Lassus v. Clarke

64 So. 801, 134 La. 865, 1914 La. LEXIS 1674
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 2, 1914
DocketNo. 19,783
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 64 So. 801 (Lassus v. Clarke) 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
Lassus v. Clarke, 64 So. 801, 134 La. 865, 1914 La. LEXIS 1674 (La. 1914).

Opinion

SOMMERYILLE, J.

When this case was first before us we affirmed a judgment of non-suit in favor of the then defendant, Mr. Lassus, 128 La. 919, 55 South. 576. The district court held that the contract sued upon by Mrs. Clarke having been made by and with Mrs. Lassus, the latter was a necessary party defendant. Thereupon Mrs. Lassus was’ made party defendant in the cause, and she appeared and answered. - The judgment in that case was affirmed in 133 La. 667, 63 South. 259.

Mrs. Lassus is now plaintiff in this suit, and she has been met with pleas of res adjudicata and estoppel, filed by Mrs. Clarke, based upon the judgment in the former suit just referred to, which pleas have been sustained, and Mrs. Lassus has appealed.

In the suit between Mrs. Clarke, as plaintiff, and Mr. and Mrs. Lassus, as defendants, plaintiff sued for rent of a plantation, and for possession of the property leased to Mrs. Lassus; she was met with a general denial on the part of Mr. Lassus, and a plea of want of interest on his part. He alleged that his wife was the real party in interest. Mrs. Lassus answered, pleading an estoppel against plaintiff, and set up title to the leased property in herself. She alleged that the sale and transfer by her of her property to the plaintiff, Mrs. Clarke, was made in order to satisfy a judgment rendered against her husband, Mr. Lassus, and held by the plaintiff; that she never intended to pass title to the property to Mrs. Clarke, but only to secure the debt which her husband owed to Mrs. Clarke, and to give her time in which to pay said debt of her husband and take back the title to said property; that she never received one dollar in consideration of the sale of the property, and that said sale was absolutely null, void, and of no effect, as being contrary to a prohibitory law, and that it should be annulled and revoked, and that she should be quieted in her possession of said property as owner. She prayed for judgment accordingly.

The trial of the case was proceeded with on the issues thus presented, and there was [867]*867judgment in favor of plaintiff, Mrs. Clarke, and against the defendants, Mr. and Mrs. Lassus, with written reasons for judgment, which show that all the matters pleaded were definitely passed upon; and the judgment decreed, among other things, “that defendant he dispossessed of and evicted from the said premises.” Mr. and Mrs. Lassus did not appeal from this judgment, rendered February 26, 1912. The judgment is therefore final; although a devolutive appeal might have been taken therefrom at the time this suit was filed, October 1, 1912.

Mrs. Lassus now in this suit, reiterating the allegations made in her answer in the former suit, wherein Mrs. Olarke was plaintiff and she was one of the defendants, asks that there be judgment—

“decreeing that the sale of plaintiff to defendant herein, having been made to secure the debts and judgments of John F. Lassus, deceased, husband of petitioner, having thus been made in an effort to make petitioner and her property responsible for the debts of her husband, is contrary to a prohibitory law, null, void, and of no effect, and decreeing that the petitioner is the owner and entitled to the possession of the property which is above described and quieted in her possession and ownership thereof, and for all costs of this suit.”

This suit was filed October 1, 1912, within one year after the rendition of the judgment in the former suit, February 26, 1912; and plaintiff argues that the plea of res adjudicata filed by defendant should not have been maintained, because the year had not elapsed at the time of the filing of said exception in the trial court, within which time she had the right to appeal from the judgment against her. This suit is, in effect, one to annul the prior judgment in an indirect or a collateral manner, without the necessary allegations, which would not be permitted on proper objection. O. P. arts. 610, 607; Andrus v. Harman, 2 La. 587; Broussard v. Benard, 7 La. 216, 223.

[1] Pleas of res adjudicata and' estoppel have been filed in this court, after the expiration of the year in which Mrs. Lassus might have appealed from the judgment against her in the district court; and it is admitted that she has not taken an appeal from that judgment.

The foregoing statement is conclusive that the issues in the two suits are the same, although we are not called upon to decide that point, as the district judge says in his written reasons for judgment:

“In oral argument before this court the attorney for the plaintiff admitted that the cause of action in this suit and suit No. 13,042 is the same, that it is between the same parties, and formed by them against each other in the same quality. He contended, however, that the judgment in case No. 13,042 is not res adjudicata, and that he is not estopped from filing this suit for the reason that the year allowed him to appeal from the judgment in suit No. 13,042 had not elapsed.”

In view of the foregoing admission, upon which the trial court based its judgment, we shall not further discuss the question as to whether the causes of action in the two suits are the same or not, in the absence of a written assignment of errors. O. P. arts. 593, 895; Jackson v. Mitchie, 33 La. Ann. 723; Harkness v. Louisiana & N. W. R. R. Co., 110 La. 822, 34 South. 791; Blanchard v. Luce, 19 La. Ann. 46; Succession of Forstall, 32 La. Ann. 97.

The pretension that the judgment in the former suit did not dispose of the defenses set up by Mrs. Lassus in her answer in that suit has no weight. The issues raised in the answer therein by Mrs. Lassus were tried, and they were disposed of by the judgment rendered. Villars v. Faivre, 36 La. Ann. 398; Shakespeare v. Ware, 38 La. Ann. 570; Rauxet v. Rauxet, 38 La. Ann. 669; Sewell v. Scott, 35 La. Ann. 553; Wells’ Res Adjudicata, §§ 12, 21, 24, 217, 304.

Defendant argues that if the plea of res adjudicata may not have been technically available to her, because Mrs. Lassus might have appealed from the judgment rendered less than one year before, plaintiff was neverthe[869]*869less estopped from making the same demand in the same court, which had been finally disposed of by a definitive judgment between the parties. She shows that under article 556 of the Code of Practice definitive judgments may be revived, set aside, or reversed in four ways only: By a new trial, by appeal, by an action of nullity, or by rescission, and not by a new suit on the same cause of action, between the same parties. Muncaster v. Bland, 11 La. Ann. 507; Orr v. Thomas, 3 La. Ann. 588.

That the previous judgment in favor of Mrs. Clarke and against Mrs. Lassus is definitive, or final, is clear, under Code of Practice, art. 539; and it is equally clear that that judgment might have been executed by Mrs. Clarke after the delay for taking a suspensive appeal had run. It is binding upon both parties. Mrs. Lassus might have had the correctness of that judgment tested on appeal. Not having done so, she has waived her legal right to appeal, but this has added nothing to the effect of the judgment. It is no more binding now, that the year has elapsed, than it was ten days after it was rendered. The year given in which to appeal is a prescriptive limit to the right of appeal, and does not in any manner affect the judgment unappealed from. Mrs.

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

Related

Richmond v. Newson
24 So. 2d 174 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1945)
Lawrence v. Boudreau
9 So. 2d 224 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1942)
Irion v. Standard Oil Co. of Louisiana
6 So. 2d 143 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1942)
Bullock v. Bullock
141 So. 852 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1932)
Schoeffner v. Schoeffner
105 So. 18 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1925)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 So. 801, 134 La. 865, 1914 La. LEXIS 1674, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lassus-v-clarke-la-1914.