Varnado v. Meyer & Neugass Co.

133 So. 396, 16 La. App. 686, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 80
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 3, 1931
DocketNo. 752
StatusPublished

This text of 133 So. 396 (Varnado v. Meyer & Neugass Co.) 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
Varnado v. Meyer & Neugass Co., 133 So. 396, 16 La. App. 686, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 80 (La. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinions

MOUTON, J.

This case was before us in March, 1930, 12 La. App. 543, 126 So. 544, on appeal from a judgment in favor of defendant company maintaining an exception on a plea of 10-year prescription. The judgment wás reversed for - lack of evidence to support the prescription urged. As there were other contested questions be-: tween the litigants, and as other issues might be presented by them, we said, such, issues would remain open for future action should the case return to this court for decision.

The case was tried a second’ time, and resulted in a judgment for defendant company, decreeing its ownership to the property claimed, and rejecting the demand of the plaintiff, from which he prosecutes this appeal.

The contest is in reference to a 133.90-acre tract of land situated in the parish of Tangipahoa. The sale of the land was originally made by John Dickerson in 1902, which bears his signature, as vendor, and was signed Jasper E. Varnado & Bro., as vendee. This signature of Jasper E. Varnado & Bro. was. affixed to the act of sale by Jasper E. Varnado, then a member, with his brother, Dewitt D. Varnado, plaintiff herein, in a commercial partnership.

The contention of the plaintiff is that, as the sale was signed, Jasper E. Varnado & Bro., it was bought in the name of the commercial partnership, which cannot own immovable property, and that they therefore became joint owners in the land purchased from John Dickerson. Poydras v. Laurans, 6 La. Ann. 771; Bernard v. Du-four, 17 La. 596, and other authorities are cited by counsel for defendant, in support of that legal principle.

The act of sale says that John Dickerson conveys, sells, sets over, etc., “unto the said Jasper E. Varnado and Bro., being present accepting and purchasing for themselves, their heirs • and assigns the follow[688]*688ing property,” etc. If the sale had heen to the firm of Jasper E. Varnado & Bro., the words used for “themselves,” heirs .and assigns, would, it seems to us, have been rather out of place. They do not indicate that the sale was. to a firm or commercial partnership.

In 1907, five years thereafter, a sale was made of the same land- to John Dickerson, and is signed as follows: J. E. Varnado & Bro., by J. E. Varnado. This sale was on credit for $972.74, represented by three notes made payable to the Magnolia Bank or order.

Under an order of seizure obtained by Meyer and Neugass, defendant herein, against John Dickerson, the land in dispute was seized and sold, and was bought at public sale by Meyer and Neugass.

This suit is brought against Meyer and Neugass by Dewitt D. Varnado for one undivided half interest in the land. His claim is based on the contention that, by the purchase of the property in the name of the Varnado firm, he became joint owner with his brother, Jasper E. Varnado, and that he never was divested of his ownership therein, and is now owner in indivisión with the Meyer & Neugass Company, defendant.

Defendant claims ownership by virtue of the sales, and also pleads the prescription of ten years as a muniment of title.

It is contended by plaintiff that the sale to John Dickerson in 1907 was made for the commercial firm of Jasper E. Varnado & Bro.; that it was effected by Jasper E. Varnado, without plaintiff’s consent, authority, or knowledge, and in consequence there was no divestiture of his joint ownership therein.

As we have heretofore observed, the original sale by John Dickerson in. 1902 declared that it was made to Jasper E. Varnado & Bro., present, accepting, and purchasing for “themselves” heirs, assigns, etc. This language thus used does not, in the slightest degree, intimate a sale to the firm of Jasper E. Varnado & Bro. On the contrary, it would seem therefrom that the Requisition was for Jasper E. and Dewitt D. Varnado. It will also be noted that in the subsequent sale, in 1907, to John Dickerson, though the transfer is declared to be by Jasper E. Varna'do & Bro., nothing appears therein to give the remotest suggestion that Jasper E. Varnado & Bro. was a commercial firm.

