Court Opinion

ID: 9453157
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:04:42.896545+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:32.336682
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
PER CURIAM:
The petition for rehearing filed by the United States is denied.
It is appropriate that the original opinion be extended for the following observations.
An important point in the case was failure of the United States to prove the amount of damages to which it was entitled, i. e., the amount due and unpaid on the note to it and hence due by Frederick as guarantor. Even if assumed that the Louisiana judgment against the corporation established the fact of, and the amount of, Frederick’s original liability as guarantor (a violent assumption, see footnote 6 of opinion), there remained two problems — establishing the balance remaining due on the Louisiana judgment after proper credits were given thereon from sale, which the Louisiana judgment directed be held, and establishing the unpaid balance due on the note at the time of this suit (which might or might not be the same as the balance due on the judgment, since it was not shown whether there were credits on the note balance from sources other than the Louisiana sale — see footnote 7 of opinion). The certified copy of the Louisiana judgment submitted by the United States in support of its motion for summary judgment showed only gross figures plus a direction to sell property and apply the proceeds against the gross. It was silent on the amount of proceeds derived from the sale directed to be held. The affidavit of Ben F. Jones did not settle the question of the amount remaining due on the Louisiana judgment, in fact it was not even evidentiary thereof. It did not deal with or even refer to the Louisiana judgment but was solely in terms of the note (see footnote 5 of opinion).
On the issue of the counterclaim, it was impossible for the trial court to have considered whether items of property which the Louisiana judgment directed be seized and sold were all or less than all of the items of property mortgaged in 1960. Neither the mortgage nor any list of mortgaged property was before the district court (see footnote 1 of opinion). What purports to be a copy of the mortgage was attached to appellant’s brief on this appeal. That extra-legal document did not enlarge the record before this court or retrospectively alter what was before the district court.