Court Opinion

ID: 9674419
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:28:18.732583+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:27.516499
License: Public Domain

ON REHEARING
SUMMERS, Justice.
The plaintiffs, Mr. & Mrs. Herman McCoy, sued Pacific Coast Fire Insurance Company and American Employers’ Insurance Company for loss on a policy of fire insurance covering a building on Thalia Street in New Orleans. Alternatively, the McCoys sought recovery against Mon*401taldo Insurance Agency, through whom the policy was obtained, if full recovery was not allowed under the policy issued by Pacific.
Both defendants denied that the policy covered the fire loss asserting that the premises, though listed as “apartments”, contained a restaurant which was in operation at the time of the loss. The operation of this restaurant, defendants assert, greatly increased the risk and if that fact had been known to the insurer or the agent a higher premium would have been due. Defendants urged that failure of the McCoys to properly represent the change in use voided the policy.
In a third party action Pacific impleaded Montaldo seeking judgment against Montaldo in the event Pacific were held to owe the McCoys.
After trial there was judgment in favor of defendants Pacific and Montaldo and against plaintiffs dismissing their suit.1
There was no adjudication of the third party demand.
Plaintiff appealed.
The Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit, affirmed. 164 So.2d 386 (1965).
We granted certiorari upon the application of plaintiff, 246 La. 604, 165 So.2d 488 (1965).
In our original opinion, we found that Montaldo, as agent for Pacific, had constructive knowledge of the use of the premises, which was imputable to Pacific. Pacific’s defense of failure to properly represent the use of the premises was, therefore, rejected and judgment was rendered in favor of the McCoys and against Pacific.
We were of the opinion that the third party demand of Pacific was not before the Court of Appeal because Pacific did not appeal from the district court judgment. Consequently, the Court of Appeal could not have rendered judgment against Montaldo on the 'third party demand, because, as we stated, “A judgment may be rendered or revised as between appellees only through an appeal by the appellee who seeks appellate action.” Thus when we granted certiorari to review the Court of Appeal judgment we could not consider the relief sought in the third party demand of Pacific against Montaldo, for that question was never properly on appeal before the Court of Appeal.
This rehearing is limited to a consideration of whether we can adjudicate the third party claim of Pacific against Montaldo, or whether the case should be remanded to the trial court for adjudication of the third party demand.
*403Upon reconsideration we are convinced that our original opinion was correct.
Article 2087 of the Code of Civil Procedure as amended by Act 92 of 1962 applies here, and, in pertinent part, it provides :
“ * * *
“When a devolutive appeal has been taken timely, an appellee who seeks to have the judgment appealed from modified, revised or reversed as to any other appellee, may take a devolutive appeal therefrom, and furnish the security therefor, within the delays allowed in the first paragraph of this article (90 days), or within ten days of the granting of the first devolutive appeal in the case, whichever is later.” (Parentheses added.)
Prior to the foregoing enactment, in cases involving three or more parties, when one obtained an order for a devolutive appeal on the last day, the other parties had no opportunity to take an appeal to protect their position against any change through the first appeal. See Comment, La.Code Civ.P. art. 2087 (1962).
This article does not cover the same situation as that presented in the case of Coleman v. Cousin, 128 La. 1094, 55 So. 686 (1911), where Mrs. Coleman and'her children instituted a petitory action against . the defendant Cousin, who called his vendor in warranty. The trial court rendered judgment for defendant, decreeing him to be the owner of the land in dispute. Plaintiffs appealed and defendant answered the appeal, asking that if the judgment in his favor were reversed he have judgment against his warrantor. After reversing the trial court judgment in favor of the defendant, this court declared:
“We cannot grant the relief sought. Defendant and his warrantor are both appellees, and the Court is powerless to amend the judgment between them, or, rather, to render judgment between them. There was no judgment between them in the lower court; and there is no appeal before us affecting their rights toward one another.”
The court could not entertain the call in warranty in the Coleman case as there had been no adjudication of that issue between the parties to the call in warranty in the trial court. It followed that there could be no appeal from such an unadjudicated issue between parties, one of whom was not mentioned or contemplated in the trial court judgment. The court was in error in the Coleman case when it referred to the warrantor as an appellee. Only Cousin was an appellee.-