There are several different partnerships recognized by the Civil Code (Rev. Civ. Code, arts. 2825, 2826), among which are commercial and ordinary partnerships. In view of our system, which recognizes these different classes of partnerships, it is not logical to hold that the two sales, to which] we have referred, were in reference to a commercial partnership, ‘exclusively, and were so understood by the parties to these transactions.

It is shown, besides, that in 1904, two years after the purchase from Dickerson, Dewitt D. Varnado, plaintiff, and his brother, Jasper E. Varnado, gave a mortgage for $2,200 on the land in question to the Magnolia Bank, represented by a note for that amount. This note was given to the bank to secure an indebtedness due it by the firm of Varnado & Bro. John Dickerson made a payment of $50, and another of $15 on that note.

In a suit subsequently brought by the bank against Dewitt and Jasper E. Varnado bn the $2,200 note, credit was given for [689]*689the payment of $65 made by Dickerson. The sale to Dickerson was ,made March 8, 1907, and the two payments on the note of $2,200 were made by Dickerson in November and December, 1907. He was then in debt for the purchase price of the property which had been bought on terms of credit, and, as far as the record shows, owed no other debt to the Varnados. It is not therefore illogical to infer that these payments on the note by Dickerson were in part satisfaction of the price he owed on the land.

The court in Thomas v. Scott, 3 Rob. 256, said:

“Where real property is purchased by a commercial firm, the members of the firm become joint owners thmeof. * * * C. C. 2796. But where the latter, by receiving a portion of the price, subsequently ratify a sale by the former, they will be estopped from asserting any title to. the prejudice of a bona fide purchaser.” See also Farias, v. De Lizardi, 4 Rob. 407; Raymond v. Palmer, 41 La. Ann. 425, 6 So. 692, 17 Am. St. Rep. 398.

The court distinctly held in 3 Rob., supra, that the act of receiving the whole or a part of the proceeds of the property, though sold without authority, constitutes a ratification of the sale.

It may be said that there is no direct proof to show that these payments were made by Dickerson on the purchase price of the land but, when we consider that plaintiff remained silent for a period of 25 years before asserting his claim to an undivided one-half of the property, we cannot day that the district judge erred in concluding that plaintiff had acquiesced in the sale made by Jasper E. Varnado, even if executed without his authority or knowledge, and that there had been a ratification of the sale.

Let us say, however, that the sale to Dickerson was made without the authority of plaintiff, and that there has been no ratification of the sale by him; we find that defendant has acquired the property under his plea of prescription, for the reasons which follow:

Plaintiff, in his petition and prayer, is asking for a recognition of his title to one undivided half interest in the property, and for a partition thereof by licitation. The demand therefore combines the double character of a petitory action and an action for partition. In an action of this character, defendant is entitled to' plead, the prescription of ten years (C. C. art.

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Related

Land Development Co. v. Schulz
124 So. 125 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1929)
Johnson v. Sugar
112 So. 721 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1927)
Reeves v. Towles
10 La. 276 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1836)
Bernard v. Dufour
17 La. 596 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1841)
Bowers v. Langston
100 So. 301 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1923)
Poydras v. Laurans
6 La. Ann. 771 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1851)
Pattison v. Maloney
38 La. Ann. 885 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1886)
Raymond v. Palmer
41 La. Ann. 425 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1889)
LeBlanc v. Robertson
41 La. Ann. 1023 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1889)
Varnado v. Meyer & Neugass Co.
126 So. 544 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1930)
Thomas v. Scott
3 Rob. 256 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1842)
Farias v. De Lizardi
4 Rob. 407 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1843)

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Bluebook (online)
133 So. 396, 16 La. App. 686, 1931 La. App. LEXIS 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/varnado-v-meyer-neugass-co-lactapp-1931.