Case ID: la_17/html/0274-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Maetin, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Dougherty & Al. v. Crumbaugh.
    
      A party having obtained judgment on a note in another State, cannot sue on the note, or on an account made up from the judgment and costs. He must sue on the record of the judgment, not on a parol acknowledgment of its correctness and amount.
    Appeal from the court of the first district.
    This is an action first instituted on a promissory note of the defendant, and on oyer craved, an amended petition was filed stating that the note was in Missouri, where judgment had been obtained on it, and that the defendant had made a written acknowledgment of said judgment, interest and [453] costs, which was annexed, and for which he prayed judgment.
    The defendant opposed the plea of res judicata; and averred that the note and debt were merged in the judgment rendered in Missouri.
    On these pleadings and issues the case was submitted to the district court.
    The defendant objected to the account sued on being offered in evidence, which was overruled and the account admitted.
    Judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiffs, and the defendant appealed.
    
      Vason for the plaintiffs.
    
      Rozier for defendant.
   Maetin, J.

delivered the opinion of the court.

- The plaintiffs instituted suit on a promissory note of the defendant. The latter craved oyer, and afterwards a supplemental petition was filed wherein the plaintiffs state that the note had been sent to the State of Missouri for collection, and judgment obtained thereon there; and the note being on the files of the court, could not be withdrawn and oyer given of it. A second supplemental petition is now filed, stating that the defendant had made a written acknowledgment of the amount of the note, interest and costs, according to the judgment rendered thereon in Missouri.

The defendant pleaded res judicata, the judgment obtained in the State of Missouri, in which the plaintiffs’ debt on the note was merged and extinguished. The plaintiffs had judgment, and the defendant appealed.

It appears to us the district court erred. Whatever may be the practice in the common law States, an action cannot be supported here on a judgment obtained in this State, nor even execution sought in any other court than that in which judgment was rendered. Canal Bank et al. v. Copeland, 12 [454] La. Rep. 34. It is otherwise as to judgments obtained in a sister State or foreign country; for as to them it becomes often necessary to institute suit in order to arrest the person of the defendant, &c. The plaintiffs might, therefore, have brought suit on the record of the judgment rendered in Missouri, but not on a parol acknowledgment of it by the defendant.

It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed, that the judgment of the district court be annulled, avoided and reversed; and that there be judgment for the defendant as in case of nonsuit, the plaintiffs and appellees paying costs in both courts.