Oupac, Inc. v. Bernard

889 So. 2d 378, 4 La.App. 3 Cir. 1076, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 2977, 2004 WL 2806440
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 8, 2004
DocketNo. 04-1076
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 889 So. 2d 378 (Oupac, Inc. v. Bernard) 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
Oupac, Inc. v. Bernard, 889 So. 2d 378, 4 La.App. 3 Cir. 1076, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 2977, 2004 WL 2806440 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

JjPICKETT, J.

FACTS

Joseph Bernard, Jr., defaulted on a loan that he received from Oupac, Inc. d/b/a Oupac Financial Services (Oupac). On August 10, 2001, judgment was rendered against him in favor of Oupac for $8,454.96, plus interest and attorney’s fees. On December 14, 2001, Mr. Bernard failed to appear at a judgment debtor examination and a civil bench warrant was issued for his arrest.

Joseph Bernard, Jr., is employed by J.B. Construction Company which is owned by his father, Joseph Bernard, Sr. On July 1, 2002, Oupac filed a Petition for Garnishment making J.B. Construction garnishee and propounded garnishment interrogatories. J.B. Construction was served with the garnishment interrogatories on July 23, 2002. J.B. Construction failed to answer the interrogatories. On October 8, 2002, Oupac sent a certified letter, as a courtesy, to J.B. Construction requesting that it answer the interrogatories within ten days. The letter informed J.B. Construction that if it did not answer within ten days, Oupac would file a Judgment Pro Confesso against the company, thereby [380]*380making it liable for Joseph Bertrand, Jr.’s debt. J.B. Construction received the letter on October 9, 2002 and again failed to answer the interrogatories. Thirteen days later, on October 22, 2002, Oupac filed a Motion and Rule for Judgment Pro Con-fesso against J.B. Construction. It was at that time J.B. Construction apparently sought advice from legal counsel and answered the interrogatories. They were not, however, timely answered.

The motion was heard on February 6, 2003. The trial court determined that J.B. Construction should have been garnishing $52.75 a week from Mr. Bernard’s salary and that the garnishment should have started in August 2002, the date that J.B. Construction received service of the interrogatories. The trial court estimated that | ¡.twenty-six weeks had passed since that date and $1477.00 represented the amount that should have been garnished as of the date of the hearing. The trial court refused, however, to grant the judgment and took the matter under advisement. It ordered J.B. Construction to pay the $1,477.00 it had calculated was due as well as court costs and attorney fees and to begin garnishing Mr. Bernard’s check weekly. The trial court advised the parties that it was “[Hjolding this over his [Bernard, Sr.’s] head” specifically advising Mr. Bernard, Sr. that should his son quit working the court could “[I]ssue this judgment against you [J.B. Construction] and make you pay this money.”

On March 27, 2003, Joseph Bernard, Jr. filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding. In accordance with the trial court’s order, J.B. Construction sent Oupac $211.00 representing the garnishment for the month of March. In April, however, it did not garnish his paycheck having receiving notice from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, that it could no longer withhold the garnishment.

Oupac filed a Motion to Reset the Judgment Pro Confesso. The motion was heard on November 12, 2003. The trial court ruled in favor of J.B. Construction, denying Oupac’s Motion for Judgment Pro Confesso. The trial court also denied Ou-pac’s motion for additional attorney’s fees and court costs.

It is from this judgment that the plaintiff appeals.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR
Oupac asserts two assignments of error:
1) The trial court erred in denying Ou-pac’s Motion for Judgment Pro Confesso against J.B. Construction Company, and thereby refusing to hold J.B. Construction Company liable for the entire unpaid judgment against Joseph Bernard, Jr.
2) The trial court erred by failing to award additional attorney’s fees and court costs as a result of Oupac, Inc. having to bring the Rule for Judgment Pro Confesso.

DISCUSSION

In the appellant’s first assignment of error, it argues the trial court erred in denying Oupac’s Motion for Judgnent Pro Confesso against J.B. Construction.

Garnishment proceedings generally are governed by La.Code Civ.P. arts. 2411-2417. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 2413 provides, in pertinent part:

A. If the garnishee fails to answer within the delay provided by Article 2412, the judgment creditor may proceed by contradictory motion against the garnishee for the amount of the unpaid judgment, with interest and costs. The failure of the garnishee to answer prior to the filing of such a contradictory motion is prima facie proof that he has property of or is indebted to the judg-[381]*381merit debtor to the extent of the judgment, interest, and costs. ...
B. Judgment shall be rendered against the garnishee on trial of the motion unless he proves that he had no property of and was not indebted to the judgment debtor. If on the trial of such motion, the garnishee proves the amount of such property or indebtedness, the judgment against the garnishee shall be limited to the delivery of the property or payment of the indebtedness, as provided in Article 2415.
C. Regardless of the decision on the contradictory motion, the court shall render judgment against the garnishee for the costs and a reasonable attorney fee for the motion.

(Emphasis added.)

Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 2412(D) provides, “The garnishee shall file his sworn answers to the interrogatories within fifteen days from the date of service made pursuant to this Article.”

In the instant matter, the appellant stated to the court that service was made on the garnishee on July 23, 2002. The ap-pellee represented to the court that service was actually made on August 1, 2002. The service receipt does not appear in the record before us. Even if, however, we accept the appellee’s date of August 1, 2002 as the date of service, at least sixty-nine days lapsed before the appellant sent the appellee |4a courtesy letter on October 8, 2002, advising the appellee that if the answers were not filed within ten days a Motion for Judgment Pro Confesso would be filed. The appellant further advised the appellee that this would result in the garnishee being made liable for the debt. Still the appellee failed to file the answers to interrogatories. The appellant waited thirteen additional days from the appel-lee’s receipt of that letter before actually filing a Motion and Rule for Judgment Pro Confesso. Only then did the appellee file the answers.

There is no question that the appel-lee/garnishee failed to answer timely and failed to answer prior to the filing of the contradictory motion. Under the clear wording of the statute, failure to file the answer prior to the filing of the contradictory motion is prima facie proof that he has property of or is indebted to the judgment debtor to the extent of the judgment including interest and costs. The statute is equally clear that a judgment shall be rendered against the appellee/garnishee unless he proves that he had no property of and was not indebted to the judgment debtor, in this case, Joseph Bernard, Jr.

The record before us is void of any evidence presented by the appellee/gar-nishee. Statements were made to the court by legal counsel regarding the judgment debtor’s weekly wage. Those statements are not evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
889 So. 2d 378, 4 La.App. 3 Cir. 1076, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 2977, 2004 WL 2806440, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oupac-inc-v-bernard-lactapp-2004.