Garuba v. Yorkshire Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 15 June 1943
• Docket Number: No. 46284.,46284.
• Citation: 9 N.W.2d 817,233 Iowa 579
• Parties: GARUBA v. YORKSHIRE INS. CO., Limited.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

233 Iowa 579

9 N.W.2d 817

GARUBA

v.YORKSHIRE INS. CO., Limited.

No. 46284.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

June 15, 1943.

Appeal from Municipal Court of Council Bluffs; John P. Tinley, Judge.

This is an action at law on a collision policy of insurance. Defendant claimed plaintiff was not the owner of the car at the time of the collision. Jury was waived and the cause submitted to the court. Judgment was rendered for plaintiff and defendant appeals.

Reversed.

Kimball, Peterson, Smith & Peterson, of Council Bluffs, for appellant.

Reed A. Flickinger, of Council Bluffs, for appellee.

SMITH, Justice.

There is only one question presented to us here: Was plaintiff-appellee the owner of the car at the time of the loss? The trial court held that he was still the owner because there had been no record transfer of title under the provisions of Chapter 251.1 of the Code of Iowa, 1939, particularly sections 5002.01 to 5002.07. The court said: “As to the legal point as to whether the car had in fact been sold or not, our statute provides a method and only one method for the transfer of title to a motor vehicle and the turning of this car over to the prospective purchaser who made the deposit of $200 without the signing of the specific papers required by statute, in the judgment of this court, did not constitute a sale.”

In this the trial court erred. The statutory provision referred to has no reference to the question of transfer of title as between buyer and seller. See Cerex Co. v. Peterson, 203 Iowa 355, 212 N.W. 890;Tigue Sales Co. v. Reliance Motor Co., 207 Iowa 567, 221 N.W. 514;Craddock v. Bickelhaupt, 227 Iowa 202, 288 N.W. 109, 135 A.L.R. 474;Abraham v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., 215 Iowa 1, 244 N.W. 675.

These decisions were under the motor vehicle law which at that time provided: “Until said transferee has received said certificate of registration and has written his name upon the face thereof for the purpose of this chapter, delivery and title to said motor vehicle shall be deemed not to have been made and passed.” Codes of Iowa 1931 and 1935, section 4964.

The decisions held that the purpose of this provision was to enable the officials to perform their duty and the state to collect the tax and to prevent fraud, not on the seller or his creditors but on the state. Cerex Co. v. Peterson, supra.

The present statute does not even contain this language and has no alternative provision that attempts to prescribe what shall constitute a transfer of title except to say: “The...