Loubat Glassware & Cork Co. v. Pier Orleans, Inc.

430 So. 2d 1317, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 8210
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 11, 1983
DocketNo. 82-CA-162
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 430 So. 2d 1317 (Loubat Glassware & Cork Co. v. Pier Orleans, 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
Loubat Glassware & Cork Co. v. Pier Orleans, Inc., 430 So. 2d 1317, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 8210 (La. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

DUFRESNE, Judge.

This is a suit for deficiency judgment against an accommodation maker of a promissory note. The case is before us on appeal from a judgment in the trial court granting the Loubat Glassware & Cork Co., Ltd. (plaintiff) a deficiency judgment on a promissory note against Lionel E. Flotte, Jr. (defendant).

Most of the essential facts are undisputed. On June 2, 1975, Pier Orleans, Inc., negotiated to purchase kitchen and restaurant equipment from the plaintiff in the amount of $102,039.26, less a down payment of $25,000.00 plus precomputed interest over a sixty month period. This purchase was to be perfected by way of a credit sale evidenced by a promissory note and secured through a chattel mortgage. The note was payable in monthly installments of $1,829.68 commencing August 15, 1975.

The deal was structured as follows:

Equipment Invoice $75,789.26
Miscellaneous Invoice 26.250.00
102,039.26
Less Down Payment 25.000.00
77,039.26
Credit Service Charge for 60 months 32.741.68
Total: $109,780.94

The promissory note and chattel mortgage were executed by the corporation Pier Orleans, also signing the note individually were Lionel E. Flotte, Jr. and Thomas G. Blankenship. Both Flotte and Blankenship were minority shareholders in Pier Orleans, Inc. The promissory note was discounted to Walter E. Heller & Co. of Louisiana, Inc., and thirty-six payments were made by Pier Orleans, Inc. on said note through August 1978, totaling $65,868.48.

In August, 1978, the lessor of the premises in which Pier Orleans was operating filed a suit of eviction and cancellation of its lease with Pier Orleans, Inc., along with a seizure of all of the equipment in said premises. After this suit was filed, the restaurant being operated on the premises was closed, and subsequently, Pier Orleans, Inc. made no further payments to Walter E. Heller & Company.

On September 28, 1979, the note was transferred from Walter E. Heller back to the plaintiff for the sum of $43,912.46. Plaintiff intervened in the lessor’s suit claiming that its chattel mortgage primed the lessor’s lien. Shortly thereafter, Pier Orleans, Inc. went into bankruptcy and all proceedings regarding the equipment and the lawsuit filed by the lessor were stayed.

The trustee in bankruptcy disclaimed the equipment from the Pier Orleans proceedings, and on August 13, 1979, the plaintiff [1319]*1319filed a petition for executory process to seize and sell the equipment which could be identified with the chattel mortgage.

The defendant (Flotte) was made a party to this action and the equipment was adjudicated to the plaintiff on October 24, 1979, at a public auction.

Thereafter, on December 5, 1979, plaintiff brought this action against the defendant (Flotte) — the defendant (Blankenship) was released because of failure to obtain service of process — for a deficiency judgment on the promissory note. On July 28, 1981, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant in the amount of $33,661.38, plus legal interest from November 5, 1979, until paid and taxed all costs against the defendant. From this judgment the defendant has appealed.

The defendant has raised the following specification of errors:

1. The trial court erred in failing to give defendant Flotte, an accommodation maker on a secured note, credit (or a partial release) when the undisputed evidence is that a portion of the goods, the credit sale of which was secured by the note, was simply not sold to the purchaser or were sold and then immediately returned to the seller.
2. The trial court erred in failing to give defendant accommodation maker a credit (or a partial release) when the un-contradicted evidence is that $5,801.93 of the goods which were to have been sold under the “Equipment Invoice” in fact were not sold or were sold but then immediately returned to the seller.
3. The trial court erred in failing to give the defendant accommodation maker credit (or a partial release) when the undisputed evidence was that some of the goods to be covered by the Chattel Mortgage (two stoves) were swapped out for two other stoves of a different description, and those new stoves were not covered by the chattel mortgage, resulting in a reduction or impairment of the collateral under the chattel mortgage available to secure payment of the note.
4. The trial court erred in admitting into evidence “ledger sheets” as evidence that the “small miscellaneous items” were sold when absolutely no foundation was laid for the introduction of those sheets, when no witness testified as to how the sheets were kept, as to how to read the sheets, to explain various errors, corrections and markings on the sheets and when the only person who was called to identify those sheets was an employee of the seller who was not even employed by the seller at the time that the sheets were created or the transactions were made, and there was no explanation given as to why a more competent witness was not called.
5. The trial court erred in not reducing the principal amount of the debt by the entire amount of the “miscellaneous invoice” when the only “evidence” introduced as to sale of those items was the “ledger sheets” which were improperly introduced.
6. The trial court erred in not granting to the defendant accommodation maker a credit (or partial release) with regard to the “small miscellaneous items” when, even on the face of the purported “ledger sheets” which were the only supposed evidence, the amount of goods claimed by plaintiff (and for which the trial court gave judgment) simply were not sold.
7. The trial court erred in totally failing to consider the law and evidence applicable to the right of an accommodation maker to a pro tanto release of liability when the creditor has by its act or omission caused or allowed an impairment of the collateral securing the note upon which the defendant was an accommodation maker.
8. The trial court erred in not holding that plaintiff had waived its right to a deficiency judgment, when goods covered by the chattel mortgage were sold at sheriff’s sale (to plaintiff) without being included in the appraisal.

Considering the assignment of errors we have crystallized specifications one, two, [1320]*1320three and seven into a single discussion with respect to the resolution of this appeal.

The basic argument of the defendant is that as an accommodation maker he is only responsible to the extent that consideration which was called for in the act of sale was actually given. If some of the goods were not sold or if they were sold and then returned to the plaintiff, the plaintiff should be estopped from the collection against the defendant on that portion of the note which was given in contemplation of those goods being sold.

Thus, to the extent plaintiff did not sell the goods called for, it cannot recover from a person who guaranteed payment of the sale price. The defendant argues that the plaintiff simply did not sell $102,039.26 worth of goods to Pier Orleans, Inc.

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Related

Loubat Glassware & Cork Co. v. Pier Orleans, Inc.
437 So. 2d 1149 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
430 So. 2d 1317, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 8210, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/loubat-glassware-cork-co-v-pier-orleans-inc-lactapp-1983.