s verdict. Sterling, on the same day, appealed to the 'Supreme Court of Indiana.

On May 20, 1921, in the Civil District Court of Orleans Parish, a judgment in personam was rendered in favor of Nebhan and against Comisión for the sum of $65,-048.10. The judgment further decreed: “That the writs of attachment herein issued be maintained with costs; that the garnishments herein based thereon be maintained, and that the lien and privilege resulting from said attachments and garnishments herein be recognized and enforced upon the property attached and garnished herein; that said property be sold according to law, and that this, judgment be paid from the proceeds of said sale by preference over the claims of all other creditors of said defendant.”

The signing of Nebhan’s judgment occurred six days later. No appeal from it. was taken.

*7 This judgment in the Louisiana suit was later, assigned and transferred to Nacif Isaac, the substituted plaintiff; and he was judicially recognized, on January 5, 1922, as being subrogated to all of the right, title and interest of Nami Nebhan in and to it. Timely revival of the judgment occurred in 1931, and again in 1941.

The Supreme Court of Indiana, on March 11, 1924, affirmed the judgment obtained by Comision against Sterling in the Indiana suit. Sterling Fire Ins. Co. v. Comision, 195 Ind. 29, 143 N.E. 2, 7. In its opinion, the court had the following to say concerning the complaint made by Sterling’s counsel about the trial court’s overruling of the motion for a stay of further proceedings, namely:

“ * * * We think this action of the court was not error. Of course, the appellant should be protected against having to pay its debt to appellee twice, but we do not believe the bringing of subsequent suits in another state could affect the appellee’s right to a judgment in this case, although it might affect the appellee’s right to issue an execution during the pendency of such other suits. If proper application is made, after judgment, to stay execution, where the same debt is sought to be garnisheed in another state, then an entirely different question would be involved. In such a case, there is ample' authority for the court to act to protect the rights of the garnishee. Howland v. [Chicago, R. I. & P.] Railroad Co., 134 Mo. 474, 36 S.W. 29; Shull v. Missouri Pac. R. Co., 221 Mo. 140, 119 S.W. 1086; Virginia Fire, etc., Co. v. New York, etc., Co., 95 Va. 515, 28 S.E. 888, 40 L.R.A. 237.

“If the appellant is compelled to pay the judgment in this cause, then it would have protection against further proceedings in Louisiana. Virginia Fire, etc., Co. v. New York, etc., Co., supra. We think appellee was entitled to proceed to judgment in this cause, unaffected by the subsequent suits. It would seem that appellant has ample remedies to protect itself from having to pay the debt twice.”

Application for a rehearing was regularly and timely made.

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14 So. 2d 865, 204 La. 1, 1943 La. LEXIS 1042, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/isaac-v-comision-reguladora-del-mercado-de-henequen-la-1943.