United States v. Vince

270 F. Supp. 591, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7648
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedJune 29, 1967
DocketCiv. A. No. 2792
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 270 F. Supp. 591 (United States v. Vince) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Vince, 270 F. Supp. 591, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7648 (E.D. La. 1967).

Opinion

WEST, District Judge:

This is a suit brought by the United States of America to recover what it alleges to be the balance due on two certain promissory notes executed by Vince Mechanical Contractors, Inc. in favor of the Louisiana National Bank of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and later assigned to the Small Business Administration (SBA), an agency of the United States Government. The defendants, Sam Vince and Patrina Vince, are sued as guarantors on those loans.

On May 19, 1959, Vince Mechanical Contractors, Inc., a Louisiana corporation, executed its promissory note in the principal sum of $75,000, payable to Louisiana National Bank of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This note bears interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum on 10 per cent of the unpaid balance, and at the rate of 5y2 per cent per annum on 90 per cent of the unpaid balance. On the same day the defendants, Sam Vince and Patrina Vince, executed their personal guaranty whereby they personally guaranteed payment of the note in case of default by Vince Mechanical Contractors, Inc.

On the same day, May 19, 1959, Vince Mechanical Contractors, Inc. also executed another promissory note in the principal sum of $35,000 payable to the Louisiana National Bank of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum on the unpaid balance. In connection with this note the defendants, Sam Vince and Patrina Vince, also executed a guaranty similar to the one previously referred to. As further security for these loans, Vince Mechanical Contractors, Inc. also mortgaged certain real estate and assigned certain accounts receivable to the Bank. On July 29, 1960, the Louisiana National Bank assigned both notes, both guaranties, and their rights in the collateral, to the Small Business Administration, an agency and instrumentality of the United States of America. In November, 1960, Vince Mechanical Contractors, Inc. filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy. The bankrupt estate was administered by the Trustee, and after the final account was approved by the Referee, the estate was closed and the Trustee discharged on June 12, 1962. Plaintiff brings this suit to recover the sum of $382.25 allegedly due and owing on the $75,000 note, and the sum of $22,-961.64 plus interest on the principal balance of $16,904.44, at the rate of 5% per cent per annum from April 20, 1962 until paid, allegedly due and owing on the $35,000 note.

The suit is defended on the ground that (1) a $4,000 item representing the amount paid by the Trustee in Bankruptcy for the expense of handling the sale of certain collateral which was purchased by SBA was improperly charged to the defendants, and (2) that the five accounts receivable pledged by Vince Mechanical Contractors, Inc. as security for these loans had not been properly administered, enforced or collected by plaintiff, and that hence, defendants, as guarantors of the loans, should now be given full credit for the entire amount of those accounts receivable, whether they have been collected or not.

As to the first item, i. e., the $4,000 charge for cost incurred in selling collateral, counsel for defendants, in his “final brief,” has stated: “In this final brief we have omitted and dispensed any emphasis on the first (with right of the Court to consider it if the Court wishes), * * And then as to the [593]*593second item, i. e., the pledged accounts receivable, counsel continues “and rely entirely on the second, viz: The rights of defendants in the ‘Five (5) Accounts Receivable’ item under which we submit judgment should be rendered in favor of defendants.”

Thus, there is no need now to go into the $4,000 item in any detail. Suffice it to say that even if defendants had decided to pursue this phase of the case, it is the opinion of this Court that their claim would be without mérit.

It is further the opinion of this Court that defendants’ position as to their alleged entitlement to a credit in the amount of the accounts receivable as they stood on the day of their assignment to the Louisiana National Bank or as they stood at the time of their assignment to SBA is also without merit. Exactly what happened to the five accounts receivable in question is not exactly clear from the record. They were apparently listed by Vince Mechanical Contractors, Inc. in their bankruptcy pleadings as an asset, after which the Trustee, who apparently never administered the accounts, made an informal disclaimer thereof. Later the SBA filed a “Petition to Reclaim Collateral” but the final disposition of these accounts is not made to appear in the record in the present suit. But the disposition of these accounts receivable is unimportant insofar as a determination of defendants’ liability to the plaintiff on the notes in question in this suit is concerned. Defendants do not contend here that the accounts were collected and not credited to the balance due on the notes. They claim that the accounts were not collected or were not properly administered and because of a failure on the part of plaintiff to properly administer the accounts in question, defendants have been denied a credit that they would have received had the accounts been properly handled. But insofar as defendants’ liability on the notes in question is concerned it matters not whether these accounts receivable were properly or improperly handled in the absence of a showing of willful neglect. Defendants gave their unconditional guaranty for the payment of the notes in question in case of default by Vince Mechanical Contractors, Inc. Their guaranty did not depend upon the existence or nonexistence of the collateral in question. The guaranty which they gave reads in part as follows:

Guarantors grant “ * * * to Bank full power, in its uncontrolled discretion and without notice to the undersigned [guarantors], * * * the following powers:
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“(d) To consent to the * * * release of all or any part of the collateral, * * *.
“(e) In the event of the non-payment when due, whether by acceleration or otherwise, of any of the Liabilities, or in the event of default in the performance of any obligation comprised in the collateral, to realize on the collateral or any part thereof, * * * or to forbear from realizing thereon, all as Bank in its uncontrolled discretion may deem proper, * * *.
“The obligations of the undersigned [guarantors] hereunder shall not be released, discharged or in any way affected, nor shall the undersigned [guarantors] have any rights or recourse against Bank, by reason of any action Bank may take or omit to take under the foregoing powers.
“In case the Debtor shall fail to pay all or any part of the Liabilities when due, whether by acceleration or otherwise, according to the terms of said note, the undersigned, immediately upon the written demand of Bank will pay to Bank the amount due and unpaid by the Debtor as aforesaid, in like manner as if such amount constituted the direct and primary obligation of the undersigned. Bank shall not be required, prior to any such demand on, or payment by, the undersigned, * * * to pursue or exhaust any of its rights or remedies with respect to any part of the collateral.”

[594]*594A similar guaranty was involved in the case of United States v. Newton Livestock Auction Market, Inc., 336 F.2d 673

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Bluebook (online)
270 F. Supp. 591, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7648, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-vince-laed-1967.