Roper v. Monroe Grocer Co

• Citation: 171 La. 181,129 So. 811
• Decision Date: 02 July 1930
• Docket Number: 30734
• Court: Supreme Court of Louisiana
• Parties: ROPER v. MONROE GROCER CO

129 So. 811

171 La. 181

ROPER v. MONROE GROCER CO

No. 30734

Supreme Court of Louisiana

July 2, 1930

Questions answered, and case remanded, with instructions.

Munholland & Munholland, of Monroe, for appellant.

McHenry Montgomery, Lamkin & Lamkin, of Monroe, for appellee.

OPINION

O'NIELL, C. J.

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, 71 Colo. 367, 206 P. 1071; Reed et al. v. Flood, 76 Colo. 139, 230 P. 108. Eight months after the six years had expired, the Monroe Grocer Company bought a quantity of hay from Roper for $ 230.21, and, when payment of the price was demanded, claimed credit for the amount of the company's judgment against Roper, with interest and costs. Roper brought suit against the Monroe Grocer Company in Monroe for the price of the hay; and, in answer to the suit, the company acknowledged the debt, but pleaded in compensation the amount of the company's judgment against Roper, with interest and costs, and tendered Roper the difference, $ 20.44. Roper pleaded that the judgment was prescribed by the Colorado statute of limitations, and by article 3532 of the Civil Code of Louisiana, and could not be pleaded in compensation against a debt which arose after he was released from the judgment by the statute of limitations. The district judge sustained the plea of prescription and gave judgment in favor of Roper for the price of the hay. The Monroe Grocer Company appealed to the Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit, and that court, availing itself of the provisions of the twenty-fifth section of article 7 of the Constitution 1921, has certified to this court the two questions of law, on which the Court of Appeal asks for instructions, viz.

(1) Is the prescription of six years, under the law of Colorado, or the prescription of ten years, under article 3547 of the Civil Code of Louisiana, applicable to the judgment rendered by the justice of the peace in Colorado in favor of the Monroe Grocer Company and against Roper?

(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 law of the place where the action is brought. Code of Practice, art. 13. According to article 3547 of the Civil Code, judgments for money, whether rendered within or outside of this state, are prescribed by the lapse of ten years from the date of rendition. Hence the right of recovery on this judgment against Roper would not be barred by the prescription of six years, under the statute of Colorado, were it not for the provisions of article 3532 of the Civil Code, viz.

"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 3532 of the Civil Code fits the facts of this case, exactly, except for the use of the word "between," in the expression "Whenever any contract or obligation has been entered into, or judgment rendered, between persons who reside out of the State of Louisiana." The judgment rendered against Roper in Denver, Colo., was not rendered between persons residing outside of Louisiana, because the plaintiff in the case, the Monroe Grocer Company, was domiciled in Louisiana. But our judgment is that the word "between," as far as it has reference to judgments, means "against." The word "between" was used with reference to contracts, more than with reference to judgments. The language of the article, in other respects, shows that the purpose was to provide that, when a judgment rendered in another state against a resident of that state is barred by prescription or the statute of limitation of the state in which the judgment was rendered, "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." In this instance, the judgment debtor was discharged, within the meaning of article 3532 of the Code, by the statute of limitations of the state in which the judgment was rendered; and, according to article 3532, the judgment could not be revived against him in Louisiana, "upon the debtor who is thus discharged subsequently coming into this State."

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 provisions of the Act of March 15, 1855, p. 224 (now Rev. Civ. Code, art. 3532, and Rev. Stat. § 2808); but the evidence disclosed,not only that the prescription of seven years under the Mississippi statute had been interrupted by proceedings had in that state, but also that the defendant had come into Louisiana and established a domicile here before the seven years had expired. Hence the court said:

"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 3532 of the Civil Code, in coming into Louisiana after being entitled to the benefit of the statute of limitation of the state in which the judgment was rendered against him.

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 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 3532 of the Civil Code) was applicable to the case. The defendant invoked also the Act of May 27, 1846, No. 182, p. 161, declaring that a bank or...