Allen v. Universal C. I. T. Credit Corp.
| Decision Date | 12 September 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. C-108,C-108 |
| Citation | 133 So.2d 442 |
| Parties | Charles W. ALLEN, Appellant, v. UNIVERSAL C. I. T. CREDIT CORPORATION, a corporation, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Robinson & Randle, Jacksonville, for appellant.
Boggs, Blalock & Holbrook, Jacksonville, for appellee.
The unsuccessful plaintiff has appealed from an adverse final judgment entered by the Circuit Court for Duval County in his action against the defendant company for conversion of an automobile. This judgment was entered upon a directed verdict which was granted at the end of the trial of the cause.
Briefly stated, the facts established by evidence at the trial were as follows: On March 14, 1959, the plaintiff, Charles W. Allen, went to the place of business of a certain automobile dealer in Popular Bluff, state of Missouri, and sought to trade in his 1954 Dodge automobile owned by him on a 1957 Mercury automobile, the car directly involved in the present action. The purchase price was $2,331.80. For his Dodge Allen was allowed $770, less the payoff figure to a certain bank on a chattel mortgage on the Dodge in the amount of $435, leaving a net allowance on the Dodge of $334.60. The balance of the purchase price he agreed to pay off in twenty-four monthly installments at the rate of $80.20 per month, the first payment being due on July 15, 1959. The balance of the purchase price was secured by a conditional sales contract. Allen surrendered his Dodge to the dealer and drove off in the Mercury. The said bank was holding the title to the Dodge and it was agreed that when the balance was paid off Allen would transfer the title certificate to the dealer and it was further agreed that the title to the Mercury would be transferred to Allen.
Later Allen decided to seek employment in Florida, and he left the State of Missouri on May 9, 1959, arriving in Florida two days later. The next day he procured a job in Jacksonville and two days later wrote to the dealer advising him that he was in Florida and asking where he should make his payments on the Mercury, to which inquiry he received no reply. On May 18, 1959, the dealer paid off the chattel mortgage on the Dodge and acquired possession of its title certificate. The dealer assigned the conditional sales contract on the Mercury to the defendant, but the latter declined to accept the contract. Later the dealer and the defendant decided that they would repossess the Mercury from Allen in Florida. The defendant then instructed its Jacksonville office to pick up the Mercury at the address which Allen had given in his letter to the dealer. The defendant's employees had to break the window of the car and push the car to its Jacksonville office. Two or three days later the defendant's employees returned certain personal articles belonging to Allen which had been left in the trunk of the car. After the foregoing facts and the applicable Missouri law were proven at the trial, the Circuit Court granted a directed verdict for the defendant on the theory that Allen had no right to the possession of the Mercury because the title certificate had not been endorsed over to him and that under Missouri law this rendered the contract void.
The question of the effect of the Missouri law on this transaction was the main issue in the trial court and is the main issue before us on this appeal. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us on this appeal to determine whether the Circuit Court in this case properly applied the Missouri law.
At the trial the deposition of a practicing lawyer of Missouri was received in evidence by the court in which he testified concerning the Missouri law, particularly Section 301.210 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri 1949, V.A.M.S., and the decisions of the Missouri courts construing that statute.
The mentioned statute of Missouri provides in pertinent parts:
'1. In the event of a sale or transfer of ownership of a motor vehicle or trailer for which a certificate of ownership has been issued the holder of such certificate shall endorse on the same an assignment thereof, with warranty of title in form printed thereon, and prescribed by the director of revenue, with a statement of all liens or encumbrances on said motor vehicle or trailer, and deliver the same to the buyer at the time of the delivery to him of said motor vehicle or trailer. * * *
Particularly involved here, of course, is the last clause in the provision stating that the sale of a motor vehicle under the laws of Missouri, without the assignment of the certificate of ownership, 'shall be fraudulent and void.' Judging from the reported cases, the...
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U.S. v. Bailey
...a present or immediate right of possession of the property in question") (internal citations omitted); Allen v. Universal C.I.T. Credit Corp., 133 So.2d 442, 445 (Fla. 1st DCA 1961) ("In this state an action for conversion is regarded as a possessory action, and the plaintiff, in order to m......
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Hopkins v. Lockheed Aircraft Corp.
...of Green Bay v. Felton, 1940, 145 Fla. 68, 199 So. 50. Accord: Tsilidis v. Pedakis, Fla.App.1961, 132 So.2d 9; Allen v. Universal C.I.T. Credit Corp., Fla.App.1961, 133 So.2d 442; Neal v. State ex rel. Neal, Fla.App.1961, 135 So.2d This aspect of judicial comity--of which the rule of Lex lo......
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US v. Bailey, 03-16445.
...at the time of the conversion.") (quoting Page v. Matthews, 386 So.2d 815, 816 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980), and Allen v. C.I.T. Credit Corp., 133 So.2d 442, 445-46 (Fla. 1 Dist.1961)). Therefore, our discussion of the issue applies equally to both of the Government's 3 There was no majority opinion......
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City Nat. Bank of Miami, N. A. v. Wernick
...v. Presto Brick Machine Corp., 168 So.2d 700 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1964), cert. denied, 174 So.2d 31 (Fla.1965); Allen v. Universal C.I.T. Credit Corp., 133 So.2d 442 (Fla. 1st DCA 1961); Independence Discount Corp. v. Bressner, 47 A.D.2d 756, 365 N.Y.S.2d 44 (1975).6 Non-delivery is no defense to ......