Campins v. Capels
| Decision Date | 28 March 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 4-283,4-283 |
| Citation | 461 N.E.2d 712 |
| Parties | Julio CAMPINS, Jr., et al., Appellants (Defendants Below), v. John CAPELS and Dana Capels, Appellees (Plaintiffs Below). A 60. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Richard L. Zweig, Indianapolis, for appellants.
Linda M. Wagoner, Forrest B. Bowman, Jr., Bowman, Dillon & Wagoner, Indianapolis, for appellees.
Julio Campins, Jr. brings his appeal to this court after John Capels and his wife, Dana, recovered $11,100 in their suit against him, individually, and as his two business entities, Hollywood Gold and Silver and Zebone Gallery, Jewelry & Coin. The Capelses sued under IND.CODE 34-4-30-1, which authorized them to sue for treble damages because they were victims of a criminal offense against property--they suffered a burglary and consequent theft of their jewelry. The trial court ruled Campins liable for the value of some of their jewelry because he had purchased and had then destroyed some pieces when he know or should have known they were stolen. This being the offense of criminal mischief, the trial court awarded the Capelses treble damages. Campins principally attacks individual portions of the trial court's findings of fact and conclusions of law, but our ultimate decision, broadly stated, is that said findings and conclusions amply and correctly support the court's legal result. However, the award itself must be modified slightly. We affirm and so modify and additionally remand for hearing on appellate attorney fees.
Campins's issues, trimmed to their essential elements, are:
1. Whether the trial court erred in determining Campins liable to the Capelses under IC 34-4-30-1, i.e. did the preponderance of the evidence show him liable for criminal mischief?
2. Whether, if Campins is indeed liable, the trial court granted excessive damages.
Sometime between January 11 and January 13, 1981, one Earl Hall, eighteen years old, stole various items of jewelry from the Capelses' home (for which he was later convicted). Upon discovery of the loss, the Capelses issued flyers, describing the missing jewelry and offering a reward for its return, and contacted various gold and silver dealers where the items might have been sold by Hall. On January 15 or 16, in the course of the search, Mrs. Capels spoke with Campins, sole proprietor of two such dealerships. She claims he admitted purchasing some of the Capelses' jewelry but told her he had already melted it down with the exception of a sterling silver ring which he returned to her. Upon Campins's refusal to make restitution for the destruction of the jewelry, the Capelses brought suit against him. In their two-count amended complaint (consolidation of two separate suits) the Capelses alleged that various pieces of jewelry had been destroyed at Zebone Gallery and at Hollywood Gold and Silver and requested treble damages, contending Campins had intentionally destroyed their property with knowledge it was stolen.
At trial, the nucleus of the action revolved around the jewelry allegedly melted down at Zebone Gallery, particularly three national racing championship rings awarded by United States Auto Club (USAC) and a free-form wedding band with twelve diamonds. (Little testimony was elicited regarding jewelry destroyed at Hollywood Gold and Silver, and the court issued no judgment upon that count.) In support of the Capelses' allegations that Campins did indeed destroy these particular rings with culpability required for liability, Mrs. Capels testified without objection that the thief, Hall, stated he had actually sold her wedding ring to Zebone Gallery. This is in addition to her testimony, recited above, of Campins's actual admission of possession. Campins himself stated he had seen USAC rings when he sorted through his acquisitions for melt-down and introduced a receipt for $251, made out by an employee of Zebone Gallery and issued to Earl Hall on January 11, for three 10K gold rings, one 14K gold band, and the sterling silver ring returned to Mrs. Capels. In fact, at one point in the transcript of the trial, we find Campins as much as admitted having bought the jewelry:
Testimony was also presented to substantiate the claim that Campins knew or should have known that the rings he destroyed were stolen. The Capelses rely heavily on the evidence that despite the fact Campins had had his secondhand dealers license for almost five months prior to this incident, he failed to abide by municipal ordinances regulating certain practices of such dealers. In particular, one ordinance requires dealers to hold intact each purchased item for at least ten days after the date of purchase. Here, Campins kept the rings for, at most, five days. Record, p. 124. These dealers are also required to keep a record book, chronicling each purchase, and separate cards for each item, said cards to be turned in to the police every Friday. Id. The book and the cards are specifically directed at accurate identification of both the purchased articles and the seller, requiring such things as:
"[a]n accurate description of the article received; the amount of money paid for it; the exact time of the transaction; and the name, residence address, telephone number, age, color, height, weight, complexion, style of beard or mustache, any visible distinguishing marks, style of dress, and the number of any license badge of the person delivering the goods to the licensee."
Id. The cards were also to display the right thumbprint of the seller. During direct examination, Campins explained he required only the information on a driver's license to make sure the customer was "of In this same vein, Capels testified his three USAC rings very clearly exhibited the name of the recipient on their faces: "P. Jones" (Parnelli Jones) on one and "J. Capels" on the other two. Neither name matched that of the eighteen-year-old seller, Earl Hall, who was not even old enough to hold a driver's license when any of the rings were awarded. Campins, in fact, stated he specifically noticed the USAC rings because they looked like class rings with different emblems. However, he further declared he did not examine the rings and thus failed to see the names near those "different emblems," as evidently his employee, who initially purchased the rings, similarly failed to do.
age," and that in fact, after he had received his summons, he had had to add additional information to his copies of the receipts given to Hall in order to more accurately characterize the rings by something other than "10K," "14K," and "s/s." He claimed to be ignorant of the subject ordinances and refused to ask for further data from his customers for fear of "violating their rights." However, he did testify to being aware of certain, select requirements of "city laws" to which he adhered, despite his professed ignorance of the ordinances themselves--driver's license, records, proscription from purchasing from minor. He also admitted the police had found stolen goods at his businesses before this incident. His attitude in response to further questioning was: "As long as we had a second-hand dealer's license, that was all that we were worried about." Record, p. 106
After presenting evidence of Campins's liability, the Capelses presented evidence of the value of their rings. Mrs. Capels's wedding band, having been recently appraised at $700, was easily valuated. The USAC rings, for which the Capelses had requested $350 apiece in their complaint, proved a different matter.
The three USAC rings at issue here had been awarded to Capels in 1972, 1977, and 1978. (He had won five in all.) Each ring signified a national championship earned in a particular automobile category and given to the car's owner and the driver. In 1972, Parnelli Jones gave Capels his owner's ring in appreciation for his work as chief mechanic of Jones's Indy car. Capels later won his 1977 and 1978 rings as the actual owner of championship dirt division cars, driven by Bill Vukovich and Pancho Carter. The 1972 ring signified Capels's work as supervisor of what the media labelled a "super team" after having been instrumental in winning three straight Indy car championships (1970, 1971, 1972). As for his own owner's rings, they represented the large financial investment as well as time required to excel in any division of USAC competition. Sentimentally, Capels described these rings as being enduring symbols of his accomplishments and USAC's recognition thereof. Throughout his testimony, his feelings for these rings were apparent:
"I, it's the one thing that you can lean back on in your past and say, 'Well, I did this' and it's something you'd like to keep, you know, it may be something that your heirs won't want anything to do with, it may be something that collectors may want...."
"Made me feel real well, it meant, it meant that I felt like that at one time, I was good enough to have been the champion mechanic, and I was proud of it."
Record, p. 31. There was also more concrete evidence for use in affixing monetary values to the rings.
Each heavy, gold ring bore a synthetic stone and had been molded to display the USAC emblem, the name of the recipient, the specific achievement being rewarded In his assessment of the case, the trial judge concluded the following:
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