Newman v. Stuart

• Decision Date: 25 March 1992
• Docket Number: No. 07-CA-59568,07-CA-59568
• Citation: 597 So.2d 609
• Parties: Curtis NEWMAN and the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, Mississippi Highway Patrol Law Enforcement Division v. Walter H. STUART.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 609

597 So.2d 609

Curtis NEWMAN and the Mississippi Department of Public

Safety, Mississippi Highway Patrol Law Enforcement

Division v. Walter H. STUART.

No. 07-CA-59568.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 25, 1992.

Michael C. Moore, Atty. Gen., John T. Kitchens, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charles S. Head, Jackson, for appellants.

David C. Frazier, Gordon Myers Frazier & Roberts, Pascagoula, for appellee.

Before HAWKINS, P.J., and PRATHER and ROBERTSON, JJ.

HAWKINS, Presiding Justice, for the Court:

Curtis Newman, investigator for the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol (MHP), and MHP appeal a judgment of the circuit court of Jackson County directing them to return a stolen pickup truck, which had been delivered by its owner, Motors Insurance Corporation (MIC), to Walter H. Stuart, an innocent purchaser of the stolen vehicle. The basis of the court's decision directing return of the vehicle was that it had been delivered by MHP to MIC without a judicial determination of its right to do so. Finding the court erred in directing return of the vehicle and assessment of damages under the facts of this case, we reverse and render judgment for the appellants.

FACTS

This case involves two Chevrolet pickup trucks, one a 1987 model S-10 Chevrolet pickup whose vehicle identification number (V.I.N.) concluded with digits 4H8179610, and a 1988 model S-10 Chevrolet pickup, with V.I.N. 1GCBS14E4J210647. The 1987 model was wrecked beyond repair; the 1988 model was stolen.

In the car and truck business, when a motor vehicle is wrecked to the extent that repairing it would cost more than its fair market value, it is said to be "totaled." If the owner is fortunate enough to carry property, or "collision" insurance, the insurance carrier pays the owner the fair market value of the vehicle, and title is transferred to the carrier. The insurance company in turn sells the wrecked vehicle, or "salvage," to a junk or used parts dealer. These dealers serve an economic purpose as a source of supply to those needing a motor vehicle parts at a modest cost; their meeting an aesthetic need of beautifying the countryside is more debatable.

A "chop shop" is an operation whereby a stolen motor vehicle is altered, dismantled or reassembled in an attempt to effect an apotheosis from a crime-tainted vehicle to a perfectly innocent one. The term is defined by statute. Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 63-25-3(a) (1989).

The law enforcement division of MHP has a department whose function is to investigate thefts of vehicles and recover them. A number of motor vehicle insurance carriers fund the nonprofit organization National Automobile Theft Bureau (Bureau), whose function is likewise to investigate and recover stolen vehicles, and to work in cooperation with state and federal law enforcement agencies.

The 1988 model Chevrolet pickup was stolen, brand new, off the lot of Mitch Smith Chevrolet, Inc., an automobile dealership in Cullman, Alabama, in December, 1987. It was financed by General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC), and after its theft had been reported, MIC paid GMAC, and in February, 1988, Mitch Smith Chevrolet transferred title to the pickup to MIC.

At some time following the theft of the 1988 Chevrolet pickup, Emmett Boozer, an investigator with MHP, and Virgil Luke of the Bureau were investigating a suspected chop shop establishment in a rural area of Itawamba County. There they found a motor and a transmission out of the 1987 model Chevrolet which still had the original factory serial numbers, namely: 4H8179610.

Luke entered this number in the Bureau's computer to discover the full number, which was V.I.N. 1GCBS14E4H8179610, and also listed the vehicle as totally wrecked. These records also showed that Maryland Casualty Company was the insurance carrier, and Luke in turn learned from this company that it had sold the salvage to Strong's Used Cars in Carthage. Luke also had this full number run through the computers of the State motor vehicle comptroller's office, whose records revealed that Maxey's Used Cars of Route 1, Marietta, Mississippi, had sold this 1987 Chevrolet pickup to Walter H. Stuart in Pascagoula, and a certificate of title thereto issued to him on January 4, 1988. Marietta, it might be noted, is a Prentiss County community approximately 25 miles from the Tennessee state line.

The suspicious circumstances of Stuart's owning and driving a vehicle which presumably had been totally wrecked, and with its motor and transmission in an Itawamba County junk yard, prompted Luke to contact Curtis Newman, a highway patrol investigator in Pascagoula, to check this matter out.

