Salim v. Louisiana State Board of Education

289 So. 2d 554
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 19, 1974
Docket4267
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 289 So. 2d 554 (Salim v. Louisiana State Board of Education) 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
Salim v. Louisiana State Board of Education, 289 So. 2d 554 (La. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

289 So.2d 554 (1974)

Malick SALIM, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
LOUISIANA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION and Louis J. Michot et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 4267.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

January 25, 1974.
Rehearing Denied February 25, 1974.
Writ Refused April 19, 1974.

*556 J. Reginald Coco, Jr., Baton Rouge, and Allen R. Bares, Lafayette, for defendants-appellants.

Makar & Whitaker by John Makar, Natchitoches, for plaintiff-appellee.

Before HOOD, CULPEPPER and MILLER, JJ.

HOOD, Judge.

Malick Salim, as lessor of a warehouse building in Natchitoches Parish, instituted this suit on June 12, 1972, to recover the rental payments allegedly due him under the lease contract. The defendants are Louisiana State Board of Education and Louis J. Michot, individually and as Superintendent of Education.

A writ of sequestration was issued when the suit was filed directing the seizure of the furniture and other movable property on the leased premises. Upon petition of the State Board of Education and Michot, however, an order was issued by the trial court on July 10, 1972, releasing the sequestration without the necessity of defendants furnishing bond.

Following a trial on the merits, judgment was rendered by the trial court in favor of plaintiff, condemning Louisiana State Board of Education to pay to plaintiff the sum of $1,500.00 per month, being the monthly rental payments provided in the lease contract, for the remainder of the term of the lease. Defendants appealed. Plaintiff has answered the appeal praying that the judgment be amended to decree that all future monthly rental payments due under the lease are payable immediately, and to condemn defendants to pay damages for taking a frivolous appeal.

The issues presented are whether the lease contract is valid, whether the filing of this suit and the sequestration of defendant's property constituted a violation or termination of the lease by plaintiff, and whether the payment of monthly rental installments provided in the lease should be accelerated.

On May 20, 1970, a lease contract was entered into by Malick Salim, as lessor, and the Louisiana Department of Education, as lessee, affecting a warehouse and office building in Natchitoches. The lease was for a term of ten years, commencing on September 1, 1970. As consideration for the use of the leased premises, the lessee agreed to pay to plaintiff the sum of $1,500.00 per month during the term of the lease, the first payment being due and payable on September 1, 1970, and the remaining installments being due and payable on the first day of each succeeding month thereafter while the lease is in effect.

The contract was signed by plaintiff, as lessor, and it was signed in behalf of the State Board of Education, lessee, by Fred L. Tannehill, President, and by William J. Dodd, Superintendent, Louisiana State Department of Education. Before the lease *557 was entered into, the State Division of Administration advertised for competitive bids on such a lease, and three bids were received, one of which was by plaintiff Salim. Officials of the Department of Education and the Lease and Rental Section of the Division of Administration agreed that the bid submitted by plaintiff was the best one, and accordingly the lease contract was signed by the parties hereinabove mentioned. Under those signatures, the word "Approved" was typed on the lease contract, and immediately following that word there appears the signature of W. W. McDougall, Commissioner, Division of Administration.

The bid submitted by plaintiff and the lease contract provided that Salim would construct a warehouse building in accordance with blue print drawings and specifications which were supplied by the lessee and were attached to the lease contract. Salim constructed the building in accordance with those plans, and the Department of Education proceeded to occupy and to use the premises on September 1, 1970. The Department continued to occupy the warehouse and premises at least until after this suit was filed, on June 12, 1972.

Defendant Michot succeeded William J. Dodd as State Superintendent of Education on May 9, 1972. Michot wrote to plaintiff Salim on May 26, 1972, advising him that the State Department of Education would no longer need the warehouse building, that the building would be vacated within the next thirty days, and that the rent due for the use of the premises would be paid through June 30, 1972. In that letter Michot also stated:

"A search of the minutes of State Board of Education meetings during the past eight years does not reveal where authority to enter into this lease had been given its President or its Secretary by official Board action. I am advised by the Attorney General's office that in such cases the lease is not legally binding."

This suit was filed after that notice was sent to plaintiff, but before the date on which defendants planned to vacate the leased premises.

Plaintiff contends that the State Board of Education impliedly accepted the terms of the lease after it had been signed by its officers by allowing plaintiff to construct a warehouse in accordance with the provisions of the written contract, and by occupying the leased premises after the construction was completed and paying the rentals provided in the contract for a substantial period of time thereafter. He argues that these actions on the part of the State Board of Education constituted an acceptance of plaintiff's bid and caused the lease to become valid and binding on defendants, despite the fact that the Board did not formally authorize its officers to sign the agreement.

Defendants contend that the lease contract is null and void because it was never formally authorized by the Board of Education. They argue that the State Board of Education is prohibited by constitutional and statutory provisions from ratifying or impliedly accepting a contract which it has not formally authorized, and that the lease contract involved here thus has never become valid or enforceable. To support that argument, they rely on LSA-R.S. 17:2 and 5, and on Article IV, Sections 3 and 4, of the Louisiana Constitution.

The established rule is that a party who has the legal capacity to contract may be held in some instances to have accepted an offer, and thus to have entered into a binding contract, through silence or inaction or by some sort of performance under a written agreement, although the contract was not signed by the accepting party. Under such circumstances, the acceptance of the offer may be implied from the actions of the party to whom the offer was made. LSA-C.C. arts. 1797, 1803, 1811, 1816 and 1817. Advertiser, Division of Independent Inc. v. Tubbs, 208 So.2d 340 (La.App. 3 Cir. 1967); Alliance Manufacturing *558 Company v. Foti, 146 So.2d 464 (La.App. 4 Cir. 1962); Johnson v. Capital City Ford Company, 85 So.2d 75 (La.App. 1 Cir. 1955); Fisk v. Rowe, 91 So.2d 65 (La.App. 1 Cir. 1956).

We agree with the following language which was used by the First Circuit Court of Appeal in Johnson v. Capital City Ford Company, surpa:

"Acceptance of an offer may of course be made by silent deed as well as by word; consent may be implied from actions under the circumstances, as well as by expressed words; but such acceptance of, founded on such consent to, an offer nevertheless creates a valid contract, and the offerer is bound by the obligation previously offered by him in exchange for the act which the obligee has performed in response to the offer...."

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Bluebook (online)
289 So. 2d 554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/salim-v-louisiana-state-board-of-education-lactapp-1974.