SANDERS'CAMPER VIL., INC. v. Coleman Oldsmobile, Inc.

418 So. 2d 679, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 7643
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 29, 1982
Docket14928
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 418 So. 2d 679 (SANDERS'CAMPER VIL., INC. v. Coleman Oldsmobile, Inc.) 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
SANDERS'CAMPER VIL., INC. v. Coleman Oldsmobile, Inc., 418 So. 2d 679, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 7643 (La. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

418 So.2d 679 (1982)

SANDERS' CAMPER VILLAGE, INC.
v.
COLEMAN OLDSMOBILE, INC.

No. 14928.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

June 29, 1982.
Rehearing Denied August 24, 1982.

Guy A. Modica, Baton Rouge, for plaintiff-appellee Sanders' Camper Village, Inc.

Robert L. Kleinpeter, Baton Rouge, for defendant-appellant Coleman Oldsmobile, Inc.

Before COVINGTON, COLE and WATKINS, JJ.

COVINGTON, Judge.

This is an appeal by Coleman Oldsmobile, Inc., defendant, from judgment of the district court in favor of plaintiffs, Sanders' Camper Village, Inc. and Robert T. Sanders, in the sum of $87,423.05. We reverse and render.

The suit commenced with a petition by Sanders' Camper Village, Inc., a domestic corporation, for injunctive relief against the defendant to protect plaintiff's interest in certain premises on the Airline Highway in Baton Rouge and the inventory of the accessories and parts located thereon.

The defendant filed a peremptory exception on the ground that Robert T. Sanders, a party to the contract alleged, was an indispensable party to the suit. The defendant *680 also filed an answer asserting that the contract had been entered into through mutual error, and that Mr. Sanders had voluntarily agreed to terminate the contract by surrendering the keys to the premises and removing his property therefrom. The defendant asked that the temporary restraining order be dissolved as having been wrongfully obtained.

After hearing on the rule, the temporary restraining order was vacated, and plaintiff was permitted to correct the deficiencies in the petition so as to name the proper party plaintiff and to set forth a cause of action. Thereafter, plaintiff made the appropriate changes in an amending petition. Coleman responded to the amending petition, reasserting its original defenses.

Thus, in the instant action Sanders claims that plaintiffs and Coleman entered into an agreement [Appendix] whereby Sanders was to enjoy peaceable possession of certain premises on the Airline Highway in Baton Rouge for 180 days from the date of the agreement, or until all of the defendant's recreational vehicles had been liquidated, whichever occurred first; and that the defendant transferred to them "all inventory of all accessories and all parts located on the said premises." Under the agreement, Sanders was to liquidate all of the recreational vehicles; he was to retain all profits from the sale of vehicles bearing the "Wilderness" label, with the gross profits being equally shared on other units (less salesmen's commissions). Coleman denied the plaintiffs' claim that there was any agreement, and affirmatively asserted that Sanders voluntarily relinquished the premises to the defendant and that the parties had mutually abrogated the agreement, if any agreement had been made.

The facts giving rise to the present action are that Coleman and Sanders, a former employee of Coleman, negotiated for an agreement, because Coleman wished to get out of or reduce his participation in the handling of the recreational vehicle business, and Sanders was going into a similar type of business. Sanders and Coleman conferred about an agreement looking toward the liquidation of Coleman's recreational vehicles. Coleman was to contribute certain things and the place from which to operate the business of liquidating the units; Sanders was to render a service in disposing of the vehicles. He also was to keep the profit derived from warranty service. Certain inventory of parts was transferred to Sanders, or made available to him for service, repair and warranty work. The terms and provisions of the alleged agreement are in dispute. Nevertheless, under some arrangement, Sanders attempted to liquidate the recreational vehicles for Coleman. As it turned out, the liquidation of the recreational vehicles did not go as well as either party had expected.

The arrangement can, to some extent, be shown from the agreement [Appendix] and from the testimony of Mr. Sanders, as follows:

"THE COURT: All right. Then you were going to occupy that building for a hundred and eighty days rent free; is that right?
"THE WITNESS: Yes, sir. That's correct.
"THE COURT: Okay. The agreement says here that you get all of the parts—
"THE WITNESS: Yes, sir. That's correct.
"THE COURT: —and accessories.
"THE WITNESS: Yes, sir.
"THE COURT: You got the Wilderness vehicles.
"THE WITNESS: I had to buy the Wilderness. That was more of a liability now. That was part of the agreement.
"THE COURT: I know. What I'm trying to say, you got the Wilderness vehicles, but you were going to have to pay off the floor plan.
"THE WITNESS: That's right. Which I had to carry the floor plan and get rid of them on my own. That was part to his benefit on that.
"THE COURT: Well, why was that to his benefit?
"THE WITNESS: Well, put it this way. When you take on that many trailers at *681 that time when business was that bad, you know—In fact, I don't even—I cancelled the Wilderness franchise when I got rid of the rest of the trailers.
"THE COURT: Did you lose money off of that?
"THE WITNESS: It's hard to say. I probably broke out about even by the time profits and floor plans and everything else. I could have lost a little or could have made a little on them.
"THE COURT: So you broke—Say you broke even on that.
"THE WITNESS: Okay.
"THE COURT: All right. You were going to perform the warranty service.
"THE WITNESS: Yes, sir. That's correct.
"THE COURT: And you were going to keep any of the profit from the warranty service.
"THE WITNESS: Yes, sir.
"THE COURT: And you were going to get fifty percent of the profits and he was going to get fifty percent of the profits from the sale of the other vehicles; is that correct?
"THE WITNESS: After salesmen's commissions were paid.
"THE COURT: Okay. You were going to hire the employees. You were going to run the shop; is that right?
"THE WITNESS: Yes, sir. I was paying all employees, the office employees and the shop and the sales. Well, sales, we were actually really paying fifty/fifty, because it was fifty percent after salesmen's commissions so I guess he, you know—We were really both paying sales people.
"THE COURT: All right. What was going to happen if there were vehicles left at the end of the hundred and eighty days? Mr. Coleman was going to keep them?
"THE WITNESS: We had talked about it. He talked about extending it at that part. The way the contract just black and white says, he will have the balance of the vehicles and have to liquidate the balance himself.
"THE COURT: As I compute this now, at the beginning of the contract there was some ninety-two thousand dollars [$92,000.00] worth of parts and accessories, right?
"THE WITNESS: Yes, sir. That's correct.
"THE COURT: From your testimony, indicates that during the period of the contract, if the contract would have gone the whole time, there were forty-three vehicles sold, counting the ones you took off of his hand.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
418 So. 2d 679, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 7643, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanderscamper-vil-inc-v-coleman-oldsmobile-inc-lactapp-1982.