Greiner Motor Co. v. Sumpter, 5--4547
| Decision Date | 29 April 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 5--4547,5--4547 |
| Citation | 427 S.W.2d 8,244 Ark. 736 |
| Parties | GREINER MOTOR COMPANY, Appellant, v. K. S. SUMPTER et ux., Appellees. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Shaw & Bedwell, Ft. Smith, for appellant.
Sam Sexton, Jr., and Bill B. Wiggins, Ft. Smith, for appellees.
On September 1, 1966, K. S. Sumpter and his wife, the appellees, bought a supposedly new Pontiac Tempest car from the appellant. A number of repairs to the motor and transmission soon became necessary. Eventually the Sumpters learned that the car had not been a brand-new vehicle when they bought it. They elected to keep the car and bring this action for damages resulting from the seller's misrepresentations. This appeal is from a verdict and judgment awarding the plaintiffs $1,497 in damages.
Greiner contends primarily that it was entitled to a directed verdict, because it insists that the car really was new at the time of the sale. That argument is based upon proof that the Sumpters received a new-car warranty and that title to the vehicle had not been transferred to any other buyer before the sale to the Sumpters. The seller argues that those facts show that the car was actually new, so that its salesmen's statements to that effect were true.
It may be that automobile dealers regard such a vehicle as new, but the jury were entitled to take a more realistic view. Greiner bought the car in December of 1965, more than eight months before the sale to the Sumpters. In that interval the car was used by Greiner both as a rental vehicle and as a demonstrator. Moreover, according to the undisputed proof, the car was stolen and kept by the thief for some six weeks, eventually being recovered in Arizona. The odometer then showed more than 7,000 miles of travel. The seller turned that reading back to about 150 miles, put new tires on the car, cleaned it up in other respects, and represented it to be a new vehicle. In view of that proof it was evidently for the jury to say whether there were fraudulent misrepresentations in the sale.
Secondly, Greiner, citing Union Motor Co. v. Turbiville, 223 Ark. 92, 264 S.W.2d 592 (1954), insists that the court should have instructed the jury that the measure of the plaintiffs' damages was the difference between the recited contract price of $2,400 and the actual value of the car at the time of the sale. Instead the court submitted to the jury the measure of damages that we approved in Union Motors v. Phillips, 241 Ark. 857, 410 S.W.2d 747 (1967), being the difference between the market value of the car as warranted and its market value in its condition at the time of the sale.
The Turbiville measure...
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