In re Estate of Wroth
| Decision Date | 22 January 1934 |
| Docket Number | 28780 |
| Citation | 252 N.W. 322,125 Neb. 832 |
| Parties | IN RE ESTATE OF LEROY C. WROTH. v. ALONZO D. WROTH ET AL., ADMINISTRATORS, APPELLEES EMMA JENSEN, APPELLANT, |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the district court for Douglas county: JAMES M FITZGERALD, JUDGE. Affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
Syllabus by the Court.
Title to automobile can be transferred between living persons only by compliance with sections 60-310 and 60-325, Comp. St 1929, relative to such transfer.
Appeal from District Court, Douglas County; Fitzgerald, Judge.
Proceedings in the matter of the estate of Leroy Chatwin Wroth, deceased, wherein Emma Jensen filed petition for order directing Alonzo D. Wroth and another, administrators of the estate of Leroy C. Wroth, deceased, to deliver an automobile to petitioner. From an adverse judgment, petitioner appeals.
Affirmed.
James H. Hanley and Thomas J. O'Brien, for appellant.
Dorsey & Baldrige, contra.
Heard before GOOD, EBERLY and DAY, JJ., and BLACKLEDGE and RYAN, District Judges.
This action involves the ownership of an automobile. Plaintiff claims title by gift from Leroy C. Wroth. Defendants deny the gift.
Wroth died in August, 1931, and his estate is being administered in the county court of Douglas county. Plaintiff filed a petition in that court, alleging the gift to her by Wroth, and praying the court to direct the administrators to deliver the automobile to her. The trial in that court resulted in a judgment for the estate. Plaintiff appealed to the district court, and on the trial there, after plaintiff had introduced her evidence, the court directed a verdict for defendants. From that judgment plaintiff has appealed.
The question involved is: Was the evidence sufficient to require the submission of the cause to the jury? The only evidence of the gift by Wroth to plaintiff was oral statements claimed to have been made by Mr. Wroth in the presence of one Miss Williamson and a Mr. Lindsay. In effect, they testified that Wroth said in their presence that he had given the car to plaintiff; that it was her car, and she was to take it home and keep it. There is no evidence of any bill of sale and transfer by Wroth to plaintiff in the manner provided by sections 60-310 and 60-325, Comp. St. 1929.
Section 60-310, in part, provides: "Upon the transfer of ownership of any motor vehicle, its registration shall expire, and the person to whom ownership of such vehicle is registered, and the person to whom ownership of such vehicle is to be transferred, shall forthwith join in a statement of said transfer, indorsed upon the reverse side of the certificate of registration of said motor vehicle, in the space provided for said purpose, which statement shall be signed by the transferer in the manner and form of his signature, contained on the face of said certificate, and which statement shall likewise be signed by the transferee, who shall also set forth, below his signature, his post office address."
Section 60-325 contains this proviso: "Provided, upon the transfer of ownership of any motor vehicle the title shall not pass until the certificate of registration properly executed, shall be filed in the department of public works as required in this article." The record fails to show that any attempt was made to comply with either of these sections.
While this court has not passed directly upon the question involved, it was indirectly involved in the case of Wallich v. Sandlovich, 111 Neb. 318, 196 N.W. 317, wherein it was held:
"The failure of a supposed owner of an automobile to register the same with the state authorities as required by the statute is a suspicious circumstance, which, together with other matters referred to in the opinion brought to the notice of the purchaser, is sufficient to put the purchaser upon inquiry as to the vendor's title." However, other courts, with motor vehicle registration acts similar to our own, have passed upon the question.
In Merchants' Securities Corporation v. Lane, 106 N.J.L. 169, 147 A. 385, it was held: ...
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