Monroe Grocer Co. v. Hodge

122 So. 81, 14 La. App. 396, 1929 La. App. LEXIS 354
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 8, 1929
DocketNo. 3224
StatusPublished

This text of 122 So. 81 (Monroe Grocer Co. v. Hodge) 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
Monroe Grocer Co. v. Hodge, 122 So. 81, 14 La. App. 396, 1929 La. App. LEXIS 354 (La. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, J.

Plaintiff, Monroe Grocer Company, Limited, sued to recover judgment against defendant, W. J. Hodge, on a promissory note for $2,249.40 signed by him, dated February 20, 1923, drawn payable to the order of plaintiff on November 1, 1923, and bearing interest at the rate of 8 per cent per annum from January 1, 1923, and stipulating payment of 10 per cent on principal and interest, as attorney’s fees, if placed in the hands of an attorney for collection, less the following credits, namely: January 5, 1925, $807.92; June 20, 1925, $15; July 11, 1925, $15; August 11, 1925, $15; September 30, 1925, $15; October 31, 1925, $15; November 30, 1925, $15; December 30, 1925, $15; December 31, 1925, $30; July 14, 1926, $90; July 31, 1926, $15; August 31, 1926, $15; September 30, 1926, $15; and October 30, 1926, $15.

Plaintiff alleges that the note was lost and that its loss was duly advertised. An alleged copy of the note is attached to the petition as a part thereof. In addition to the credits recited above, it bears indorsement of an additional credit of $15 under date of May 9, 1925.

The prayer is for judgment for the amount of .principal and interest and attorney’s fees owing on the note, less the credits mentioned other than that of $15 under date of May 9, 1925.

Defendant admitted execution and delivery of the note and pleaded payment. He alleged that on January 5, 1925, plaintiff received from him a stock of general merchandise in part payment of the note to the extent of $807.92, and that in further part payment of the note to the extent of $1,500 he transferred to plaintiff on November'4, 1924, lots 4, 5, 6 and 7 of block B of the town of Calhoun in Ouachita parish, La. And he further alleges that these transfers of property “and other amounts paid by your defendant prior to January 5, 1925, represented by certain chattel mortgage notes and crop lien pledges” transferred by him to plaintiff to secure the payment of the note sued on “and collected by plaintiff more than paid the note.”

In respect to the whereabouts of the note, he “avers that it has always been his custom to destroy cancelled or paid notes and that it is his recollection that the note herein sued on was returned to him by the plaintiff company on or about the day the $872.92 was paid, or shortly thereafter, and that same was destroyed, so he therefore avers on account of said belief that said note was destroyed by him when the plaintiff returned it to him.”

On these issues the case was tried, and there was judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant for the principal and interest owing on the note, less the.credits allowed by plaintiff, not, however, including the credit of $15 under date of May 9, 1925, and for 10 per cent on the balance owing on the note, as attorney’s fees.

From this judgment the defendant has appealed.

OPINION

In respect of the credits claimed by defendant for amounts alleged to have been collected by plaintiff on chattel mortgage notes and crop lien pledges deposited with it by defendant as security for the payment of the note sued on, there was a com[398]*398píete failure of proof, and therefore nothing can be allowed him on that score.

And the credit of $807.92 of date January 5, 1925, being conceded by plaintiff, there remains for our consideration the claim of a credit of $1,500 of date November 4, 1924, for real estate alleged to have been transferred by defendant to plaintiff on that date.

The record shows that by an act executed before one of the deputy clerks of the clerk of the Fourth judicial district court of Louisiana in and for the parish of Ouachita defendant transferred to plaintiff for a recited consideration of $1,500 the immovable property described above. The deed was filed for record on the day it was executed, to-wit, February 4, 1924, and was signed by defendant. It was not, however, signed by any one on behalf of plaintiff accepting it.

It is contended by plaintiff that the execution of the deed and the filing of it for record was not authorized by it, and that it never subsequently accepted the transfer either expressly or by implication.

Defendant was engaged in the mercantile business in the town of Calhoun and owned the stock of merchandise he transferred to plaintiff and also the immovable property in question. He was insolvent, and plaintiff was seeking to collect the note sued on. Plaintiff was interested in the business success of S. A. Boyd & Son of Calhoun, a partnership engaged in the mercantile business there, and desired to facilitate the partnership in acquiring ownership of defendant’s stock in trade and his storehouse and lots, being the ground above described. Plaintiff did acquire the stock in trade by datien en paiement at the price of $807.92 as above mentioned, and sold it to S. A. Boyd & Son, who continued under their own name in the same store building the business formerly conducted there by defendant.

Regarding the circumstances under which he executed the deed to plaintiff and filed it for record, defendant testified:

‘‘Q. Why did you place on record a deed to the Monroe Grocer Company covering a building and four lots in the town of Calhoun? Why did you execute that deed and have it recorded?
“A. From instructions that I received from Mr. Washburn.’’'
Mr. W. M. Washburn, to whom the witness referred, was the secretary and treasurer of the plaintiff company.
“Q. What were his instructions?
“A. I owed the Monroe Grocer Company a note. Mr. Washburn had charge of the note, and he approached me to buy this Calhoun property. We agreed on the price, provided they could get the titles and things straightened up. There were some mortgages against it. So, after we got in communication with some of the heirs in regard to the condition of the title, I went to see Mr. Caspari at the Monroe Dry Goods Company with reference to a mortgage they held, and Mr. Caspari told Mr. Herring to look up the records. After a week or ten days had elapsed, Mr. Caspari, who represents the Monroe Dry Goods Company, told me that he would like to purchase the property, but I told him that Mr. Washburn had the preference. After Mr. Caspari made the proposition to purchase this property, I rang Mr. Washburn and Mr. Washburn told me that he would buy it; so I told him ‘all right,’ that I was carrying Mr. Caspari out to see the Skipper place and let him have that property to apply on the note with them. I told him that I had agreed to let the Monroe Hardware Company have what I call the Brown-lee property; so Mr. Washburn told me it was ‘all right.’ I carried Mr. Caspari out to see this property, sold it to him, and came back and did what Mr. Washburn told me to do. I had a deed made to Monroe Grocer Company for the property at Calhoun, and I made the Monroe Dry Goods Company a deed for the Skipper property.
“Q. What did Mr. Washburn tell you to [399]*399do when you went around and, had this ! deed recorded?
‘‘A. Well, he told me to go ahead and have the deed drawn up and recorded.
“Q. Yes. Did you do it?
“A. I did.
“Q. Did you have the deed recorded?
“A. I did.
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Bluebook (online)
122 So. 81, 14 La. App. 396, 1929 La. App. LEXIS 354, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/monroe-grocer-co-v-hodge-lactapp-1929.