83 So. 28 | La. | 1919
“Under his contract plaintiff obligated himself to deliver his entire crop [of rice of 1916] to defendant [the advancer and pledgor] before the maturity of his obligation; the latter being given the. right thereunder to sell the crop or to dispose of it in the ordinary course of the market in the manner as if the same belonged to him. * * * The defendant made a sale thereof to itself, the price of which it applied to plaintiff’s indebtedness, leaving a balance in favor of plaintiff of $27, to whom a check was mailed by defendant for that amount [February 27, 1917]. There can be no doubt that defendant company had no right to make a sale to itself under the clause in the crop lien, which authorized it to sell in the open market. It had no such power under that clause, or had it the right to do so, even accepting its contention that subsequently to the execution of the crop lien plaintiff had granted it the authority to sell, through Carver, one of its officers or employés. The authority to sell in either case could not be construed as authority to defendant to make a purchase for its own benefit. As held in Liquidators of State Nat. Bank v. Hart, 130 La. 843, 58 South. 636, such a sale operated no change in the title. * * * Whether plaintiff had, subsequent to the /execution of the contract, authorized Mr. Carver to sell, there can be no question that by special provision in the contract the defendant company had the power to dispose of the crop in the open market, as there was certainly no abrogation of the authority so granted therein. As the sale which defendant made to itself' [January 30, 1917], had effected no change in the ownership of the rice, which still remained in the plaintiff, defendant | had therefore, under the original authority*833 granted to it in the crop lien, the power to make a valid sale of the rice to any other party in the open market.”
The court then proceeds:
•‘There is no evidence whatever to show that plaintiff was intentionally misled by the defendant, or that the latter sought through motives of speculation or interest to take advantage of the situation, and, as plaintiff had defaulted in the payment of his debt, the sale which defendant made of the rice, after the date of its own ineffectual purchase, was a valid sale, and entitled plaintiff to have the proceeds realized, in that sale ‘attributed to his debt.’ This was the measure of plaintiff’s rights under the doctrine announced in Liquidators of State Nat. Bank, 130 La. 843, 58 South. 636. If defendant had acted fraudulently, in bad faith, or had been guilty of an unlawful conversion, the rights of plaintiff would be pitched on different lines, and his rights of recovery would not be restricted to the attribution of the proceeds actually received ‘to his debt.’ ”
Under such circumstances plaintiff is entitled to recover the market value of the rice at the date that it was actually sold by the defendant. Johnson v. Bobbins, 20 La. Ann. 569.
The Court of Appeal held that, plaintiff having failed to make his case for damages certain, his demand should be dismissed. Under the circumstances the ruling was erroneous.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the judgment of the Court of Appeal and of the district court for Acadia parish be annulled, and this case is remanded to the district court, to be there proceeded with in accordance with law.
On Application for Amendment of Decree.
The decree rendered herein is amended, so as to condemn the defendant to pay the costs of this court and of
The rehearing is denied.