Succession of Romero

68 So. 433, 137 La. 236, 1915 La. LEXIS 1984
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 12, 1915
DocketNo. 20715
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 68 So. 433 (Succession of Romero) 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
Succession of Romero, 68 So. 433, 137 La. 236, 1915 La. LEXIS 1984 (La. 1915).

Opinion

Statement of the Case.

MONROE, C. J.

The administratrix of this succession prosecutes the appeal herein [239]*239from a judgment in favor of the Segura Sugar Company, Limited (hereafter to be called the “Company”), upon a series of rent notes which had been executed by her decedent in conformity to a certain contract of lease, containing also stipulations in regard to the sale and purchase of sugar cane to be grown on the leased premises; and the Company answers the appeal, praying that the judgment be amended. By the same judgment Lassalle & Eves are recognized as creditors of the succession, with vendors’ privilege on the proceeds of five mules; but their claim appears to have been established to the satisfaction of all parties, and the judgment, in that respect, is not here contested. The facts involved in the controversy between the Company and the succession may be stated as follows:

The administratrix obtained an order for the sale of the movables, to pay debts, and the Company and Lassalle & Eves intervened, setting up their respective claims, as lessor and vendors, and praying that the property upon which they claimed privileges be appraised and sold separately, which was accordingly done. Upon the trial of the Company’s intervention, it was shown that it owned and operated a sugar factory, and that, upon the opposite side of the road therefrom P. H. Segura and his wife resided and owned several tracts of land, and that the decedent, M. C. Romero, also owned a small tract, upon which he resided; and (to adopt the narrative form), further, as follows, to wit: On July 29, 1911, Mrs. Segura leased a tract, or lot, owned by her, to Romero for five years, at $25 a year; but thereafter the Company, desiring to lease from Segura the tracts owned by him, and insisting that there should be included the tract, or lot, owned by Mrs. Segura, the lease from Mrs. Segura to Romero was canceled by consent, and on September 27, 1911, the entire property (being not less than 300 arpents) was leased by Mr. and Mrs. Segura to the Company for 10 years, from January 1, 1912, at an annual rental of $1,800, and on March 6, 1912, the Company subleased the same property, for the term ending December 30, 1921, at the same annual rental (represented by 10 notes, for $1,800 each, maturing on December 30, 1912, and annually thereafter, to 1921, inclusive), with certain other stipulations, however, to the decedent, M. C. Romero. Among the other stipulations of the contract were the following, to wit:

“A further consideration of the lease contract herein entered into is that the property leased for 10 years shall be annually planted in sugar cane, and that all cane raised on any of the property herein shall be sold and delivered to the Segura Sugar Co., Ltd., at its cane shed, and the price to be paid shall be the average price for cane delivered at the cane shed in carts or wagons. It is further agreed and understood that, not later than February 1st of each year, there shall be executed between the parties hereto a formal contract, upon the standard form of contract of the Segura Sugar Co., Ltd., to cover the question of the sale of cane herein raised * * * to the Segura Sugar Co., Ltd., the price to be stipulated in said contract to be the average price paid for cane delivered at the cane sheds, in carts or wagons. And the lessor further agrees not to impede or delay the lessee in delivering his pro rata share of cane-to the cane shed, each day, as embodied in standard form of contract.”
“The lessor further agrees with the lessee that, in the event it should decide to give away, locally, any of the filter press mud, coming from its filter presses, then, it will give the same to the lessee for his own exclusive use, to be distributed as fertilizer upon the property herein leased.”

The note which fell due December 30,1912, was paid at maturity, and the lessee occupied and cultivated the leased land during the year 1913, up to the date of his death. The Segura Factory was burned in August, 1913, but the lessor made arrangements for the grinding, at another factory, of the cane for which it had contracted, though with no change as to the place of delivery, and the crop of 1913 was delivered at its “sheds,” as per contract.

On November 4, 1913, the Company wrote [241]*241to Romero, inquiring whether he wished it to hold back, from the proceeds of his cane, the amount required to pay the note falling due 'December 30th, or would prefer to be settled with in full, and take care of the note when due, but Romero was mortally ill at that time, and died on November 26th, and no reply was made to the letter. The cane was subsequently delivered, between November 10th and December 12th, and the proceeds, amounting to $1,578.61, together with so much as was required from a sum of $527.45 which had been collected by the Company from “store accounts” due to Romero, were applied, after the death of the latter, to the payment of the note.

Ulysse and Leon Landry are the brothers of Mrs. Romero, P. H. Segura, is her uncle, and Octave Romero is a surviving brother of M. C. Romero, deceased. Ulysse Landry owns land, not far distant, but separated by the land of another, from that which is the subject of the lease here in controversy, and the decedent was planting Landry’s land (on shares) as well as the leased land. They, therefore, saw a good deal of each other, and Landry appears to have attended, at times, to some business matters for Romero, and, after his death, for the widow and administratrix, as did also Leon Landry and Octave Romero. Ulysse Landry testifies that, at some time during the year 1913, at the request of the decedent, he spoke to the Company’s manager about the special cane contract (referred to in the excerpt, heretofore given, from the lease), and there seems to have been some rather indefinite conversation on that subject.

He further testifies, and there is some corroboration from the others, that, because the company had failed, upon February 1st, to tender the decedent such special contract, he (the decedent) considered, and so stated, that the entire contract was abrogated, and that he was at liberty to’ surrender the property and sell his cane to whom he pleased, and that he, in fact, entered into some negotiations with another party for the sale of his cane. There is no intimation in the testimony, however, that the conversation between the witness and the manager of the Company took the form of a putting in default, or was so intended, or, that the Company was ever informed that the decedent regarded himself as absolved from the contract, and, as the contract was carried out so long as Romero lived, and afterwards, until the crop of 1913 had been delivered, according to its terms, a different impression in regard to his mental attitude was naturally created.

Mr. Landry also testifies that, after the death of Romero, he called on the manager of the Company and had another conversation, in which the manager said, in effect, that the company was willing that the lease should be considered at an end, and that the administratrix was at liberty to dispose of the movables belonging to the succession and then on the leased premises. The manager gives a different version of the conversation, and of the situation generally.

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Bluebook (online)
68 So. 433, 137 La. 236, 1915 La. LEXIS 1984, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/succession-of-romero-la-1915.