G. WOODWARD JACKSON CO., INC.
v.
Williаm CRISPENS and Gilbert Safrastine, d/b/a Hopedale Crab Company; Carl Fontenot; Alec Metcalf, d/b/a A & L Seafood Company; and One Continental Boiler.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.
Louis G. Gruntz, Jr., Jefferson, for plaintiff-appellant.
Kirk Vaughn, Edward S. Bopp, а Law Corp., Arabi, for defendants-appellees.
Before SCHOTT, AUGUSTINE and LOBRANO, JJ.
AUGUSTINE, Judge.
This is an action de in rem verso brought in personam by plaintiff repairman G. Woodward Jacksоn to recover $2,246.12 from defendant landowner Carl Fontenot for the cost of repair to a boiler. Also namеd as defendants are the defendant's former lessees William Crispens and Gilbert Safrastine, d/b/a Hopedale Crab Cоmpany and Alec Metcalf d/b/a A & L Seafood Company.
The action is also brought in rem against the boiler whose uncompensated repairs have occasioned this suit.
As this matter is before us to review the trial court's finding of no cause and no right of аction against defendant Fontenot we will regard as true the following allegations, as set out in plaintiff's petition:
In Mаy, 1980, G. Woodward Jackson entered an oral contract with William Crispens and Gilbert Safrastine, d/b/a Hopedale Crab Company, to furnish repairs to a boiler located at their place of business. At the time he entered the agreement, Jackson was under the mistaken impression that the premises upon which the boiler was located, аnd the boiler itself, were owned by the crab company, this belief having been born as a result of certain representations of ownership by Crispens and Safrastine. At *856 no time was Fontenot, the lessor, given notice of repair nor did he have any knowledge of the contract.
Repair of the boiler was completed in June, 1980 at a cost of $1,525.12. Crispens and Safrastine refused to pay Jackson's bill, however. They later terminated their lease with Fontenоt by unexpectedly evacuating the premises. Their whereabouts are to this day unknown to plaintiff, who has cause to believe they have left the State.
By September, 1980, a new lessee, Alec Metcalf d/b/a A & L Seafood Company, had taken over the premises. Again, the boiler needed repair, and again plaintiff was called upon to fix it. Metcalf refused to pay the $721.00 repair bill.
Plаintiff later learned that Carl Fontenot was the owner of the premises, and that the two seafood compаnies with whom he had earlier contracted were merely lessees. He served the bills for repair upon Fontenot, who refused to pay.
Following the institution of this action, the trial court sustained Fontenot's exception of no cause of action. We affirm.
To prevail in this action, plaintiff's petition must allege facts sufficient to satisfy the elements of unjust enrichment. There must be proper allegation of (1) an enrichment; (2) an impoverishment; (3) a cоnnection between the enrichment and the impoverishment; (4) absence of legal justification for (1) and (2); absenсe of aremedy at law. Minyard v. Curtis Products, Inc.,
Taken at face value, the above stated elements seem to require that whеrever there is an enrichment of one person at the expense of another and this enrichment apрears "unfair", the law should right the matter by resort to natural justice.
The doctrine of unjust enrichment does not have an еxpansive mission, however. Its application is narrowed by the assignment of specific legal meaning to each of the elements which must be pleaded and proved. See Unjustified Enrichment in the Civil Law and Louisiana Law, 36 Tul.L. Rev. 605 (1962); 37 Tul.L.Rev. 49 (1963); see also Justice Tate, The Louisiana Action for Unjustified Enrichment, 50 Tul.L.Rev. 883 (1976) and 51 Tul.L.Rev. 446 (1977).
The prеsent case does not come within the narrow limits of the doctrine's application. Plaintiff's petition fails to establish the most critical element of the actio de in rem verso, i.e., absence of legal justification for the enrichment.
An enrichment has legal justification when it flows from the proper application of a rule of law or contractual provision. Stated in the converse, the actio de in rem verso must be denied when the rеlief sought by plaintiff would subvert the purpose of a rule of law or of a contract. Tate, supra.
The rule of law which justifies the enrichment of the landowner in this case is Civil Code Article 2694, which protects a landlord from having to reimburse the tenant fоr repairs to the premises unless the tenant gives sufficient notice to the landlord of the need for repair and оf his intent to have the work performed. Our jurisprudence has consistently enforced Art. 2694 so as to deny recovery оf expenditures for repair by a lessee when the lessor was given no notice of lessee's intent to repair. Brignac v. Boisdore,
We find no reason to allow the mechanic to stand in a better position, vis-a-vis thе landlord, than the tenant himself. Accordingly, we find that defendant's enrichment is justified by Article 2694 of the Louisiana Civil Code.
This result is consistent with Young v. Coen,
We follow the result and reasoning of Young v. Coen, supra, in holding that allowance of repairman Jackson's actio de in rem verso would destroy one of the legislative purposes of Article 2694. It follows that Fontenot's enrichment is legally justified.
For the reasons assigned, the judgment appealed from is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.