Lorio v. Gladney

97 So. 16, 153 La. 993, 1923 La. LEXIS 1861
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 2, 1923
DocketNo. 25471
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 97 So. 16 (Lorio v. Gladney) 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
Lorio v. Gladney, 97 So. 16, 153 La. 993, 1923 La. LEXIS 1861 (La. 1923).

Opinion

ROGERS, J.

Plaintiff, in this suit, seeks to recover from, defendant certain jewelry, [995]*995her separate property, pledged by her to secure the performance of the obligations of her husband as the lessor in a contract entered into with defendant for the lease of the premises known as the “Glad Oak Hotel,” situated near the city of Gulfport, in the state of Mississippi.

Defendant’s preliminary defense was urg-r ed by way of exceptions of lis pendens and of no right or cause of action. Before submission of these pleas to the lower court, defendant withdrew the latter exception from its .consideration, submitting the issue solely upon the exception of lis pendens, which was sustained.

On appeal taken to this court from that judgment, defendant again interposed the exception of no right or cause of action, grounding the. plea upon the provisions of Act No. 94 of 1916.

The exception of lis pendens was based upon a proceeding whjeh had been instituted by the present defendant in ■ the chancery court of Harrison county, in the state of Mississippi, to procure the enforcement of his lien upon the jewelry pledged by the present plaintiff to secure the performance of the obligations of the lease by her husband.

This court overruled the exceptions and set aside the judgment appealed from, holding that the suit in Mississippi was not between the same parties for the same object'and growing out of the same cause of action before another court of concurrent jurisdiction, and that the provisions of Act No. 94 of 1916 do not remove the incapacity of a wife to mortgage or pledge her separate property for a debt or obligation of her husband, but merely permits a married woman to do without the authorization of her husband what she was theretofore capable of doing with his authorization. The case was remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with the opinion. Lorio v. Gladney, 147 La. 930, 86 South. 365.

Pending the disposition of the exceptions referred to, the suit in Mississippi resulted in a decree in favor of the plaintiff therein, defendant in the present litigation, and upon the remand of the case said defendant interposed by way of further exception a plea of res judicata based upon the judgment rendered in Mississippi. This exception having been overruled, with reservation thereof, defendant answered, denying that the domicile of the plaintiff was in Louisiana, as alleged; admitting the execution of the lease and the pledge of the jewelry to secure the performance of the obligations of the lessee; averring that the plaintiff had informed him at the time that she had given her jewelry to her husband to assist him in making a success of their common venture-in leasing, for the purpose of operating the hotel as a means of livelihood and establishing a home for themselves on the Mississippi coast, since both plaintiff and her husband had oniy recently arrived in New Orleans from Mexico, where they claim to have resided for fifteen years; averring that the negotiations leading up to the execution of the lease were conducted upon the site of the hotel property in Mississippi, where the terms and conditions were agreed upon, and where it was understood the lease was to be performed; averring that all the papers were prepared by defendant’s attorney in Mississippi and were thereafter brought or sent to New Orleans, where, as a matter of convenience simply to the parties concerned, the lease was signed; specially denying that the accidental execution of the instrument in New Orleans had the effect of making it a Louisiana contract or that the parties intended it should be so construed, rather than as a Mississippi contract, where it was to be entirely performed; and pleading that under the laws of Mississippi, there was no marital incapacity prohibiting the wife to bind herself for her husband’s debt. Defendant further answered that immediately after the ex[997]*997ecution of the lease/ he took the jewelry, and all of the papers appertaining to the transaction, with him to Mississippi, where the contract was to be performed, and where was situated the hotel property, and where he then had a residence and place of business; that, some months after taking possession, plaintiffs husband breached his contract of lease and left, owing respondent a sum in .excess of $600; that he then brought suit in the chancery court of Harrison county, Miss., against both the plaintiff and her husband to foreclose the pledge of the jewelry, and, in due course, secured a decree recognizing the pledge and ordering the sale thereof to satisfy said indebtedness, as will more fully appear from the certified copy of the record of said chancery court made part of his exception of res judicata.

Plaintiff thereupon filed a plea of estoppel alleging that as defendant had filéd a certified copy pf the proceedings in Mississippi wherein it was charged that plaintiff and her husband were residents of the city of New Orleans, and wherein it was judicially admitted that the jewelry was the property of the plaintiff, he was estopped and precluded from questioning the domicile of the plaintiff or the ownership of the jewelry, and that the contentions set up by defendant, to the effect that the contract was a Mississippi contract which must be governed by the laws of Mississippi, and that there was no impediment in the nature of marital disability existing under the laws of that state had been determined adversely to said defendant when the cause was before this court on the appeal from the judgment sustaining the exception of lis pendens.

The trial judge took the view that plaintiff and her husband were domiciled in the city of New Orleans at the time the contract was entered into, and whether so or not, the contract, so far as the surety was concerned, was a Louisiana contract to be governed by the laws of Louisiana, and he, accordingly, rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff, ordering that the jewelry be returned. From this, judgment defendant has appealed.

It is not disputed that the pledged jewelry is the separate property of the plaintiff. This is admitted by the averments of defendant’s answer, by the allegations of the bill of complaint filed in the proceedings in Mississippi, and is also established by the uncontradicted testimony of plaintiff herself.

Under his plea of res judicata, defendant contends, however, that the decree of the chancery court in Mississippi, by virtue of the full faith and credit clause of the federal Constitution, operates as a complete bar to the prosecution of this suit by the plaintiff. This contention was disposed of adversely to defendant in the previous decision of this court. 147 La. 930, 86 South. 365, wherein this language is used:

“Inasmuch as a judgment declaring that Mrs. Lorio had capacity to bind herself and to pledge her personal property to secure a debt of her husband would be a personal judgment against her, it cannot be said that the chancery court of Harrison county, Miss., has jurisdiction of that question, without a voluntary appearance by Mrs. Lorio in that court. It is certain that a judgment rendered by default against Mrs. Lorio, in the proceeding instituted by Gladney in the chancery court of Harrison county, Miss., declaring that she had capacity to bind herself and her separate property for her husband’s debt, would not be a valid judgment against her.”

It is urged on behalf of plaintiff that the plea of res judicata was not before the court op the previous appeal and that the quoted language is purely obiter dictum.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
97 So. 16, 153 La. 993, 1923 La. LEXIS 1861, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lorio-v-gladney-la-1923.