129 So. 811 | La. | 1930
The Monroe Grocer Company, a Louisiana corporation, domiciled in Monroe, La., obtained a judgment against L.W. Roper for $154.44, in a suit before a justice of the peace in Denver, Colo. Roper was then and is yet a resident of Denver, and has never resided in Louisiana. According to the Colorado statute of limitations (Rev. St. 1908, § 4061, p. 1029), the right of recovery on the judgment became barred by the prescription of six years; no action having been taken on the judgment within that time. Sundin v. Frost.
(1) Is the prescription of six years, under the law of Colorado, or the prescription of ten years, under article
(2) If the judgment is prescribed by the Colorado statute of limitations, may the Grocer Company nevertheless set it up in compensation against the claim of Roper, which arose after the judgment was prescribed?
1. The question whether an action is barred by prescription is determined by the *184
law of the place where the action is brought. Code of Practice, art. 13. According to article
"Whenever any contract or obligation has been entered into, or judgment rendered, between persons who reside out of the State of Louisiana, and to be paid or performed out of this state, and such contract, obligation or judgment is barred by prescription or the statute of limitations of the place where the contract or obligation is to be performed or judgment executed, the same shall be considered and held as barred by prescription in Louisiana, upon the debtor who is thus discharged subsequently coming into this State."
We infer from the statement of the Court of Appeal, in the submission of these questions of law, that Roper's first appearance in Louisiana, after the Monroe Grocer Company obtained the judgment against him in Denver, was when he appeared through his attorneys to file this suit against the Monroe Grocer Company, which was subsequent to his being "thus discharged," as the Code says, by the Colorado statute of limitations.
Article
The provisions of article 3532 of the Code were adopted originally by the Act of March 15, 1855, No. 168, p. 224, and were copied literally in the revision of the Civil Code of 1870, and in the Revised Statutes, § 2808. The case of Morton Hamner v. Valentine (1860) 15 La. Ann. 150, was a suit on a judgment rendered against the defendant in Mississippi, on which judgment all proceedings would have been barred by the prescription of seven years under the Mississippi statute of limitations, but for the fact that the prescription had been interrupted by proceedings taken out in Mississippi. The defendant pleaded that the action on the judgment was barred by prescription, and invoked the *186
provisions of the Act of March 15, 1855, p. 224 (now Rev. Civ. Code, art.
"It is seen, that the debtor established his domicile in Louisiana before the statute of limitations of seven years had run, and it admits of a grave doubt whether his subsequent visits to Mississippi and return home was such a coming into the State after the statute of limitation had been acquired, as to entitle him to the benefit of our statute. But without expressing an opinion upon this point, it is sufficient to say, that in order to plead such foreign statute, it must appear that the judgment is barred by it. That is, it must be completely barred."
The difference between that case and the case before us is that in this case the judgment debtor did not come into Louisiana until the judgment had become prescribed by the statute of limitations of the state in which the judgment was rendered. In other words, the judgment debtor in this case, unlike the judgment debtor in the case cited, came within the protection of article
In the case of Mandeville et al., Trustees, v. Huston, 15 La. Ann. 281, the trustees of a defunct bank in Mississippi brought suit on a judgment rendered in that state, and the defendant pleaded that the action was barred by the prescription of seven years under the Mississippi *187
statute of limitation, and, that, as the judgment debtor had retained his residence in Mississippi and had not come into Louisiana until the seven years had expired, the Act of March 15, 1855, p. 224 (now article
In Newman v. Eldridge,
"But where the judgment debtor comes to this state before the judgment against him is prescribed by the law of the state in which it was rendered, and is here sued on such judgment, the case is not within the exception, *188
and the only prescription to be applied is that established by article
The decree rendered in Newman v. Eldridge, however, was set aside on rehearing because the defendant against whom the judgment was rendered was not properly cited.
The prescription of ten years, established by article
"The plea of the statute of limitations, in an action instituted in one state on a judgment obtained in another state, is a plea to the remedy; and consequently, the lex fori must prevail in such a suit.
"Prescription is a thing of policy growing out of the experience of its necessity; and *189 the time after which suits or actions shall be barred, has been, from a remote antiquity, fixed by every nation, in virtue of that sovereignty by which it exercises its legislation for all persons and property within its jurisdiction.
"There is no constitutional inhibition on the states, nor any clause in the constitution, from which it can be even plausibly inferred, that the states may not legislate upon the remedy, on suits on the judgments of other states, exclusive of all interference with their merits.
"A suit in a state of the United States, on a judgment obtained in the courts of another state must be brought within the period prescribed by the local law, the lex fori, or the suit will be barred."
In a suit brought in this state on a judgment rendered in another state, if the facts are in confirmity with the conditions prescribed by article
Our answer, therefore, to the first question propounded by the Court of Appeal, is that, inasmuch as the right of action of the Monroe Grocer Company on the judgment rendered against Roper by the Colorado court was barred by the Colorado statute of limitations before Roper came into Louisiana, "the same shall be considered and held as barred by prescription in Louisiana, upon the debtor who is thus discharged subsequently coming into this State."
2. Our answer to the second question propounded by the Court of Appeal is that, inasmuch as the judgment against Roper was prescribed before the Monroe Grocer Company became indebted to him for the *190
price of the hay, the judgment cannot be pleaded in compensation or set-off against the price of the hay. The reason for that is that the two obligations were not of equal dignity or force when the second obligation arose — one being only a natural obligation, characterized by article
Counsel for the Monroe Grocer Company, in their brief, invoke the maxim "Quae temporalia sunt ad agendum perpetua sunt ad excipiendum," and article 20 of the Code of Practice, which provides that he who has a right of action to claim what is due him has even a greater right to invoke the cause of action by way of exception or defense to a suit brought against him. The maxim has no application to a plea of prescription against a claim set up in compensation, where the claim pleaded in compensation has no relation to the claim against which it is *191 pleaded. Boeto v. Laine, 3 La. Ann. 141, quoting Tropling, Prescriptions, No. 833. In fact, it has been held that the maxim is not applicable where both claims have resulted from the same transaction, and the defendant's claim is set up as a demand in reconvention. In Harris v. New Orleans, Opelousas Great Western Railroad, 16 La. Ann. 140, the plaintiff sued for $290 damages for the killing of his horse by a locomotive, and the railroad company, claiming that the accident was unavoidable, and denying liability, set up a reconventional demand for $1,500 damages done to the locomotive by the collision. The plaintiff pleaded that the reconventional demand was barred by the prescription of one year, because, although the plaintiff's suit was brought within the year after the collision, the defendant's answer and reconventional demand was filed after the year had gone by. The court sustained the plea of prescription, saying: "The rule `qua temporalia sunt ad agendum sunt ad excipiendum perpetua,' does not apply to a case of this kind. Boeto v. Laine, 3 La. Ann. 141; Knox v. Thompson, 12 La. Ann. 116."
This case is ordered remanded to the Court of Appeal, with instructions to affirm the judgment of the district court.