Union Bldg. Corporation v. Burmeister

173 So. 752, 186 La. 1027, 1937 La. LEXIS 1138
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 29, 1937
DocketNo. 34166.
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 173 So. 752 (Union Bldg. Corporation v. Burmeister) 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
Union Bldg. Corporation v. Burmeister, 173 So. 752, 186 La. 1027, 1937 La. LEXIS 1138 (La. 1937).

Opinion

FOURNET, Justice.

The Union Building Corporation filed suit against Mrs. Catherine Burmeister for the full amount of the unpaid rent, $5,-075, under an acceleration clause, on a contract of lease dated December 16, 1935, whereby it leased to the defendant the premises described as store No. 4, Union building at 222 Baronne street, New Orleans, La., for the purpose of operating a beauty parlor, and provisionally seized the property and effects found in the leased premises.

The defendant was served personally with citation and a copy of the petition but did not answer the suit. Judgment was rendered by default against the defendant for the amount prayed for, maintaining plaintiff’s provisional seizure and recognizing the lessor’s lien and privilege on the property and effects seized.

Upon execution of the judgment, it was shown by the mortgage certificate secured by the sheriff that there were three chattel mortgages of record in the mortgage office of the parish of Orleans, executed by the defendant in favor of the Crescent Beauty Supply Company and affecting movable property situated in the parish of Orleans, listed in detail. Nevertheless, the property was offered for sale but failed to bring two-thirds of the appraised value and therefore no sale was made. Later, the right of occupancy of the leased premises was sold at sheriff’s sale to plaintiff for $667.

Subsequently, upon motion of plaintiff, the recorder of mortgages and the Crescent Beauty Supply Company (the recorded mortgagee) were ordered by the court to show cause on December 3, 1936, why the chattel mortgages should not be canceled and erased from the books of the recorder of mortgages, or, in the alternative, why the chattel mortgages should not be either canceled and erased in so far as plaintiff’s lessor’s lien and privilege on the property was concerned, or subordinated to its lessor’s lien and privilege.

The Crescent Beauty Supply Company, in answer to the rule, averred that it was a nominal party in the chattel mortgage acts referred to and was not the present holder and owner of the notes identified therewith.

The Equipment Acceptance Corporation of New York filed an intervention and third opposition, alleging that it was the holder and owner of three promissory notes made and signed by Mrs. Catherine G. Burmeister, payable to the order of herself and by her indorsed in blank: (1) For the sum of $1,248, dated December 19, 1935; (2) for the sum of $1,080, dated December 19, 1935; and (3) for the sum of $2,-163.68, dated March 1, 1935; each note being secured by chattel mortgage on the equipment provisionally seized, and the mortgage acts being recorded, respectively, in mortgage office of the parish of Orleans in Book 1511, folio 151, on the 20th day of December, 1935, and Book 1511, folio 152, on the same day, and in Book 1511, *1031 folio 407, on March 4, 1936. Intervener prayed for judgment in its favor and against the defendant for the sum of $2,-328, plus interest and attorney’s fees, with recognition of its vendor’s lien and chattel mortgage on the property described in the acts of mortgage; that the property be sold separately and that it be paid out of the proceeds of the sale thereof by preference and priority over all other claimants.

The plaintiff filed exceptions of no cause or right of action to the intervention, and, on the same day, made the intervener a party to its rule to show cause filed against the recorder of mortgages and the recorded mortgagee, which the intervener answered.

By agreement of counsel for the plaintiff and counsel for the intervener, the intervention and the rule were consolidated for trial. After due trial, the court rendered judgment in favor of the Union Building Corporation, recognizing its lessor’s lien and privilege upon the equipment and effects in the premises provisionally seized as prior and superior to the three chattel mortgages. The intervener and third opponent, Equipment Acceptance Corporation, has appealed.

