Robertson v. Cambon

146 So. 738, 176 La. 753, 1933 La. LEXIS 1598
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedFebruary 27, 1933
DocketNo. 31300.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 146 So. 738 (Robertson v. Cambon) 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
Robertson v. Cambon, 146 So. 738, 176 La. 753, 1933 La. LEXIS 1598 (La. 1933).

Opinion

LAND, Justice.

Plaintiff has instituted the present suit to recover from defendants, Maurice C. Cambon, succession of Sylvester J. Cambon, and succession of Dr. Ferdinand J. Cambon, the sum of $10,458, with interest on $2,000 from November 28, 1928, until paid; on $1,022 from December 15, 1928, until paid; on $3,000 from January 2, 1928, until paid; on $600 from May 10, 1928, until paid; on $2,000 from May 20, 1928, until paid; on $700 from June 26, 1929, until paid; on $1,000 from June 28, 1928, until paid; and on $136 from July 9, 1928, until paid.

Plaintiff prays for judgment against defendants, individually and in solido, on the ground that he gave these amounts on the above dates to the commercial partnership, composed of Maurice C. Cambon, Sylvester J. Cambon, and Dr. Ferdinand J. Cambon, for investment, and received from that firm certain promissory notes, all of which were forgeries.

The suit has been brought against the defendant Maurice C. Cambon, individually, and as testamentary executor of the successions of Sylvester J. Cambon and Dr. Ferdinand J. Cambon.

The answer filed by the defendant Maurice C. Cambon admits his residence in the parish of Orleans, amicable demand by plaintiff, and that he is the duly appointed and qualified testamentary executor of the successions of Sylvester J. Cambon and Dr. Ferdinand 3. Cambon, but denies that defendant was a member of the real estate firm of Cambon *757 Bros., and all the other allegations of plaintiff’s petition.

From a judgment rejecting his demand and dismissing his suit against all of the defendants, plaintiff has appealed.

1. The trial judge declined to render judgments in this ease against the successions of Ferdinand and Sylvester Cambon, deceased brothers of the defendant Maurice C. Cambon, on the ground that these successions had been filed in the civil district court and allotted to Judge Gleason of Division D, and therefore the trial judge of Division A had no right -or jurisdiction to entertain suits against those successions, and render judgments against them that would be binding upon the successions or upon the creditors of same.

2. The trial judge also dismissed the petition against the defendant Maurice C. Cambon, on the ground that he was not a member of the real estate firm of Cambon Bros.

The plaintiff presented his claims to the testamentary executor of these successions, and he refused to acknowledge them. Plaintiff, therefore, had the right, under article 986 of the Code of Practice, to bring this action in the civil district court against the testamentary executor of these successions in the ordinary manner, and to obtain judgment in the same manner as in other cases, as provided in the article of the Code of Practice above cited.

This court has repeatedly held that the civil district court for the parish of Orleans is but one court, composed of several divisions. Byrnes v. Byrnes, 115 La. 275, 38 So. 991; State ex rel. Du Barry v. Judges of Civil District Court, 52 La. Ann. 1255, 27 So. 1031; Succession of Kelly, 157 La. 585, 102 So. 678; Succession of Loeper, 105 La. 780, 30 So. 131; Block & Sons v. Marks, 47 La. Ann. 107, 16 So. 649; Constitution of 1921, art. 7, §§ 81 and 36.

Besides, the litigant in a suit has no control over the allotment of the case in the civil district court. It is entirely in the hands of the clérk, and it is but a chance as to what division a suit may be allotted.

Our conclusion, therefore, is that the trial judge of Division A of the civil district court had the right and the jurisdiction to try this suit, and to render judgment herein against these successions, although opened in Division D of that court.

3. The evidence in the case clearly establishes the fact that the real estate firm of Cambon Bros., composed of Sylvester J. Cambon and Dr. Ferdinand J. Cambon, received for investment from plaintiff the various amounts stated in the petition; that the individual members of that firm embezzled these amounts; and delivered to plaintiff forged notes as evidence of the pretended investments made by them.

Plaintiff, therefore, is entitled to recover against the successions of Sylvester J. Cambon and Dr. Ferdinand J. Cambon the amounts claimed with interest, as set out in his petition.

However, as a real estate firm is an ordinary partnership, the judgment in this case must be rendered against these successions jointly, and not in solido. Civ. Code, arts. 2872, 2873.

4. The question as to whether the defendant Maurice C. Cambon was. a member of *759 the real estate firm of Cambon Bros., and is liable for his share of the partnership debt in this case, is purely a question of fact.

At the outset of this opinion, it is necessary to note that plaintiff’s cause of action is based upon both the alleged existence of partnership in fact and upon partnership by estoppel.

Defendant Maurice C. Cambon, individually and as testamentary executor, filed exceptions to compel plaintiff to elect upon which cause of action he prosecutes the suit. It appears at page 110 of the transcript that plaintiff elected to proceed with the case “on the allegation that Maurice C. Cambon was in truth and in fact a member of the defendant partnership.”

Article 2801 of the Civil Code defines a partnership as follows: Article 2801: “Partnership is a synallagmatic and commutative contract made between two or more persons for the mutual participation in the profits which may accrue from property, credit, skill or industry, furnished in determined proportions by the parties.”

Article 2805 of the Civil Code declares that: “Partnerships must be created by the consent of the parties.”

The burden of proof is therefore on plaintiff to prove the making of a contract of partnership by Maurice C. Cambon with his brothers, and that a partnership in fact existed.

As part of plaintiff’s evidence of a partnership in fact, he relies upon the record in Cambon Brothers v. Suthon et al., 147 La. 66, 84 So. 496, in which Maurice C. Cambon testified that in 1913 he was a member of a firm of Cambon Bros.; and upon two acts of sale,, oqe in 1916 and the other in 1919, in which. Maurice C. Cambon also appeared as a partner of a firm of Cambon Bros.

Maurice C. Cambon testified in the present ease that, in testifying in the Suthon Case that, he was a member of Cambon Bros., he had reference to the Terrebonne sugar firm of Cambon Bros., and not to the New Orleans real estate firm of Cambon Bros.

Maurice C. Cambon moved to New Orleans, from Terrebonne parish about the year 1908, and in 1909 entered the government service as special deputy surveyor and assistant surveyor of customs. He was transferred from, the surveyor’s office to the Treasury Department in Washington, and then sent as an attaché to the American Embassy in Paris. He-left New York for France on April 15, 1925, and returned April 16, 1927.

The real estate firm of Cambon Bros. was formed about the year 1914.

Maurice C. Cambon was engaged, prior to-the year 1908, in the sugar business in the parishes of Terrebonne and Lafourche with his brothers, Sylvester and Ferdinand, under the firm name of Cambon Bros.

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Bluebook (online)
146 So. 738, 176 La. 753, 1933 La. LEXIS 1598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robertson-v-cambon-la-1933.