Star Shoe Co. v. Hendricks

45 So. 2d 428, 1950 La. App. LEXIS 543
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 28, 1950
DocketMo. 3237
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 45 So. 2d 428 (Star Shoe Co. v. Hendricks) 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
Star Shoe Co. v. Hendricks, 45 So. 2d 428, 1950 La. App. LEXIS 543 (La. Ct. App. 1950).

Opinion

ELLIS, Judge.

The original suit herein was one in which the plaintiff claimed $1741.55 for a certain number of shoes sold to the defendant. The defendant resisted the demand and the record shows that the shoes had been returned to the plaintiff.

The case was duly tried and appealed to the Circuit Court and writs denied by the Supreme Court and the final result was a judgment in favor of the plaintiff for the full amount claimed. See La.App., 40 So'. 2d 36.

We have under consideration an action in which the defendant, a judgment debtor, is seeking to resist the execution of the judgment for the full amount and asks that certain compensation or set-off be allowed. The judgment debtor has filed a petition in which he alleges that prior to the rendition of the judgment by the District Court and the Court of Appeal he had returned to the plaintiff, Star Shoe Company, 432 pairs of shoes for credit on the account sued on and that after the judgment was rendered by this Court, he and his attorney called upon the attorneys for the plaintiff in order that proper adjustment might be made for the shoes returned and for payment of the balance due. Fie alleges that they were informed that the Star Shoe Company has sold 272 pairs of the shoes -and were, therefore, not able to return them to the defendant, but that the attorneys on behalf of the plaintiff would not consent to any reduction in the amount due under the judgment for the price of the 272 pairs of shoes so sold, and, further, that the Star Shoe Company is in possession of the remaining 160 pairs of shoes and that they should be compelled to return these shoes to the judgment debtor.

It is further shown by the petition that on the 12th day. of July, 1949 the Star Shoe Company, acting through its attorneys, caused to be issued a'writ of fieri facias fpr the whole amount- of the judgment, and under this writ seized., all monies belonging to the judgment debtor in the First State Bank and Trust Company of Bogalusa, whereupon the officials of the bank paid over to the Sheriff, Dorman A. Crowe, of Washington Parish, the sum of $1741.55, the full amount of the judgment plus interest and costs although the writ was not accompanied by a writ of garnishment, “and that said Dorman A. Crowe is in posssession thereof in his official capacity.” It is further alleged that no rule herein has been filed by the Star Shoe Company or their attorneys and no notice to petitioner given to protect his rights and claims against the Shoe Company by reason of having declined to deliver to the petitioner the shoes returned or to account therefor, and that notwithstanding the petitioner’s tender to ' satisfy the judgment upon being allowed credit in the sum of $1020.20 for the shoes sold and returning the remainder of said shoes, the Star Shoe Company proceeded in the manner outlined. Wherefore, the petitioner prayed for the citation of the Star Shoe Company through their attorneys of record, and Dor-man A. Crowe, Sheriff of said parish, and after the legal delays and due proceedings that there be judgment in favor of the petitioner and against the Star Shoe Company decreeing that the sum of $1020.20 be deducted from the sum to be paid out of the seizure and, accordingly, that the Sheriff be authorized and directed to deduct the amount thereof from the funds in his possession, and that the shoe company be compelled to deliver unto the judgment debtor, D. R. Hendricks, the 160 pairs of shoes that they have in their possession, all as a condition precedent to a collection of the judgment in question. •

To this petition the Star Shoe Company, a nonresident corporation domiciled in Boston, Mass., through its attorneys filed an exception to the petition on the ground that the citation issued is defective and also that it discloses no right or cause of action. The lower court sustained the exception of no cause or right of action with oral reasons. It is stated in brief of counsel for Star Shoe Company, although not in the record, that the learned. Judge of [430]*430the District Court stated, and it is the contention of the judgment creditor, that the action of the judgment debtor was in effect a collateral attack upon the judgment and that as it was a judgment of the District Court, affirmed by the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court and completely executed, it was, therefore, in his opinion “as solid as the rock of Gibralter” and neither the District Court nor any other Court had the right to attack this judgment as was attempted in the petition of the judgment debtor. The Court then cited Article 556 of the Louisiana Code of Practice which provides as follows:

“Methods enumerated. — Definitive judgments may be revised, set aside or reversed :

“1. By a new trial.

“2. By appeal.

“3. By action of nullity.

“4. By rescission.

“This last mode can only be exercised by minors, or persons who were absent when judgment was rendered against them.”

It is true that the judgment debtor is not trying to revise, set aside or reverse the judgment by any one of the four procedures stated in the quoted article of the Code, of Practice. The original judgment was based upon the proposition that the defenses of the defendant, now the judgment debtor, were not good and, therefore, the Star Shoe Company was entitled to payment in full for the shoes which, of course, would mean that Hendricks was the owner of the shoes. There was no plea of compensation or set-off in the original suit. There was nothing in the record at the time of the rendition of the original judgment or until the filing of the present petition to show that the Star Shoe Company had taken the shoes from the express company and had sold 232 pairs of them and was refusing to give credit or return the other 160 pairs. If this had been proven on the trial of the case there is no doubt that this judgment would have been different. At least Hendricks would have been given credit for the amount for which the Star Shoe Company sold the 232 pair of shoes. Of course, the judgment debtor is claiming the invoice price and he might be entitled to that credit rather than the amount for which the shoes were sold. However, he would have received credit at least in the amount for which the shoes were sold and the Star Shoe Company would have been ordered to return the 160 pairs of shoes.

According to the brief of counsel for the Star Shoe Company, counsel for the judgment debtor did not cite a single, solitary authority in the District Court.

In the case of Meriwether v. Dorrity, decided by the Supreme Court and reported in, 158 La. 405, 104 So. page 187, 190, in a per curiam opinion by that Court as a result of an application for rehearing, the Court said: “Of course the defendants should receive credit for all rent collected by plaintiff after defendants had abandoned the premises, and during the term for which they are held liable; same to be imputed as of the date when collected. Holden v. Tanner, 6 La.Ann. 74, Ledoux v. Jones, 20 La.Ann. 539; see, also, Succession of Romero, 137 La. 236, 251, 68 So. 433. But no amendment of our decree is necessary for that purpose, since such credit may be urged as a set-off against the judgment itself in reduction and partial compensation thereof. Code of Practice, art. 373; Caldwell v. Davis, 2 Mart., N.S., 135.”

Also see Sliman v. Mahtook, 17 La.App. 635, 136 So. 749, 750 wherein it was stated :

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Bluebook (online)
45 So. 2d 428, 1950 La. App. LEXIS 543, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/star-shoe-co-v-hendricks-lactapp-1950.