On either May 10 or 11, 1988, Newman met Stuart at Stuart's place of employment, Citizens National Bank in Pascagoula, and informed Stuart that he had reason to believe that Stuart's truck was a stolen vehicle. Newman asked Stuart for permission to inspect Stuart's truck, but Stuart refused to let him inspect the truck until he talked with his attorney. Stuart told Newman to come back in two or three hours. Stuart contacted his attorney and was told that he should let Newman inspect the vehicle. Newman returned later that afternoon and inspected the vehicle in the presence of Stuart.

Newman first noticed that the vehicle identification plate had been tampered with because of the altered location of the rivets. Also, the identification plate itself was disfigured. Newman then observed that the sticker containing the serial number on the driver's door was disfigured. He inspected other stickers and concluded that they had once been removed. Newman then inspected the engine and noticed that, unlike a normal engine that was over a year old, it was very clean. Stuart told him that he had not cleaned the engine. Newman then inspected the motor number and could tell that it had been altered by stamping another number on top of the original number. Newman then found the molded numbers "88" on the engine which indicated that the truck actually was a 1988 model instead of a 1987 model. Also, the patches on the seat belts, which indicate the model of the truck, had been removed. Newman further noticed that the rivets on the vehicle identification plate on the dashboard were homemade rivets.

Newman told Stuart that he believed the truck had been stolen and that he wanted to make arrangements to have it inspected further. They agreed to discuss it further the next day. The next day, Stuart told Newman that his attorney advised him that Newman would need a court order to take the vehicle.

On May 12, 1988, Newman appeared before Mary B. Blackwell, justice court judge of Jackson County, and executed an affidavit for a search warrant. Attached thereto as "Underlying Facts and Circumstances" was a summary of the above facts. After administering the oath to Newman, Blackwell also had him testify orally about the facts and circumstances which led him to believe, and the justice court judge in turn to conclude, that there was a probable cause to search and seize the pickup. The affidavit for the search warrant alleged the pickup was held in violation of Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 97-17-41 (1972), the grand larceny criminal statute.

Blackwell then issued a search warrant of the same date which, among other things, directed Newman to "bring the things seized before this Court instanter; and prepare a written inventory of the items seized, and have then and there this writ, with your proceedings noted thereon."

Newman executed the search warrant and took the truck to the Harrison County Sheriff's impound lot, where he made an in-depth inspection of it and concluded that the truck actually was a 1988 Chevrolet S-10 truck with the identification number 1GCBS14E4J210647. There had been an unsuccessful attempt to obliterate and remove this number from its motor. On May 13 Newman made a return on the search warrant that he had taken a 1988 Chevrolet pickup bearing serial 1GCBS14E4J210647 from Stuart.

Newman forwarded this number to Luke, who entered it into the Bureau's computer, which showed that the truck in Stuart's possession was the truck which had been stolen from Mitch Smith Chevrolet in Cullman, Alabama. Luke notified MIC, which according to the Bureau's records now had title to the truck. It was then driven to MHP headquarters in Jackson. Newman informed Stuart on May 16, 1988, that the truck was indeed a stolen vehicle. Luke inspected the truck in Jackson and after raising the original identification number with hydrochloric acid, also concluded that the truck was the one stolen from the dealership. On May 18 MHP released the vehicle to MIC.

On May 20 Stuart filed a complaint in the circuit court of Jackson County against Newman and the Mississippi Department of Public Safety to quash the search warrant and for the return of the truck. The complaint alleged that the search warrant was void, and requested the court to enter an order setting the matter for hearing at the earliest possible date allowed by law, to direct the return of the property, to quash the search warrant, to impose penalties as provided by law upon the defendant Newman, and for payment to Stuart of fifty cents per mile for all miles driven by the pickup from the time it left Stuart's possession until its return.

On that date the Honorable Darwin Maples, circuit judge, issued a fiat directing that the matter come on for hearing before him on June 1, 1988. On May 31, 1988, Newman and the Mississippi Department of Public Safety answered asserting several defenses, including failure to join a necessary party and sovereign immunity of the highway patrol. The answer also asserted that the pickup was stolen and that Stuart was not entitled to any relief.

The circuit judge conducted a full hearing on June 1, 1988, at which time the above facts were adduced into evidence, through the testimony of Luke, Newman and Blackwell. Also, Ricky Steve Oliver of Haleyville, Alabama, testified that he had customized the...