Bertaut & Co. v. Márquez
Bertaut & Co. v. Márquez
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
1 Bertaut & Co., a mercantile firm of Louisiana,; brought proceedings in the District Court of Aguadilla and alleged unde? oath that they had sold to José.L- Marquez, a merchant of Aguadilla, two lots of rice — one of 1,000 sacks and the other of 500 sacks — according to samples left in the pqs-
Marquez demurred on the ground that the petition did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and in an answer set up several reasons why the petition should •not be sustained, one being that the rice sought to be delivered to him was not the quality of rice that he purchased.
The parties offered evidence in the court below, but the court refused to consider it for the reason that the proceeding established by section 1144 of the Civil Code was not applicable to this case; that in the ease of a mercantile deposit because without good reason the purchaser had refused to receive the merchandise purchased, the deposit should be governed by the Code of Commerce and the Law of Civil Procedure in force prior to the adoption of -the Code of Civil Procedure in 1904, and that under those codes the petition did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action for deposit; therefore, the court dismissed the proceedings and from that judgment Berta at & Co. took the present appeal.
According to section 1124 of the Qivil Code, one of the ways of extinguishing civil obligations is by their payment or fulfilment. Sections 1144 to 1149 of that Code provide that if the creditor to whom the tender of payment has been made should refuse to accept it, without reason, the debtor
Although the appellants allege that these statutes axe applicable to the consignation that they sought to make in this case, their texts show clearly that they refer to the extinguishment of civil obligations when the creditor refuses to accept the thing due, or can not accept it because of his incapacity or absence, or when several persons claim to have a
The appellants maintain, however, that if these consig-nation proceedings are not the proper remedy, in any event thé petition contains allegations sufficient to give the deposit the character of a mercantile deposit.
There can be no doubt that the purchase and sale in this case was a mercantile transaction, and with regard to it article 332 of the Code of Commerce provides that if the purchaser refuses without just cause to receive the goods bought, the vendor may demand the fulfilment or rescission of the contract, depositing the merchandise in court in the first case. Therefore, in accordance with that statute the mercantile deposit of the goods sold and not accepted by the purchaser is the sequent of an action for the performance of the contract of sale and there is no allegation. in the petition in this case that such' an action had been brought.
In the Code of Civil Procedure in force since 1904 there is no provision for giving effectiveness to- the right of deposit recognized in article 332 of the Code of Commerce, but there is in the Law of Civil Procedure previously in force and, therefore, it must be invoked, for in this respect it is still in force (Code Civ. Pro. see. 361) because it is not inconsistent or in conflict with any of the provisions of the present Code of Civil Procedure.
Part II of Book III of the said Law of Civil Procedure treats of acts of voluntary jurisdiction in commercial
The petition in this case did not designate the person who was to be the depositary, and although the appellants themselves deposited the goods in the warehouse named in the petition, they did not state the facts from which the judge might conclude that the said depositary had a sufficient guaranty.
Por the foregoing reasons the judgment appealed from must be
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.