Mid-Continent Refrigerator Co. v. Hurst

205 So. 2d 734, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 5854
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 19, 1967
DocketNo. 7175
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 205 So. 2d 734 (Mid-Continent Refrigerator Co. v. Hurst) 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
Mid-Continent Refrigerator Co. v. Hurst, 205 So. 2d 734, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 5854 (La. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

LOTTINGER, Judge.

This is a suit on a contract wherein Mid-Continent Refrigerator Company, plaintiff-appellee, leased to Joe Hurst, d/b/a Joe Hurst Grocery, defendant-appellant, certain refrigeration display boxes for a stipulated monthly rental. Mid-Continent Refrigerator Company (hereinafter sometimes referred to as Mid-Continent) seeks to be awarded the full amount of the rental payments, less what has already been paid, interest, attorney’s fees, damages and the right to take possession of the [735]*735leased merchandise; and in the alternative, to have judgment in its favor rescinding the contract of lease and to be awarded the rental payments up until the lease is declared rescinded, interest, attorney’s fees and damages. The Trial Court ruled in favor of Mid-Continent, plaintiff-appellee, from which judgment the defendant-appellant has perfected this appeal.

The record points out without question that the lease agreement between Mid-Continent and Joe Hurst, d/b/a Joe Hurst Grocery, was signed and acknowledged by Joe Hurst on September 14, 1965, and was accepted by Mid-Continent on September 16, 1965. The lease provided that Joe Hurst was to make thirty-seven installments of $116.00 each, commencing on October 5, 1965, and on the same day of each month thereafter until thirty-seven months had elapsed. The defendant made a down payment of $232.00, which amount is a credit against the total rental figure of $4,292.00. The defendant-appellant-lessee failed to pay the monthly installments of October, November and December of 1965, and January and February of 1966.

On February 25, 1966, Mid-Continent, exercising its right to declare the entire amount of rent due and payable as stipulated in the lease agreement, filed suit for the balance due. Mid-Continent further prayed for attorney’s fees and the estimated cost of recrating and shipping the equipment back to its destination. On April 4, 1966, a “Motion and Order for Extension of Time to Plead”, was signed by a District Judge, and same was filed on May 5, 1966. On May 12, 1966, the defendant appellant filed his answer wherein he “generally denied” all allegations of the plaintiff’s petition. The defendant in his answer as filed on May 12, 1966, alleges that “the transaction upon which this suit is allegedly based was brought about through fraud, misrepresentation and deceit practiced upon defendant by plaintiff and his authorized representative or representatives * * The minutes of the Trial Court show that on May 14, 1966, this case was assigned for trial on the merits for June 16, 1966. On June 16, 1966, a continuance was granted to the defendant-appellant and the matter was continued and reassigned for trial for October 10, 1966. Further, on June 16, 1966, the defendant-appellant filed an “Exception of No Cause of a Right of Action”, and a motion for trial by jury. The Trial Judge overruled the motion for trial by jury, and referred the “Exception of No Cause of a Right of Action” to the merits. On October 5, 1966, plaintiff-ap-pellee filed a “Supplemental and Amended Petition” with the consent of Court, whereby he supplemented and amended his original petition by pleading in the alternative that if the Trial Court should find that there was no lease between the plaintiff and the defendant, but rather that the purported lease agreement was in fact a contract of sale, then the petitioner alleged that it had a vendor’s lien and privilege on the items listed in the agreement.

The Trial Court found judgment in favor of the plaintiff, Mid-Continent, and ordered the termination of the lease agreement because of the default of the defendant, Joe Hurst, and further ordered that Joe Hurst, d/b/a Joe Hurst Grocery, be ordered to surrender to the plaintiff the merchandise as described in the lease agreement. It was further ordered that there be judgment in favor of the plaintiff, in the sum of $1,740.00, representing rental payments due from October 5, 1965, through December 5, 1966, together with six per cent per annum interest on each overdue payment from the date that it became overdue until paid, less a credit due Joe Hurst of $232.00 for rental paid. It was further ordered that there be judgment in favor of Mid-Continent in the amount of $500.00 for attorney’s fees incurred by Mid-Continent for the trial of this matter in the District Court, and that Mid-Continent be further awarded the sum of $300.00 for the cost of recrating and reshipping the leased merchandise to Mid-Continent’s plant in Denver, Colorado, and the further sum of $50.00 for reconditioning said equipment.

[736]*736The defendant-appellant has made no attack on the findings of the Trial Judge as far as the merits of this case are concerned, and we therefore assume that he is satisfied with this portion of the decision. The defendant-appellant has alleged three specifications of error, none of which refer to the merits of this case, namely:

“I.
The Court erred in trying the matter as it was premature due to the fact that plaintiff filed a supplemental petition on October 5th, and the legal delays had not run at the time of the trial date, October 10th.
“II.
The Court erred in not permitting defendant to have a jury trial.
“HI.
The Court erred when it overruled defendant-appellant’s exception and allowing plaintiff to proceed when it had not shown that as a foreign corporation it had complied with the laws of the State of Louisiana.”

We shall now discuss each specification of error separately.

PREMATURITY

Defendant-appellant contends that the Trial Judge prematurely allowed this case to go to trial, inasmuch as the Trial Judge permitted the plaintiff-appellee to file supplemental and amending pleadings on the fifth day of October, five days prior to trial, and would not thereafter permit the defendant to file an answer to the supplemental and amending pleadings.

With the permission of the Trial Court, the plaintiff-appellee supplemented and amended his original petition by adding the following paragraph:

“In the alternative, and only in the alternative, should this Honorable Court, for some reason unknown to your petitioner, refuse any and all of petitioner’s above demand, and for some reason unknown to your petitioner, hold any of the above demands inconsistent or any of the above obligations as contradictory or violative of Louisiana law, and further hold the written contract of lease dated September 16, 1965, between petitioner and defendant, a certified copy of which lease is attached hereto and made a part hereof as if copied in extenso, is in fact a contract of sale, and your petitioner shows that it has a vendor’s lien and privilege on the items and merchandise listed in the said lease and set out in Article 2 of this petition, 'to secure payment of the sum of Four Thousand Sixty and no/100 Dollars ($4,060.00) and in addition is entitled according to the contract to the sum of Twelve Hundred Dollars ($1,200.-00) as attorney’s fees and additional damages in the amount of Seven Hundred Fifty and no/100 Dollars ($750.00) as estimated cost for recrating equipment and shipment of same to Colorado.”

In this pleading, plaintiff-appellee reiterated the prayer of his original petition and then further prayed in accordance with the additional paragraph. Service was accepted by the attorney for the defendant on October 4, 1966.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
205 So. 2d 734, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 5854, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mid-continent-refrigerator-co-v-hurst-lactapp-1967.