Thus the. amendment to Article 2087 can assure one of several appellees a' right to appeal as to other appellees mentioned in' the court’s judgment when the appellees as to whom án appellee appeals are affected *405by that judgment and when the first appeal is lodged at the last minute. The allowance of the additional time to the appellee in such a case permits him to seek a modification, revision or reversal of the judgment as to another appellee which might otherwise have been foreclosed by the last minute appeal.
It must be observed that the amendment to Article 2087 requires such an appeal only when the appellee “seeks to have the judgment appealed from modified, revised, or reversed as to any other appellee.” It does not and cannot apply to a case where the parties are not affected by the judgment appealed from (as in this case, where Pacific and Montaldo in their capacities as third party plaintiff and defendant are unaffected by the judgment appealed from), or when a party is entirely satisfied with the judgment. Nor does it require an appeal concerning issues which have not been adjudicated in the trial court between parties in different capacities than that contemplated in the judgment appealed from. In other words, Article 2087 can only contemplate an appeal by an appellee against parties and on issues which were the subject of a judgment before the trial court.
Therefore, Pacific, in its capacity as third party plaintiff, could not appeal against Montaldo in its capacity as third party defendant concerning issues between them in those capacities which had never been adjudicated by the trial court.
There being no appeal before us relating to the third party demand, we cannot adjudicate the issues between the parties to that demand. The third party demand is not here because the trial court retained jurisdiction of that remaining, incidental aspect of the case to adjudicate the issues it presented should the event upon which the third party demand was predicated occur by a reversal on appeal of the trial court’s judgment between the principal plaintiff and the principal defendant. Article 1915 of the Code of Civil Procedure supports this conclusion for it provides:
“A final judgment may be rendered and signed by the court, even though it may not grant the successful party all of the relief prayed for, or may not adjudicate all of the issues in the case, when the court:
“(1) Dismisses the suit as to less than all of the plaintiffs, defendants, third party plaintiffs, third party defendants, or intervenors;
* * * * * ' sfc
“If an appeal is taken from such a judgment, the trial court nevertheless shall retain jurisdiction to adjudicate the remaining issues in the case.”
That is what happened here. The trial court did dismiss the suit as to the principal' plaintiff and defendants, but it did nothing *407as to the third party plaintiff and the third party defendant — it dismissed the suit as to less than all of the parties involved. The judgment was, therefore, partial. Hence the trial court necessarily retained jurisdiction over the parties not mentioned in its judgment and as to the remaining, unadjudicated issues of the case. The reason for this is obvious: The trial court could do nothing concerning the third party plaintiff’s demand against the third party defendant because that demand was predicated upon the happening of an event which had not then occurred — a judgment against the third party plaintiff (Pacific) in favor of the principal plaintiff (the McCoys). This event did not occur until, by the judgment of this court, the judgment of the trial court was reversed and the McCoys’ demand against Pacific was allowed. The third party demand was not until that time in a posture for adjudication by the. trial court. It is now.
• Prior to the enactment of Article 1915 there was no precise rule for the rendition of 'partial judgments. This article permits, in a proper case, what was formerly reprobated as piecemeal litigation. It is the liberality of our procedural rules with respect to the joinder of parties which makes this piecemeal ..litigation necessary to prevent injustice in a case like this one.
Subject to the views herein. expressed the original judgment herein is reinstated and made final; and the-case is remanded for the limited purpose of permitting the third party demand of Pacific against Montaldo to be proceeded with according to law. La.Code Civ.P. art. 2164; cf. Hope v. Gordon, 186 La. 697, 173 So. 177 (1937).
HAMITER, J., concurs in reinstating the original judgment; he dissents as to the remand.
SANDERS, J., concurs in reinstating the original judgment but dissents in part.

. American Employers’ Insurance Company was dismissed from the suit by ruling on an exception.