Riccobono v. Kearney

7 La. App. 738, 1927 La. App. LEXIS 311
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 28, 1927
DocketNo. 9683
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 7 La. App. 738 (Riccobono v. Kearney) 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
Riccobono v. Kearney, 7 La. App. 738, 1927 La. App. LEXIS 311 (La. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

CLAIBORNE, J.

Plaintiff claims of the defendant $1925 for rent.

Plaintiff alleged that on May 1, 1923, he leased to J. J. Kearney the No. 3865 Gentilly Boulevard for twelve months com[739]*739mencing May 1, 1923, and ending April 30, 1924, at $175 per month payable monthly, for which said lessee gave his twelve notes; it was stipulated in said lease that “should said lessee at any time fail to pay said rent punctually at maturity, the rent for the whole unexpired term of said lease should at once become due and exigible” with ten per cent attorney’s fees; that the rent note due June 1, 1923, was unpaid, which caused the maturity of all the eleven unpaid notes amounting to $1925.

The plaintiff prayed for provisional seizure and for judgment for $1925 with interest and attorney’s fees.

For answer the defendant admitted signing the lease and the notes and his failure to pay the same; he averred that he leased said premises with “all the furniture and equipment contained in said premises as set forth and enumerated in an- inventory attached to the lease; that after he had paid the rent for the month of May he learned that the cash register in the (premises did not belong to the plaintiff, but was the property of the National Cash Register Co., and was by them removed on May 29th for the reason that there were due thereon two notes of $25 each; that after the provisional seizure the plaintiff caused to be removed from the premises all the soft drinks; that on May 17th the plaintiff caused to be removed from the premises a gas stove which was essential to his business, and compelled him to use a coal range.

During the trial it was proved that after the seizure the defendant abandoned the premises and that' the plaintiff rented the premises without consulting the defendant or giving him an opportunity to sublease them himself. The defendant contended that such action constituted a termination of the lease.

On April 21st there was judgment in favor of defendant rejecting plaintiff’s demand, and he has appealed.

On May 5, 1924, the plaintiff filed a petition averring that since the defendant had abandoned the leased premises he had leased the same to other parties from September 10, 1923, to April 30, 1924, the date of the expiration of the lease, and that he collected rents from said premises for that period of time amounting to $871.88 for which he entered a remittitur.

The facts of the case are that the plaintiff was in the soft drink and restaurant business at 3865 Gentilly Boulevard; that wishing to retire from the business there he employed Generes and Ganucheau, real estate agents, to lease his place; these agents procured the defendant, they leased to him the building and the contents of the soft drink establishment consisting of knives, forks, plates, glasses, tables and. other accessories of the business, of which a list was made for the price of $175 per month; there were on the premises an electric sign, a cash register, an ice box, and a piano, bought by plaintiff on time, upon which he had made partial payments; it was agreed that the defendant was to pay to the plaintiff the amounts which the plaintiff had paid on account of those four articles and to assume to pay the installments still due the amount of which was to be ascertained later, and at the expiration of the lease the plaintiff was to reimburse to the defendant one-half of the amounts paid by the lessee on account of the four articles mentioned above.

In accordance with these preliminary arrangements the lease sued on was committed to writing.

The clauses concerning these four articles read as follows:

[740]*740“The lessee agrees to pay the following amounts for the articles of equipment hereunder enumerated and agrees to pay promptly the installments still due on said articles of equipment when same fall due.
“Amounts payable in cash to lessor:
Electric sign ___________________________‘----------------$150.00
Cash register __________________________________________ 175.00
Ice box ................................ — ................... 96.00
Piano _____________________________________________________ 105.00
Total __________________________________________$526.00
“Lessor agrees to reimburse the lessee upon the expiration of this lease ;;; * * one-half, of the amounts paid by the lessee on account of the articles of equipment hereinabove set forth.”

Accordingly the defendant gave to the plaintiff his check for $701, composed of the above sum of $526 and of one month’s rent of $175, and went into possession of the premises and movables leased.

When the National Cash Register Co. called for an installment of $25 due for a month anterior to his purchase the defendant failed to pay it and the Company removed the register without protest on defendant’s part. He had another register of his own on the premises. He thereafter failed to pay his rent.

Hence this suit.

He bases his refusal to pay the rent on two grounds:

1st. Because the Register Company removed the register and,

2nd. Because the defendant removed a stove.

The Company removed the register because the defendant did not pay the installments due.

These installments he had assumed to pay and it was his failure to pay them | which brought about the removal. He cannot visit his fault upon the plaintiff.

But even if it was the duty of plaintiff to pay the installment and he refused to do so, the defendant should have paid it to minimize his loss, the more so as the lease was ample to protect him.

In the case of Tardos vs. Rrd., 35 La. Ann. 15, the plaintiff asserted a contract with the defendant for a low freight rate which the defendant refused to recognize and claimed more freight.

On defendant’s refusal to accept the reduced freight, the plaintiff abandoned the goods and afterwards sued for damages. The Court held that the defendant should have paid the freight claimed and then sued to recover it.

Said the Court:

“Equity as well as law, abhors the idea that a man who, by the payment of $58, could escape all injury, may quietly sit down and suffer damage to the extent of $1900, and then claim this enormous sum from a, third (person without even notifying him of the injury or giving him the opportunity to avert the damage.”

Beers vs. Bd. of Health, 35 La. Ann. 1132; Armistead vs. Shreveport & R. R. Valley Ry Co., 108 La. 171, 32 So. 456; Chattanooga Car & Foundry Co. vs. Lefebre, 113 La. 487, 37 So. 38; Donovan vs. New Orleans Ry. & Light Co., 132 La. 239, 61 So. 216; New Iberia Sugar Co., Ltd., vs. Lagarde, 130 La. 387, 58 So. 16; Airey vs. Pullman Palace Car Co., 50 La. Ann. 648, 23 So. 512; Curl vs. Bond, 52 La. Ann. 1052, 27 So. 577; Carr vs. Miller-Morris Canal, Irrigation & Land Co., Ltd., 105 La. 239, 29 So. 715; 4 Orl App. 111; 13 Cyc. 71; 1 Sedgwick, S. 93, p. 165; 2 Greene Ev., S. 261.

The law does not favor the abrogation of leases. Denman & Co. vs. Lopez & Co., 12 La. 823.

[741]*7412nd.

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Related

Pumilia v. Johnstone
121 So. 198 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1929)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 La. App. 738, 1927 La. App. LEXIS 311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/riccobono-v-kearney-lactapp-1927.