Manchester Ins. & Indem. Co. v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 33619
| Decision Date | 27 October 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 33619,33619 |
| Citation | 460 S.W.2d 305 |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
| Parties | MANCHESTER INSURANCE & INDEMNITY COMPANY, a corporation, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, a corporation, et al., Defendants, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, a corporation, Floyd E. Wilson and Joyce M. Cash, Defendants-Respondents. |
Goldenhersh & Newman, St. Louis, for plaintiff-appellant.
Holtkamp & Amelung, St. Louis, for defendant Federated Mutual & Dreier Motor Co. Carter, Brinker & Doyen, Friedman, Lawson & Burns, Clayton, for defendants-respondents.
CLEMENS, Commissioner.
The ultimate issue in this declaratory judgment action is which of two insurers had coverage on a recently traded 1962 Chrysler. It was being driven by Charles E. Cash at the time of a one-car collision in which he and a passenger were killed. The coverage issue turns on the Chrysler ownership, complicated by the fact that the original certificate of title had disappeared, leaving no documentary evidence that title had been assigned to Mr. Cash.
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company had insured the Chrysler for the original owner, Floyd E. Wilson, and State Farm's coverage hinges on whether Wilson still owned the Chrysler and Mr. Cash was driving it as Wilson's permissive user. Manchester Insurance & Indemnity Company had insured a 1958 Dodge owned by Mr. Cash and Manchester's coverage depends on whether Mr. Cash owned the Chrysler as a newly acquired replacement vehicle for the Dodge.
We must decide whether Wilson's ownership of the Chrysler was proven by the recorded certificate of title in his name, or instead that Cash's ownership was proven by parol evidence Wilson had assigned the title certificate to a dealer who had then reassigned it to Cash.
In January of 1965 Mr. Cash owned a 1958 Dodge, insured by Manchester. He arranged with the Dreier Motor Company in Flat River to trade the Dodge in on the 1962 Chrysler recently owned by Floyd E. Wilson and insured by State Farm. A dispute exists as to whether Mr. Cash got an assigned certificate of ownership to the Chrysler; there is no evidence he applied for or received a new certificate as called for by § 301.210, subd. 2, V.A.M.S. A week after Mr. Cash got the Chrysler it overturned, killing both him and a passenger, James Brooks. Mr. Brooks' widow brought a wrongful death action against the Cash estate. State Farm and Manchester both declined to defend, each contending the other had coverage.
Manchester contended Mr. Cash never received title to the Chrysler so it was not a newly acquired replacement vehicle under its policy on the Dodge; that Mr. Wilson was still the record owner of the Chrysler and Mr. Cash was driving it with Wilson's implied consent so the accident came within the omnibus clause of State Farm's policy. In turn, State Farm contended Wilson's certificate of title had in fact been assigned and delivered to Mr. Cash so Mr. Wilson no longer owned the Chrysler and could not consent to Mr. Cash driving it; that the Chrysler was a newly acquired vehicle under Cash's policy with Manchester.
To recap, the coverage issue turns on the Chrysler ownership. If Mr. Wilson still owned the Chrysler and impliedly had given Mr. Cash permission to drive it then State Farm is liable under the omnibus clause of its policy on the Chrysler. Conversely, if Mr. Cash had acquired the Chrysler ownership Manchester is liable under the newly acquired replacement vehicle clause of its policy on the Dodge.
Although denying its own coverage and asserting State Farm's, Manchester did assume defense of Mrs. Brooks' wrongful death action against the Cash estate. The case was settled and Manchester paid Mrs. Brooks $3,500. Manchester then brought this action for a judgment declaring State Farm was liable and seeking to recover from State Farm the $3,500 plus $975 expenses paid to dispose of Mrs. Brooks' wrongful death action against the Cash estate.
After the declaratory judgment case was submitted Judge Michael F. Godfrey denied Manchester's prayers for relief, made findings of fact, and filed a persuasive memorandum opinion supporting the judgment, a practice most helpful on appeal. Our own findings of fact and our opinion closely follow Judge Godfrey's conclusions.
We trace the links in the chain of ownership.
In 1962 Floyd Wilson bought the Chrysler new from a dealer in Kennett. A certificate of title was issued in Wilson's name but it was sent to and held by him mortgagee, the First State Bank of Caruthersville. About January 15, 1965 Wilson bought a new Cadillac from the Dreier Motor Company, arranging to pay for it in money and by trading in the 1962 Chrysler, on which the Bank of Caruthersville still had a lien. Mr. Dreier promptly paid off Wllson's mortgage and the Bank of Caruthersville sent Wilson's original title directly to Dreier. A question arises about whether Wilson assigned the Chrysler title certificate to the Dreier Motor Company. Wilson testified that soon after he traded the Chrysler for the Cadillac a Mr. Montgomery, a notary public and Dreier's sales manager, brought to his office 'a lot of papers' concerning both cars; Wilson signed them all but did not specifically recall the Chrysler title certificate. At trial time Mr. Montgomery was no longer a Dreier employee and did not testify. Mr. Dreier testified, however, that he had seen the Chrysler title certificate bearing Wilson's assignment to the Dreier Motor Company. Dreier fortified this by saying that a few days later he applied for a floor-plan loan on five cars, including the Chrysler; to establish his ownership he sent the title certificates to the lender, who made the loan and returned the title certificates. From all this we find, as did the trial court, that Floyd Wilson did in fact assign the Chrysler title certificate to the Dreier Motor Company. 1
This leads us to the second link in the ownership chain: Did Dreier reassign the Chrysler title certificate to Charles Cash? If so, ownership passed immediately to Cash even though there is no evidence he applied for a new title certificate in his name. Such new certificate when issued 'is merely evidence of the title which the buyer has previously acquired by virtue of the assignment and transfer to him of the original certificate.' Crawford v. General Exchange Ins. Corporation, Mo.App., 119 S.W.2d 458(1--4).
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