Ex parte Smith
| Decision Date | 05 February 1982 |
| Parties | Ex Parte: Geraldine SMITH. (Re BIG THREE MOTORS, INC. v. Geraldine SMITH). 80-645. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
James H. Lackey, Mobile, for petitioner.
Richard W. Vollmer, Jr. and Patricia K. Olney, of Reams, Wood, Wollmer, Philips, Killion & Brooks, Mobile, for respondent.
This case has been exhaustively reviewed on appeal and the facts have been repeatedly stated. The Court of Civil Appeals first reversed a judgment rendered on a jury verdict (Big Three Motors, Inc. v. Smith, 412 So.2d 1214 (Ala.Civ.App.1980)); this Court granted certiorari and remanded the case to the Court of Civil Appeals (412 So.2d 1218 (Ala.1981)). The Court of Civil Appeals, 412 So.2d 1219, has once again reversed the trial court, and this Court has again granted certiorari.
It has been established beyond any doubt and, in fact, it is not disputed, that Big Three Motors (Big Three) represented in writing to Geraldine Smith that the car she was buying was owned by Big Three, and that Big Three had good title thereto and could transfer good title to her. She paid cash for the automobile, and the money went into Big Three's account. Big Three issued her a purchase order and executed a bill of sale.
At the time Big Three made these representations, it knew that it did not own the automobile, and that it did not have title to the automobile and could not transfer good title. When the car was repossessed by a prior lienholder and this suit was filed, Big Three's defense was that it did not own the car, but that its salesman owned the car. It says that it made no representation with regard to prior lienholders. The question is: Under these facts was a jury justified in awarding punitive damages? We hold that it was. As Judge Holmes pointed out in his dissent, the issue is not whether Big Three knew there was a prior encumbrance on the car, but whether it knew it was not the owner of the car and capable of transferring good title as it said it was. In this regard, the jury was justified in finding that it intentionally and knowingly lied to the purchaser.
The law should and does permit the imposition of punitive damages under these facts. It is true, as the Court of Civil Appeals correctly notes, that not all actionable wrongs permit the imposition of punitive damages. But some do. At 22 Am.Jur.2d Damages, § 249 (1965), the rule is summarized as follows:
The elements are disjunctive. One need not prove each of them, but must prove at least one of them, to justify an award of punitive damages. Thus, the question is: Has any one of the foregoing been proved by the plaintiff in this case? Clearly so. It has been proved without contradiction that Big Three willfully and intentionally represented that it owned the car when it knew that it did not own the car. It represented that it had good title when, in fact, the car was encumbered by a prior lien. Ala.Code 1975, § 6-5-103. This we think is enough to meet the burden which the law casts on a plaintiff seeking exemplary damages. At least as early as 1849, this Court recognized this principle. In Munroe v. Pritchett, 16 Ala. 785 (1849), having said that an action of deceit would lie where the seller represented to the purchaser of land that the tract conveyed contained a certain quantity of good land, which was not true, the Court went on to say that the same rule applied in the sale of personal property. The Court continued:
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