Ruiz v. American Trading Co.

118 So. 597, 167 La. 28, 1928 La. LEXIS 2002
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedOctober 2, 1928
DocketNos. 26848, 27099, 27525, 27916.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 118 So. 597 (Ruiz v. American Trading Co.) 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
Ruiz v. American Trading Co., 118 So. 597, 167 La. 28, 1928 La. LEXIS 2002 (La. 1928).

Opinions

OVERTON, J.

These cases were consolidated for argument in this court, and will be disposed of in one opinion. The first three plaintiffs named in the title, Ruiz, Urruela, and Calderon, are citizens of, and sugar planters in, the republic of Guatemala. The fourth plaintiff, De Leon, was a Guatemalan commission merchant, residing in the city of Guatemala. While the appeal in his case was pending De Leon died, and his widow, Maria Lopez Caeeres, was recognized by the courts of Guatemala as his only heir. Later, Mrs. De Leon, by order of this court, was substituted as party plaintiff in place of her deceased husband. The defendant in these cases is a corporation, organized under the laws of the state of Delaware, and during the negotiations out of which these suits arose had an office in the city of New Orleans and a permit to transact business in this state.

The suit of Ruiz is based on a claim for $8,472.49, with legal interest, this sum representing the price of sugar, alleged to have been sold by him to defendant, through the latter’s agent, Juan Maria de Leon, one of the plaintiffs, mentioned above.

The suit of Urruela is based upon a claim for $32,000, with legal interest, this sum representing the price of sugar, alleged to have been sold by him to defendant through the latter’s alleged agent, De Leon.

The suit of Calderon is based upon a claim for $10,9S4.72, with legal interest, this sum representing the price of sugar, alleged to have been sold by him to defendant through its alleged agent, De Leon.

*31 The claim of De Leon, which is now being prosecuted by his widow, is for $13,266.33, with legal interest, of which sum $7,510.42 represents disbursements alleged to have been made by De Leon for the account of defendant, as the latter’s agent, and the balance, amounting to $5,755.94 is for commissions or profits, also alleged to be due De Leon as agent for defendant, for having purchased for the latter, at its request, the foregoing and other sugars, and also some honey, under arrangements made by defendant with De Leon. Under these arrangements, as appears from De Leon’s petition, as amended, De Leon was to quote defendant prices on sugar and other commodities, produced in Guatemala, cost and freight, seaboard. De Leon was to purchase these, it is contended, on the acceptance of the prices quoted by him, for the account of defendant, paying the planters and others from whom purchased at prices f. o. b. railroad station, by draft drawn by him on defendant, and was to pay the freight and other charges to seaboard, and draw a draft on defendant for the amount of these disbursements and for his commissions, the latter to consist of the difference between the cost price of the sugar plus the railroad freights and other disbursements and the price to be paid by defendant.

Defendant concedes that it purchased the goods at the prices quoted by De Leon to it; that it received the goods; that it did not return them, but urges that it does not owe the three planters, who are plaintiffs herein, for the goods, because it did not purchase the goods from them, through De Leon as its agent, but purchased them from De Leon as principal.- It also urges that it does not owe De Leon any commissions or for any disbursements made by him, for the reason that he was not its agent, and that whatever it may owe him, if anything, it owes him as the vendor of the goods. In short, the defense to all of these suits is that De Leon was not defendant’s agent, but was a principal in the trans-’ actions upon which these suits rest.

As relates to the claims of Ruiz, Urruela, and Calderon, each of these plaintiffs alleged and testified, and, as we appreciate it, contended throughout, that he sold the sugar involved in his suit to defendant through De Leon as defendant’s agent. De Leon himself in his suit alleged, in effect, that defendant purchased the sugar from these plaintiffs, through him, as its agent, and testified accordingly both in his suit and in theirs. Hence, by reason of this concurrence of view among all of these plaintiffs as to whom the sugar was sold, defendant might have settled with Ruiz, Urruela, and Calderon with perfect safety, for De Leon, from whom defendant urges that it purchased, denied that he was the vendor, and testified that these plaintiffs were the vendors of the sugar. In fact, defendant might have even settled the disbursements and commissions claimed by De Leon on these sugars with safety, and without paying a dollar more than it agreed to pay. in buying them, for the amounts claimed by Ruiz, Urruela, and Calderon, added to the disbursements and commissions claimed by De Leon, in which Ruiz, Urruela, and Calderon claimed no part, is the sum that defendant agreed to pay for the sugars. But defendant insists, as we have said, that it did not buy from Ruiz, Urruela, and Calderon, but from De Leon, and therefore owes the former nothing, and does not owe De Leon any commissions or disbursements. However, as it will appear, we think, in passing on the claim of De Leon, this defense is not well founded, not only as against the claim of De Leon, but also as against the claims of the remaining plaintiffs.

Before passing upon the question of agency, and the merits of De Leon’s claim, it is necessary to consider an objection urged by defendant to the filing of an amended petition by De Leon, after issue joined, and *33 after evidence had been taken in his case, De Leon’s claim, it may be said again, is based not only on commissions and disbursements in the Ruiz, Urruela, and Calderon transactions, but also on commissions and disbursements claimed in other transactions by De Leon for the account of defendant. De Leon alleged in his original petition that he was to be paid the disbursements incurred by him in entering into the contracts for the purchases, and 50 cents a quintal (100 pounds Spanish weight, 101.43 pounds English weight) on all sugars purchased by him as defendant’s agent. In the amended petition, De Leon alleges that the allegation that he was to receive 50 cents a quintal, as compensation, was made 'in error and through inadvertence, and that, as said by us in stating the basis of De Leon’s demand, the arrangement between him and defendant, in truth and in fact, was that De Leon was employed as defendant’s agent; that he was to quote defendant prices, cost and freight to seaboard, and, upon approval, he was to buy the commodity and give a draft on defendant to the vendor for the purchase price, f. o. b. railroad station; that he was to pay the railroad freight and other charges from the station to the steamer, and draw a draft on defendant for the amount of these disbursements and the amount of his commissions, the latter to consist of the difference between the cost price of the sugar plus the railroad freights and other, disbursements and the price agreed to be paid by defendant for it.

The objections urged to the filing of this supplemental petition, which were overruled below, substantially are that it changes the substance of De Leon’s demand, in contravention of article 419 of the Code of Practice, which prohibits an amendment that alters the substance of the demand by making it different from the one originally brought; that it was tendered after issue joined, after evidence had been taken in the case, and some four years' after the original petition had been filed.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Ward
314 So. 2d 383 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1975)
James v. Missouri Pacific Railroad
113 So. 2d 41 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1959)
Rex-Metallic Casket Co. v. Gregory
104 So. 2d 185 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1958)
Conley v. Johnson
98 So. 2d 847 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1957)
Breaux v. Laird
88 So. 2d 33 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1956)
Messersmith v. Messersmith
86 So. 2d 169 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1956)
Hotel Donaldson Co. v. Anderson Hotels of Louisiana, Inc.
82 So. 2d 378 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1955)
Larche v. Doughtie
153 So. 583 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1934)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
118 So. 597, 167 La. 28, 1928 La. LEXIS 2002, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ruiz-v-american-trading-co-la-1928.