The facts in the case are that the defendant, Mrs. Catherine Burmeister, desiring to operate a beauty parlor, leased for that express purpose, from the plaintiff appellee, Union Building Corporation, by written contract dated December 16, 1935, its store No. 4, known as Municipal No. 222 Baronne street, for a period of thirty-two months, beginning February 1, 1936, for a. rental consideration of $2,100 a year, payable in equal monthly installments of $175 per month, payable in advance; and, on December 19, 1935, purchased a complete outfit of beauty parlor equipment, on terms of credit, from the Crescent Beauty Supply Company, an independent dealer, of New Orleans, in beauty shop supplies, handling such equipment for W. G. Shel-’ ton Company, of St. Louis, Mo. In representation of the unpaid purchase price of the equipment, comprised of 89 articles, the defendant executed two promissory notes, dated December 19, 1935; one for $1,248, and the other for $1,080, and in order to secure the payment thereof, she executed two separate chattel mortgages on the property purchased; one affecting 55 listed articles and the other the remaining 34 articles, respectively, which acts were duly recorded on the following day in the mortgage office of Orleans parish. The equipment was delivered to the defendant on the leased premises on January 10, 1936.

In accordance with its customary manner of handling such transactions, the chattel mortgage notes were transferred by the Crescent Beauty Supply Company to W. G. Shelton Company. The latter company desired to discount the paper with the Equipment Acceptance Corporation, the intervener and appellant here, but the notes did not meet with the technical requirements of the Federal Housing Administration, for whom intervener handled its loans; therefore, in order to comply with such requirements, the Shelton Company prepared a new note covering the combined amount of the notes and also "another act of sale and chattel mortgage covering all *1033 the equipment, which were promptly sent to the Crescent Beauty Supply Company, with instructions that the same be properly executed by it and the purchaser, Mrs. Burmeister. On the 1st day of March, 1936, the parties appeared and executed the new act and note before Leopold Stahl, the same notary public, who had prepared and executed the previous chattel mortgages, and on March' 4, 1936, the act was recorded in the mortgage office of Orleans parish.

In due course, the chattel mortgage note dated March 1, 1936, was sold, transferred, and delivered to intervener, Equipment Acceptance Corporation, which note it insured with the Federal Housing Administration. But neither the notes dated December 19, 1935, nor the chattel mortgages identified therewith were canceled by the Shelton Company, who retained the notes in its possession but subsequently delivered them to intervener.

The lessee (defendant) defaulted in the payment of the fourth installment due May 1, 1936, and on the 5th of the month this suit was brought for the full amount of the unpaid rent ($5,075), which matured by virtue of an acceleration clause in the contract of lease and the beauty parlor equipment in the leased premises was provisionally seized.

The jurisprudence of this state' is well settled that under the Chattel Mortgage Act, No.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Keybank National Ass'n v. Perkins Rowe Associates, LLC
823 F. Supp. 2d 399 (M.D. Louisiana, 2011)
Arnold v. Hancock
950 So. 2d 911 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2007)
Roger R. Arnold v. Donald S. Hancock
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2007
Scott v. Bank of Coushatta
501 So. 2d 1032 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)
Rayne State Bank & Trust Co. v. Nat. Union Fire Ins. Co.
483 So. 2d 987 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1986)
Livermore v. Schaefer
425 So. 2d 967 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1983)
Auto Paint & Supplies Co. v. Hale
408 So. 2d 346 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1981)
Domengeaux v. Daniels
401 So. 2d 655 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1981)
United States v. Bernard
501 F.2d 1354 (Fifth Circuit, 1974)
Long Leaf Lumber, Inc. v. Summer Grove Develop., Inc.
270 So. 2d 588 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1972)
All State Credit Plan Houma, Inc. v. Fournier
175 So. 2d 707 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1965)
Harper v. Borden Company
129 So. 2d 330 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1961)
Universal CIT Credit Corporation v. Parker
117 So. 2d 660 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1960)
Abbott v. Temple
73 So. 2d 647 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1954)
Matthews v. Couie
35 So. 2d 794 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1948)
Central Sav. Bank & Trust Co. v. Oilfield Supply & Scrap Material Co.
12 So. 2d 819 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1943)
Smith v. Bratsos
12 So. 2d 245 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1942)
McConnell Motors Co. v. Tompkins
4 So. 2d 566 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1941)
Maroun v. Marrs
178 So. 723 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1938)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
173 So. 752, 186 La. 1027, 1937 La. LEXIS 1138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/union-bldg-corporation-v-burmeister-la-1937.