General Elec. Credit Corp. v. Fields

• Decision Date: 17 January 1964
• Docket Number: No. 12226,12226
• Citation: 148 W.Va. 176,133 S.E.2d 780
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: GENERAL ELECTRIC CREDIT CORPORATION v. Bobby E. FIELDS et al.

Page 780

133 S.E.2d 780

148 W.Va. 176

GENERAL ELECTRIC CREDIT CORPORATION v. Bobby E. FIELDS et al.

No. 12226.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted Sept. 24, 1963.

Decided Dec. 10, 1963.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 17, 1964.

Syllabus by the Court

1. One who by his acts or conduct has permitted another to act apparently or ostensibly as his agent, to the injury of a third person who has dealt with the apparent or ostensible agent in good faith and in the exercise of reasonable prudence, is estopped to deny the agency relationship.

2. The findings of a trial court upon facts submitted to it in lieu of a jury will be given the same weight as the verdict of a jury and will not be disturbed by an appellate court unless the evidence plainly and decidedly preponderates against such findings.

Arthur F. Kingdon, Bluefield, for appellant.

Paul D. Blackshear, Pineville, for appellees.

CALHOUN, Judge:

This case involves an action instituted in the Circuit Court of Wyoming County by the plaintiff, General Electric Credit Corporation, against the defendants, Bobby E. Fields and Ilene P. Fields, husband and wife, to recover judgment for $972.14, exclusive of interest, which was alleged by the plaintiff to be the unpaid balance of a note. The note was originally for the principal sum of $2,499.60, dated November 10, 1958, payable in monthly installments of $69.43 each, and secured by a conditional sales contract. The note represented the price of various items of personal property purchased by Bobby E. Fields and Ilene P. Fields from Cook Appliance Center, which will be referred to herein as Cook. The note and conditional sales contract were assigned on November 12, 1958, by Cook to the plaintiff, General Electric Credit Corporation.

The effect of the trial court's holding was that General Electric Credit Corporation, the plaintiff, by a course of conduct, held out and constituted Cook as its agent to receive payments on the note from the defendants and to remit such payments to the plaintiff; that Cook eventually received payment in full from the defendants; and that this payment in full to the agent constituted payment in full to the principal. On this basis, the trial court entered judgment for the defendants and the plaintiff has appealed from that judgment to this Court.

An answer by the defendants to the complaint asserts that the balance of the note was paid by them to Cook as the 'duly authorized agent' of the plaintiff. It is alleged in the answer, and not denied, that James D. Cook was the proprietor or owner of Cook Appliance Center.

The plaintiff took the depositions of Bobby E. Fields and James D. Cook pursuant to R.C.P. 26. It was agreed or stipulated that the depositions were taken for the purpose of discovery or for use as evidence on the trial of the case or both. By agreement the case was submitted to the circuit court in lieu of a jury for final decision on a record consisting of the depositions, pleadings, exhibits and two affidavits.

On August 3, 1959, Cook executed a second conditional sales contract to the defendants which purported to sell conditionally the same items of personal property which had been sold conditionally by the prior conditional sales contract. The new contract embraced six additional items of personal property purchased by the defendants from Cook for the price of $428.95. On the date of the execution of the second contract, the balance due on the prior note was $2,221.88, but, if the note had been paid in full on that date, the defendants would have received a refund of finance charges in the sum of $202.09, making a net final payment of $2,019.79. The second conditional sales contract secured the payment of a new note executed by the defendants to Cook, apparently for the amount of the balance then owing on the prior note plus the price of the additional purchases. The second note and conditional sales contract were assigned by Cook to Appliance Buyers Credit Associates.

Both Fields and Cook testified that their agreement was that Cook would pay to the plaintiff the unpaid balance of the prior note from money received by Cook as a consequence of the assignment of the second note and conditional sales contract to Appliance Buyers Credit Associates. Cook did not do so. He did not assert any specific reason for his failure to pay the unpaid balance, but it appears from the record that he was then in serious financial straits and that as a consequence he went out of business completely in July, 1962. It is reasonably obvious that Cook's financial plight is such that it would be impossible for the plaintiff to collect from him the unpaid balance of the note which was assigned to the plaintiff. After the execution of the second contract, the defendants did not call upon the plaintiff for a surrender of the prior note or a release of the conditional sales contract lien. Cook, on June 22, 1962, executed a release of the first conditional sales contract, which had been duly recorded. The plaintiff was not notified of the second contract by defendant or by Cook. The plaintiff eventually received information of the second contract through another source.

Bobby Fields was employed by Cook, in connection with his business, to service and repair television sets. Both Fields and Cook testified that, prior to the date of the second contract, Cook deducted from Fields' earnings each month the sum of $69.43 to be paid by Cook to the plaintiff as the installment payments became due on the note held by the plaintiff. Seven deductions of $69.43 each were made in this manner prior to the date of the execution of the second conditional sales contract. Inasmuch as the unpaid balance of the original note was $2,221.88 when the second contract was executed, it is apparent that Cook had at that time remitted to the plaintiff only four of the seven monthly installments which he had deducted from Fields' earnings.

Fields testified that neither he nor his wife made any payments directly to the plaintiff at any time. This testimony is not denied or contradicted. Inasmuch as the unpaid balance of the original note was $972.14 when the action was instituted in the circuit court, it appears that eighteen additional installments of $69.43 each were paid by Cook to the plaintiff after the second contract was executed, making a total of twenty-two installments paid by Cook to the plaintiff. There is nothing in the record from which it may be inferred that in the meantime the plaintiff objected to or failed to acquiesce willingly in the arrangement whereby Cook received from the defendants and remitted to the plaintiff the payments made from time to time on the note. Cook made monthly payments in a similar manner on the second note and contract, which were held by Appliance Buyers Credit Associates. Cook became delinquent in such payments on the second note and contract, and eventually the defendants paid the unpaid balance of that note, apparently on a compromise basis.

The plaintiff apparently sent by mail to the defendants twenty-one notices from January 21, 1960, to May 21, 1962, to notify them of the default in payment of the regular installments pursuant to the terms of the original note. Bobby Fields testified that he delivered these notices to Cook, generally without opening the envelopes in which they were contained, and that he received assurances from Cook from time to time that he would take care of the matter in accordance with his agreement with Fields. The original contract was dated November 10, 1958. The last installment under the original note and contract was due November 22, 1961. There is nothing to indicate that any delinquency notice was sent by the plaintiff to the defendants until January 21, 1960. This tends to indicate that, in the meantime, the payments were being made by Cook to the plaintiff in a satisfactory manner. The delinquency notices sent by the plaintiff to the defendants, commencing on January 21, 1960, were sent somewhat intermittently, rather than on a regular monthly basis. This tends to indicate that, from time to time, installments were paid up to date.

The original conditional sales contract provided that installment payments were 'to be made at the place designated by Seller or General Electric Credit Corporation.' An...