Redman v. Murrel

42 So. 49, 117 La. 516, 1906 La. LEXIS 727
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 29, 1906
DocketNo. 15,536
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 42 So. 49 (Redman v. Murrel) 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
Redman v. Murrel, 42 So. 49, 117 La. 516, 1906 La. LEXIS 727 (La. 1906).

Opinion

On rehearing.

Statement of Case.

NICHOLLS, X

On the 22d of December, 1900, Frankel and Kaplan sold to Elmus Red-[517]*517man and Allen Bakestraw, a farm near the town of Crowley, In the parish of Acadia. The purchasers executed their notes to represent part of the purchase price. Among the notes were two for $2,000 each, due on or before December 22, 1902, two for $2,000 each, due on or before December 22, 1903. The notes were payable at the office of the bank of Acadia, town of Crowley.

The notes stipulated 8 per cent, interest from date and payable annually and 10 per cent, attorney’s fees on amount sued for in case of suit. Payment of the unpaid portion of the price was secured by mortgage on the property sold. The act contained the clause “de non alienando.” Later Redman and Rakestraw sold the farm to Thomas L. Shaw who assumed the payment of the four notes but in the act of sale the vendors declared that the interest on the notes had been reduced from S to 6% per cent, payable annually.

Robert H. Woodstock, as holder of the four notes resorted to executory proceedings thereon claiming the principal $8,000, 8 per cent, interest thereon from December 22, 1901, and 10 per cent, attorney’s fees on the aggregate. The proceedings were directed against Red-man and Rakestraw ignoring Shaw.

Redman and Rakestraw and Thomas Shaw, their vendee brought suit enjoining the sale of the property. They alleged that Woodcock claimed more than was due; that Woodcock & Oo., of which firm Robert H. Woodcock was a member, acquired the notes from Frankel & Kaplan in February, 1901; that in March, 1901, the makers entered into an agreement with Woodcock & Oo. by which the interest on the notes was to be reduced from 8 to 6y2 per cent.; that at the maturity of the notes they made tender of the principal and interest thereof, and they contended that by said tenders the running of all interest was stopped after the tender. They denied liability for attorney’s fees.

The prayer of their petition was that the preliminary injunction which had issued in their favor should be perpetuated; that there be judgment in their favor recognizing and enforcing the tenders (which in their petition they alleged they had made) of the payment of the notes and compelling Woodcock to accept the amounts which they alleged were alone due by themselves in full payment and satisfaction of the notes, and ordering that the notes be returned to them upon payment by them of the notes.

Woodcock, the defendant in injunction, pleaded a general denial. He averred that he was the lawful owner of the notes ever since the 1st of March, 1901, or thereabouts; he specially denied that they were ever owned by R. H. Woodcock & Oo. He claimed in re-convention damages against the plaintiffs in injunction. The district court perpetuated the injunction as prayed for. It further ordered and decreed that the tender made at the First National Bank of Crowley, La., on the 22d day of December, 1902, by Thomas Shaw for the benefit of himself and of his coplaintiffs in injunction, Elmus Redman and Allen Rakestraw, of $4,568 in payment of the two promissory notes of $2,000 each, due that day, together with the interest thereon at the rate of 6% per cent, from the 22d of December, 1901, as well as the interest at 6% per cent, per annum due on the other two notes of $2,000 each up to December 22, 1902, and also that the tender at the bank of Acadia on the 26th of December, 1903, by the said Thomas Shaw, likewise for the benefit of himself and of his coplaintiffs’ of $4,-265 in payment of the amount of the two promissory notes due December 22, 1903, together with the interest thereon at the rate of 6y2 per cent, per annum from December 22, 1902, be recognized as legal and binding, and that the seizing creditor be ordered to accept the said amounts in full of the said four promissory notes in principal and the in[519]*519terest thereon at the rate of 6% per cent, per annum as aforesaid. It further ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the rate of interest on the said notes was 6%. instead of 8 per cent, as shown by the evidence and the finding of the court.

Woodcock appealed.

Opinion.

The notes upon which the executory process issued on the petition of Woodcock were payable at the Bank of Acadia and bore interest on their face at the rate of 8 per cent, from date.

The onus touching the agreement alleged to have been made subsequent to their execution by which it was agreed between the holder of the notes and the makers that the interest fixed therein was reduced to 6V2 per cent, was upon the makers, both as to the existence of the agreement and its terms, and the burden was also upon them to show the legal existence of a legal tender of payment of the notes.

The holder concedes that he agreed to a reduction of the rate of interest, but he insists that the agreement to that effect was conditional — the condition being that the notes and interest should be promptly paid on or before the maturity of the notes at the counting house of Woodcock & Co. at Macon, Ill.

Shaw, who purchased the property after-wards from Redman & Rakestraw, does not pretend to know anything personally of the terms of the agreement. In the sale to him his vendors declared that the interest was reduced to 6% per cent per annum.

The evidence' adduced on the trial is very conflicting.

The main reliance of the plaintiffs in injunction is a typewritten letter bearing the date of March 11, 1901, signed in typewriting, “Woodcock & Co.,” and addressed to Red-man & Rakestraw, in which occurs the following :

“Another thing — the party who proposed to take these notes has become a little shaky since Dr. Walston published his ‘views on the rice country’ and thinks the lien is too great for the amount of the security. We will take the loan ourselves at the same rate we spoke of — that is 6% if the interest is paid promptly as specified in the notes and the principal paid when due. The note inclosed should be file'd with the county clerk as soon as you get it.”

The makers insist that this letter is the agreement or contract which was entered into between the parties — that it is silent as to any condition that the reduction of the rate of interest was made contingent or dependent upon the payment of the notes and interest at the counting .house of R. H. Woodcock & Co., at Macon, Ill., on or before the maturity of the notes; they maintain that the letter discloses the entire contract or agreement. Woodcock points to the date of the letter as establishing conclusively that these pretentions are without foundation inasmuch as at that time he was, and had been for some time, the owner of the notes by consummated purchase from, Frankel and Kaplan, the notes, themselves having reached him from Louisiana on the 11th of March, being sent to him as owner by Mr. Duson. He says in his testimony he has no recollection of having written the letter, but if he did the extract simply referred to the prior verbal agreement which had been closed between the parties so that it did not cover the entire agreement but shows only some of its terms; that it is at furthest an admission or statement which, if too broad or too narrow or erroneous, was open to explanation or proof as held in Flash, Preston & Co. v. American Glucose Co., 38 La. Ann. 7,. and Davies v. Bierce, 114 La. 674, 38 South. 488.

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Bluebook (online)
42 So. 49, 117 La. 516, 1906 La. LEXIS 727, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/redman-v-murrel-la-1906.