Thurman v. Star Electric Supply, Inc.

283 So. 2d 212
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided September 24, 1973·No. 53179·Published·Cited by 36 cases

Opinion

283 So.2d 212 (1973)

T. M. THURMAN d/b/a Thurman Electric Company
v.
STAR ELECTRIC SUPPLY, INC., et al.

No. 53179.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

September 24, 1973.

*213 Walton J. Barnes, Barnes & Barnes, Baton Rouge, for defendant-applicant.

Tom H. Matheny, Pittman & Matheny; J. R. Schmidt, John D. Kopfler & Associates; Hammond, for plaintiffs-respondents.

DIXON, Justice.

We granted writs to review the dismissal of a part of the appeal of Star Electric Supply, Inc. from a judgment rendered in a concursus proceeding.

T. M. Thurman, d/b/a Thurman Electric Company, deposited checks totaling $44,702.28 with the court, alleging that he was an electrical subcontractor, that he owes $44,702.28 in connection with the subcontract, that Star Electric Supply, Inc., Stagecraft Industries, Inc. and Edwin F. Guth Company, competing claimants, should be impleaded, and praying that the money be distributed and liens canceled.

*214 Subsequent pleadings were filed by the parties impleaded and others; Star, Stagecraft and Guth each claimed all or part of the funds deposited. Each claimant made third party demands.

The case is before us only to review the judgment of the Court of Appeal dismissing part of the appeal of Star. T. M. Thurman d/b/a Thurman Electric Company v. Star Electric Supply, Inc. et al., 270 So.2d 339 (1972).

After trial in the district court, a judgment was rendered and signed on February 18, 1972 decreeing: a judgment for Stagecraft in the amount deposited, $44,702.28, recognizing Stagecraft's lien; ordering that court costs be deducted from the money on deposit, with a further provision "that there be judgment in favor of Stagecraft Industries, Inc. and against Star Electric Supply, Inc. for the total amount of court costs;" denying Thurman's demand for attorney's fees; denying Star's principal demand, third party demand, and reconventional demand; denying Guth's demand and third party demand; reserving Stagecraft's rights to proceed further against Star; denying Star's demand for attorney's fees (because of the late filing of interrogatories); and holding Star's exception of no cause of action and no right of action to the third party demands of Stagecraft to be moot, since the court found that Stagecraft was entitled to the entire deposit.

On February 23, 1972 Thurman applied for a new trial on the denial of his demand for attorney's fees and for court costs "in accordance with that certain motion dated February 16, 1972." (Thurman had also filed a rule for costs; he wished to have taxed as costs an amount he paid for a bond in connection with the proceedings).

On February 24, 1972 Guth applied for a new trial because of the failure of the court to recognize Guth's lien. (February 18, 1972 fell on Friday. The Court of Appeal found that Guth's motion for a new trial was not timely filed. We agree).

On March 27, 1972 Star filed an opposition to Thurman's rule for costs. On March 28, 1972 Stagecraft filed an opposition to Thurman's motion for a new trial.

On March 28, 1972, apparently, both the rule for costs and the motion for new trial were heard by the court. Certain stipulations were made concerning evidence.

On May 5, 1972 the court rendered judgment dismissing Guth's motion for a new trial as being untimely, and rejecting Thurman's demand for the allowance of bond premiums and granting Thurman's demand for attorney's fees. Judgment was read and signed on May 22; the judgment was as follows:

"This cause having been duly heard and submitted to the court for adjudication on the application of T. M. Thurman, d/b/a Thurman Electric Company, for the allowance of attorney's fees in the amount of $4,470.02, and the court considering the law and evidence to be in favor of T. M. Thurman, d/b/a Thurman Electric Company for the reasons orally assigned on May 5, 1972;
"IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that there be judgment herein in favor of T. M. Thurman, d/b/a Thurman Electric Company, and against Star Electric Supply, Inc., Edwin F. Guth Company and Stagecraft Industries, Inc. granting T. M. Thurman, d/b/a Thurman Electric Company the amount of $4,470.02 attorney's fees to be cast as costs."

On May 24, 1972 the following judgment was read and signed:

"This cause came to be heard on March 28, 1972, in Open Court at Amite, Louisiana, on Motion for New Trial filed by the Edwin F. Guth Company and T. M. Thurman d/b/a Thurman Electric Company. Present in Open Court were Robert W. Tillery, attorney for Stagecraft *215 Industries, Inc., Tom H. Matheny, attorney for T. M. Thurman d/b/a Thurman Electric Company, and Walton Barnes, attorney for Star Electric Supply, Inc.
"After hearing the arguments of counsel and the stipulations entered into of record, the Court being of the opinion for reasons orally assigned:
"IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED That the application for new trial filed by the Edwin F. Guth Company is dismissed because the said application was not timely filed within the time delay afforded by the Code of Civil Procedure.
"IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED That the application for allowance of Bond Premiums to be taxed as Court costs by T. M. Thurman, d/b/a Thurman Electric Company is denied.
"IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED That the attorney's fees taxed in the proceeding (sic) paragraph shall be taxed as Court costs and accordingly, the Judgment rendered February 18, 1972, is amended only insofar as to give Judgment in favor of Stagecraft Industries, Inc. and against Star Electric Supply, Inc. for the extra amount of Court costs added by the grant of attorney's fees to T. M. Thurman d/b/a Thurman Electric Company in the proceeding (sic) paragraph.
"JUDGMENT RENDERED on May 5, 1972.
"JUDGMENT READ AND SIGNED in Open Court on the 24 day of May, 1972, at Amite, Louisiana."

The trial judge struck from the judgment signed on May 24 a paragraph dealing with attorney's fees with the notation: "A separate judgment on attorney fees has been signed."

On May 31, 1972 Star filed its notice of appeal and its bond. Star's notice stated only that it desired to appeal "from the final judgment directing the distribution of the funds in custodia legis rendered in the above numbered and entitled cause on the 18th day of February, 1972."

The Court of Appeal sustained Stagecraft's motion to dismiss Star's appeal as to all issues except as to the issue of attorney's fees for Thurman, holding that a motion for a new trial as to all parties but on less than all the issues does not automatically hold the judgment "in abeyance" as to all issues.

We conclude that the result reached by the Court of Appeal was incorrect, and that the appeal taken by Star was timely.

The former rule in Louisiana was simple: the granting of a new trial set aside the prior judgment. In Larose v. Naquin, 145 La. 1025, 83 So. 230, 232 (1919), the court said:

"The effect of the granting of the new trial was therefore the setting aside in toto of the judgment in which the error was thought to be found, and in contemplation of law it ceased to exist, and could not then, and cannot hereafter, afford the basis of a plea of res judicata, an execution, or an appeal."

At the time of the decision in the Larose case, Act 40 of 1904 stated that "... the granting of a new trial shall have the effect of setting aside the judgment..."

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Thurman v. Star Electric Supply, Inc., 283 So. 2d 212 (La. 1973).

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