Wunderlich v. Simpkin

5 La. App. 35, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 456
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 19, 1926
DocketNo. 9414
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 5 La. App. 35 (Wunderlich v. Simpkin) 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
Wunderlich v. Simpkin, 5 La. App. 35, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 456 (La. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

RRAIBORNE, J.

This is a suit for rent accompanied by provisional seizure.

Plaintiff alleged that by an act under private signature dated July 15, 1921, she leased to Jacob Simkin the property Nos. 1413-15 Prytania street for twenty-four months commencing October 1, 1921, and ending September 30, 1923, for the price of $125.00 per month, payable on the first day of each month, evidenced by twenty-four notes made by the lessee to his own order, bearing eight per cent interest from maturity; that it was stipulated in said lease that “should the lessee at any time fail to pay the rent promptly at maturity the rent for the whole unexpired term of this lease shall without putting said lessee in default at once become due and exigible; and in case the said lessee shall pay an additional sum of ten per cent on the amount so due and exigible as counsel fees”; that the rent note due June 1, 1923, was unpaid “notwithstanding demand” and by the terms of said lease the other five notes became due and payable, making in all $625.00 with eight per cent interest; petitioner further alleged that she had good reasons to believe that the lessee would remove the property from the leased premises. She prayed for provisional seizure and for judgment for $625.00 with eight per cent interest from maturity of the notes, ten per cent attorney’s fees and costs.

The order for provisional seizure was granted and the writ issued; the contents of the leased premises were seized and bonded by the defendant.

The defendant filed a rule against the plaintiff to sho.w cause why the provisional seizure should not be set aside on the following grounds:

1st. That the affidavit annexed to the petition is insufficient and not according to law.

[37]*372nd. That mover is not delinquent in the payment of his- rent; that since the maturity of the first note, mover has been accustomed to paying his rent at any time within thirty days after the maturity of his rent notes, with the consent, knowledge, and without any objection on the part of the plaintiff; that he had not been notified by the plaintiff that this method of paying his rent was not satis; factory and had no notice that the rent maturing on June 1, 1923, would have to be paid in any other manner; that on the day this writ was issued mover attempted to pay the rent note maturing on June 1, 1923, at the Citizens Bank and Trust Company, on Gravier street, in this city, where the notes were deposited for collection; that he was advised that the rent note had been withdrawn by the owner; that he has always been ready to pay said note, and is now ready and willing to do so; that he now tenders the amount thereof, namely $125.00, in payment of his rent, which he now deposits in the registry of the court.

To this rule plaintiff answered that she “specifically denied that she gave permission to the defendant to pay his rent after maturity, but on the contrary avers that she repeatedly notified the defendant that the rent had to be paid punctually; that defendant has been urged continually to pay the rent punctually as it fell due, and, although he promised faithfully to do so, repeatedly ignored these demands.”

Defendant filed an answer containing practically a repetition of the allegations of the rule to set aside the provisional seizure.

The district judge dismissed the rule to set aside the provisional seizure.

The plaintiff and defendant then agreed that the judge should decide the case on the merits of the evidence heretofore submitted on the trial of the rule to set aside the provisional seizure.

There was judgment as prayed for on the merits and the defendant appealed.

Of course, the burden was upon the defendant to prove his defense that he was in the ■ habit of paying his rent after il;.was due with plaintiff’s consent, and without any objection on his part, and that this suit was filed against him without previous amicable demand.

This suit was filed June 18, 1923.

The -evidence is that the defendant has been a tenant of the plaintiff for the last eight or ten years; that in the earlier days he .was fairly prompt; that he grew gradually worse and worse, until he never paid his rent on the day it became due but only several days after and sometimes weeks; on December 3, 1922, plaintiff called the defendant’s attention to the fact that he had paid'1 the October rent only on December 2, and that the November rent was due, and that he would be much obliged to him if he would arrange to take up the November rent during thiá week. On December 12 following, he writes again to defendant that he has not paid his November rent and advises him that the note- must be taken up within forty-eight hours and concludes by insisting that from now on there must be no delay in the monthly payment and that the rent must be paid promptly within the first three days of each month. But it appears that this threat was not carried out. It remained “brutum fulmen”.

The month of November appears to have been paid only on December 19.

On December - 23, 1922, plaintiff again writes to 1 defendant:

[38]*38“Enclosed you Will find rent note for November, which was taken up by check you sent me a few days ago. In sending it to you I am taking the opportunity of recalling to your notice the contents of letter to you under date December 12, 1922, in which you were, told that in future- the rent notes must be promptly taken up. I trust you will heed this notice and prepare yourself to take up the notes each month as they come due not later than the 3rd or 4th of each month. By so doing you will save trouble to both of us.”

On January 9, 1922 (1923), the defendant wrote to the plaintiff:

“I am very sorry it happened that I fell back in rent, but next Monday I will take out my rent note, and from February 1, I will meet my rent notes prompt.”

Notwithstanding this letter the December rent was paid only on January 15, and the month of March on April 23.

There is no other correspondence on the subject.

The plaintiff testified that he called several times on the defendant who paid the April rent only on May 31; he told him he would write no more, but that the attorney would take care of him; and that at his request his lawyer, Mr. Young, wrote the defendant a letter demanding payment within forty-eight hours.

Mr. Young, plaintiff’s attorney, did not testify in the case.

The defendant denied having received a'letter from Mr. Young; he also denied that the plaintiff had told him that he would have to pay his rent promptly.

He deposited in court the rent for May and June and for all the other months.

This evidence makes it clear that notwithstanding the threatening letters of December 12 and 23, he, plaintiff, allowed the defendant to continue to pay his rent after it became due for the six months of November, 1922, to May 1, 1923, without action on his part. There is no evidence that during those six months plaintiff warned. the defendant . to pay his rent at maturity; he was evidently indulging him as an old tenant.

The situation in this case is the same a's existed in the leading case of Bacas vs. Mandot, 3 Orl. App. 324. In that case the court said:

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Bluebook (online)
5 La. App. 35, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wunderlich-v-simpkin-lactapp-1926.