Slocum v. Daigre

424 So. 2d 1074
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 22, 1982
Docket82-244
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 424 So. 2d 1074 (Slocum v. Daigre) 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
Slocum v. Daigre, 424 So. 2d 1074 (La. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

424 So.2d 1074 (1982)

A. Jerry SLOCUM, et al., Plaintiffs & Appellants,
v.
Louis J. DAIGRE, et al., Defendants & Appellees.

No. 82-244.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

December 22, 1982.
Writ Denied February 11, 1983.

*1075 Guste, Barnett, Shushan, Sidney L. Shushan, New Orleans, for plaintiffs & appellants.

Leithead, Soctt, Boudreau, Myrick & Richard, Everett R. Scott, Jr., and William A. Fogleman, Lake Charles, Gold, Little, Simon, Weems & Bruser, Donald Sharp, Alexandria, for defendants & appellees.

Before CULPEPPER, DOUCET and YELVERTON, JJ.

CULPEPPER, Judge.

Plaintiffs seek recovery for unjust enrichment, indemnification or contribution. They appeal from a judgment granting defendants' motion for summary judgment and also sustaining defendants' peremptory exceptions of no right of action, no cause of action, res judicata and prescription.

The issues on appeal are: (1) Does plaintiffs' petition state a cause of action for either (a) unjust enrichment, (b) indemnification or (c) contribution? (2) Did the trial court err in granting defendants' motion for summary judgment? (3) Did the trial court err in sustaining defendants' exceptions of no right of action, res judicata and prescription?

FACTS

This case arises from a prior suit entitled "Collins v. Slocum," 304 So.2d 675 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1974), decision on appeal after remand, 317 So.2d 672 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1975). This was a suit against the plaintiffs-appellants herein for recission of a sale of land by them to Mr. Collins. The plaintiffs in the instant case, A. Jerry Slocum, Gwin LeBlanc, and J. Harrison Henderson, III, had purchased from Morgan Walker, Jr. 256 acres of land. A survey and title examination of this property did not show any servitudes burdening the land. The plaintiffs subdivided the property and sold a residential lot to Mr. Collins, who borrowed money from defendant-appellee, Louisiana Savings Association (formerly Rapides Savings & *1076 Loan Association) for construction of a house on his lot. During construction of the house, Mr. Collins was informed by Humble Oil Company that he was building directly over a pipeline, in contravention of the terms of a pipeline servitude granted to Humble by Walker's predecessor in title, Morgan Walker, Sr.

Collins had to remove all improvements located over the pipeline. He subsequently sued the plaintiffs for return of the purchase price of the lot plus damages. Louisiana Savings Association intervened in that suit to recover the money it had loaned to Mr. Collins for construction of his house.

Judgment was rendered by the district court and affirmed by this Court, Collins v. Slocum, 317 So.2d 672 (La.App. 3rd Cir. 1975), in favor of Collins, granting rescission of the sale, return of the purchase price of $4,000 and damages totaling $19,065 incurred in construction. In the Association's intervention, it was awarded the amount due on its loan to Collins, together with insurance expenses and interest, a total of $11,676, payable out of the amount awarded to Collins. The judgment in favor of the Association was not appealed and became final in due course.

Plaintiffs then filed this suit for damages against Louis J. Daigre, their surveyor, for negligence in failing to locate the pipeline, and later added as defendants their predecessors in title, Morgan W. Walker, Jr. and Morgan W. Walker, Sr. Louisiana Savings Association was made a defendant by a third supplemental and amending petition. The actions against the defendants other than the Association were subsequently severed, leaving the Association as the only defendant in this suit.

The Association filed peremptory exceptions of no cause and/or right of action, res judicata, and prescription, as well as a motion for summary judgment. The trial court rendered judgment in favor of the defendant granting its motion for summary judgment and maintaining its peremptory exceptions. The plaintiffs appeal.

EXCEPTION OF NO CAUSE OF ACTION

The plaintiffs-appellants contend the trial court erred in sustaining the exception of no cause of action because their petition alleges facts to support an action for unjust enrichment, indemnity or contribution.

The peremptory exception of no cause of action tests the legal sufficiency of the petition, and is triable on the face thereof. For the purpose of determining the validity of the exception, all well-pleaded allegations of fact are accepted as true, and if the allegations set forth a cause of action as to any part of the demand, the exceptions must be overruled. Haskins v. Clary, 346 So.2d 193 (La.1977); Pence v. Ketchum, 326 So.2d 831 (La.1976).

The petition in the instant case alleges the Association was unjustly enriched by the judgment in the prior suit against the plaintiffs, and that plaintiffs are entitled to indemnification or alternatively contribution. They allege the damages to Collins were caused by the fault of the surveyor and the title examiner employed by the Association in failing to discover the pipeline, and therefore the Association was not entitled to the judgment on its intervention and payment of that judgment was payment of a debt not due.

UNJUST ENRICHMENT

The theoretical basis for unjust enrichment was explained by the Louisiana Supreme Court in Edmonston v. A-Second Mortgage Company of Slidell, Inc., 289 So.2d 116 (La.1974):

"This restitutionary remedy is founded upon principles of unjust enrichment embodied in Civil Code articles 21 and 1965.1 The action derives from the maxim that natural justice requires that no one should be enriched at the expense of another. It is used to fill a gap in the law where no express remedy is provided."

The court in Edmonston held that in order to state a cause of action for unjust enrichment, the plaintiff must allege in his petition the following:

*1077 "To deter courts from turning to equity to remedy every unjust displacement of wealth with unregulated discretion, certain limitations are applicable to the actio de in rem verso. The Minyard decision set forth five prerequisites which must be satisfied to successfully invoke the action: 1) There must be an enrichment; 2) there must be an impoverishment; 3) there must be a connection between the enrichment and the impoverishment; 4) there must be an absence of "justification" or "cause" for the enrichment and impoverishment; and 5) the action will only be allowed when there is no other remedy at law, i.e., the action is subsidiary or corrective in nature."

It is conceded that the allegations of payment to the Association by the plaintiffs satisfy the first three requirements. There must also, however, be an absence of justification for the enrichment or impoverishment. The petition alleges a debt owed to the Association by Donald Collins, plaintiffs' judgment creditor. The plaintiffs were required to pay the debt as an element of damages they owed to Collins. Therein lies the legal justification or cause for the plaintiffs' impoverishment. Thus the fourth requirement is lacking.

The plaintiffs argue the Association was negligent and therefore should not have recovered the money it loaned to Collins. However, the fact that the servitude was not discovered by the Association's agents did not discharge Collins' debt.

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Bluebook (online)
424 So. 2d 1074, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slocum-v-daigre-lactapp-1982.