Pike v. Kentwood Bank

• Decision Date: 01 December 1919
• Docket Number: 22232
• Citation: 83 So. 904,146 La. 704
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: PIKE v. KENTWOOD BANK

83 So. 904

146 La. 704

PIKE v. KENTWOOD BANK

No. 22232

Supreme Court of Louisiana

December 1, 1919

Rehearing Denied March 12, 1920

Appeal from Twenty-Fifth Judicial District Court, Parish of Tangipahoa; W. Schofield Rownd, Judge.

Action by Elmer S. Pike against the Kentwood Bank. Judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals, and plaintiff asks for an amendment of the judgment.

Affirmed.

Purser & Magruder, of Amite, for appellant.

William H. McClendon, of New Orleans, for appellee.

OPINION

SOMMERVILLE, J.

The plaintiff, recently a resident of Wichita, Kan., and now domiciled in St. Helena parish, in this state, sues the defendant bank for the cancellation of the sale of certain lands in St. Helena parish by the bank to him on June 5 1913, and for $ 12,300, with interest, or to return to petitioner certain property which he (petitioner) owned in Wichita, Kan., in 1913, and which he alleges had been transferred by him to certain agents of the defendant bank together with nine promissory notes, aggregating $ 2,700, which were signed by him and given to the bank at the time of the transfer of the property to him; in other words, he alleges that there had been an exchange of properties, and he asks that it be set aside, and, in the alternative, in the event that the court should decide that the petitioner was not entitled to a rescission of the sale, that he have a diminution of the price, as 610 acres contracted for had not been delivered to him.

Plaintiff alleges that the bank, through its agents, made false representations to him concerning the land in St. Helena parish, by saying that it was approximately 8 miles from the town of Kentwood; that there were approximately 75 acres of very rich loam bottom land cleared and ready for cultivation, most of it under fence; that there were approximately 175 acres of Monroe silt loam land, which had been in cultivation, all of which was under fence; that the balance of the land, known as cut-over land, still had the stumps on it, and that about 100 acres of this cut-over land was rolling and comparatively rough; that the balance of the cut-over land was level enough for cultivation; and that approximately 300,000 or 400,000 feet of merchantable timber was on the land; that there was an abundance of pasture land grown up with an abundance of Lespadeze or Japan clover; and that it was falsely represented to him that the cleared land was worth $ 30 per acre and the uncleared $ 20 per acre, etc.

Plaintiff avers that the above false representations as to the nature location, and value of the land owned by the bank induced him to transfer his Kansas property to the bank and its agents, and that he accepted in exchange the lands of the bank in St. Helena, which were old, worn-out, and of little value, and that there was error on his part as to a...