Long v. Matthews

186 So. 2d 868, 1966 La. App. LEXIS 5178
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 26, 1966
DocketNos. 10513, 10514
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 186 So. 2d 868 (Long v. Matthews) 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
Long v. Matthews, 186 So. 2d 868, 1966 La. App. LEXIS 5178 (La. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinions

GLADNEY, Judge.

Mrs. Blanche Revere Long, as testamentary executrix of the succession of Earl Kemp Long, instituted two suits against Frank Matthews and his wife, Ruth Thigpen Matthews, and their son, James Roy Matthews, to recover the sum of $160,000. The alleged indebtedness was evidenced by three instruments or notes in writing, dated June 18, June 12 and June 13, I960.1 Suit No. 25,138 (10,514 in this court) sought recovery of $50,000 upon the instrument dated June 18, 1960. In suit No. 25,139 of the district docket (10,513 in this court) recovery of $110,000 was sought under the instruments dated June 12 and June 13, 1960. The petitions in each of the suits were filed August 11, 1961 and each was answered on August 19, 1961.

The defenses relied upon were set forth by answers and reconventional demands as hereinafter related. A supplemental and amended answer and reconventional demand was filed December 18, 1961 in suit No. 25,138, and after consolidation of the cases for trial, the defendants, for the purpose of particularizing facts supporting the defenses previously urged, filed on May 6, 1963, an additional supplemental an amended answer and reconventional demand pertinent to each suit.

[870]*870In suit No. 25,138 the original answer admitted that on June 18, 1960 Ruth Matthews and James Roy Matthews received from Earl K. Long $50,000 not as a loan but for the purpose of holding the same for the accommodation of Long and that the instrument dated June 18, 1960 was signed solely for the purpose of functioning as a receipt. The answer averred that since receiving said money all of it had been returned to Long and the repayment thereof was specially pleaded. In the supplemental and amended answer and reconventional demand filed in this case on December 18, 1961 the defendants averred that on July 27 and August 5, 1959 they advanced and loaned to Earl K. Long $30,000 and $20,000 respectively, which sums were unpaid and owing to them during the period of June 12 through June 18, 1960. Based on these averments compensation and setoff was plead as an affirmative defense.

In suit No. 25,139 the original answer as filed therein was essentially the same as that filed in the other case in that it was admitted by the defendants that all of the money sought to be recovered by plaintiff had been received by defendants but only as an accommodation to Earl K. Long, and that a receipt was given therefor. In No. 25,139, however, the supplemental answer and reconventional demand filed also on December 18, 1961, asserted all of the $110,-000 had been returned except the sum of $13,988.28 against which defendants claimed an offset for lumber sold and delivered to Mrs. Blanche Long between January 9 and April 4, 1959, which claim was plead in compensation and reduced the balance remaining due from the defendants to the sum of $4,454.44. This amount was tendered to plaintiff, was refused, and then deposited in the registry of the court.

Appellee in opposing the special defenses of compensation and payment, sought to invoke the application of LSA-R.S. 13:3721 for the purpose of excluding parol evidence if offered for the purpose of proving that the succession of Earl K. Long was indebted or liable to defendants under their plea of compensation in suit No. 25,138 and the pleas of compensation and payment urged in suit No. 25,139. The plaintiff also denies that the alleged remittances were in fact made to Earl K. Long. Objection was also mad'e that if the money which admittedly was received by the defendants constituted a deposit, the plea of compensation is unavailable, and that further, such plea may not be resorted to except when the two debts are equally due and demandable.

The supplemental answer and reconven-tional demand filed May 6, 1963 was designed to particularize the defense of payment or return of the money as previously set forth in pleadings. Therein, with respect to suit No. 25,139 it was alleged that between July 19 and August 26, 1960, $96,011.72, in ten separate repayments of money, were made to Earl K. Long.

Upon the issues presented, the consolidated cases were tried with the result that in suit No. 25,138 judgment in favor of plaintiff was rendered against Frank Matthews as prayed for and the demands against Mrs. Ruth Thigpen Matthews and James Roy Matthews were dismissed. In suit No. 25,139 judgment in favor of plaintiff and against Frank Matthews and Mrs. Ruth Thigpen Matthews was rendered for the principal sum of $34,988.28. Appeals have been perfected by Frank Matthews in case No. 10,514 and by Frank Matthews and Mrs. Ruth Matthews in case No. 10,513. After the case was docketed in this court the plaintiff-appellee in No. 10,513 answered the appeal asking that the judgment be increased to the sum of $110,000.

During the trial and after plaintiff had rested her case appellants offered evidence to establish repayment, whereupon plaintiff objected to such evidence on the ground that the defenses were not supported by specific allegations or particularizations as to when, where, and how made, and defendants then offered to amend and particularize the facts supporting the defenses. The court, over the objection of counsel for plaintiff, and acting under the provisions of [871]*871LSA-C.C.P. Art. 1154 allowed the amendment to be filed on May 6, 1963, the effect of which was to particularize the general plea of repayment.

The first demand made for the recognition of the $50,000 debt allegedly due defendants was made in the reconventional demand filed December 18, 1961. As this was more than one year from the date of the death of the deceased, the applicability of LSA-R.S. 13:3721, et seq.2 is urged as a bar to the admissibility of parol evidence to establish a debt or liability of the deceased for loans or advances of $30,000 and $20,-000 set forth in defendants’ plea of compensation.

Defendants’ answers in each suit filed on August 19, 1960 contained only a general plea of repayment of the money admittedly received by the defendants without further specification.

(3721)
“Parol evidence shall not be received to prove any debt or liability of a deceased person against his succession representative, heirs, or legatees when no suit to enforce it has been brought against the deceased prior to his death, unless within one year of the death of the deceased:
(1) A suit to enforce the debt or liability is brought against the succession representative, heirs, or legatees of the deceased;
*****
“The provisions of this section cannot be waived impliedly through the failure of a litigant to object to the admission of evidence which is inadmissible thereunder. As amended Acts 1960, No. 32, § 1.”
(3722)
“When parol evidence is admissible under the proyisions of R.S. 13:3721 the debt or liability of the deceased must be proved by the testimony of at least one creditable witness other than the claimant, and other corroborating circumstances. As amended Acts 1960, No. 32, § 1.”

After defendants’ pleadings, which were denominated in each instance a “Supplemental and Amended Answer and Recon-ventional Demand”, were filed more than one year after the death of Earl K. Long on September 5, 1960, it became important to determine if the effect of such pleadings relate back to the date of the filing of the answers on August 19,1961.

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232 So. 2d 803 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1970)
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Long v. Matthews
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
186 So. 2d 868, 1966 La. App. LEXIS 5178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/long-v-matthews-lactapp-1966.