Rimer v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 18512

• Decision Date: 31 May 1966
• Docket Number: No. 18512,18512
• Citation: 148 S.E.2d 742,248 S.C. 18
• Parties: Felix H. RIMER, Respondent, v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

Page 742

148 S.E.2d 742

248 S.C. 18

Felix H. RIMER, Respondent, v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant.

No. 18512.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

May 31, 1966.

Nelson, Mullins, Grier & Scarborough, Columbia, for appellant.

Herbert, Dial & Windham, Columbia, for respondent.

LIONEL K. LEGGE, Acting Justice.

State Farm Mutual Insurance Company, defendant in this action for damages, appeals from a circuit court order: (1) denying its motion to require the complaint to be made more definite and certain by separately stating matters contained therein which the defendant conceived as constituting separate causes of action; and (2) denying in part its motion to strike certain allegations from said complaint. By agreement of counsel time for answering the complaint was extended, pending final disposition of these motions.

This case is the aftermath of Layton v. Flowers, 243 S.C. 421, 134 S.E.2d 247, which was an action for damages arising out of an automobile collision caused by the negligence of Flowers in the operation of a 1957 Chevrolet automobile. Flowers defaulted; and Rimer, plaintiff in the present action, intervened and interposed, in bar of the collision lien claimed by Layton under Section 45--551 of the 1962 Code, the plea of bond fide purchaser for value without notice. That plea was overruled by the trial court upon the authority of Tate v. Brazier, 115 S.C. 283, 105 S.E. 413; and Rimer, recognizing that the holding in Tate was squarely against his contention, nevertheless appealed, uring that that decision was erroneous and should be overruled. This we declined to do; but we held that in the circumstances revealed by the record before us in Rimer's appeal Layton's statutory lien against the Chevrolet automobile was enforceable only to the extent of $350.00. To quote from the opinion:

'The Chevrolet in question was seized by a credit company and sold in its wrecked condition to a motor company for $350.00, which was its fair market value. After repairing the car, this company sold it to a dealer for $725.00. Appellant (Rimer) purchased it from this dealer for $970.00. Respondent's (Layton's) judgment is for $949.08. The final question for decision is whether the enforcement of this judgment against the automobile in the hands of an admittedly innocent purchaser for value without notice should be limited to the value of the automobile at the time the lien arose. If respondent had attached the automobile on the day after the wreck occurred, his statutory lien would have been worth no more than its value of $350.00. Instead, he waited some six months to do so. In the meantime, extensive repairs had been made, which enhanced the value of the automobile and which were, in effect, paid for by an innocent purchaser. To allow respondent the benefit of the enhanced value would reward him for his delay at the expense of an innocent person. We find no impelling reason why this windfall must be awarded respondent and hold that under the peculiar facts of this case respondent's lien may be enforced against the Chevrolet automobile in question only to the extent of $350.00.'

In the case now before us, Rimer sues State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company; and the allegations of the complaint pertinent to discussion of the motions with which this appeal is concerned are set forth below, some in condensed form, others verbatim, those to which the motion to strike was directed being italicized, and the numbering of paragraphs corresponding to that in the complaint.

3. That on March 23, 1962, the plaintiff, an innocent purchaser for value and without notice of any defect of title or any lien thereon, purchased a 1957 Chevrolet automobile, for which he paid $970.00.

4. That unknown to the plaintiff, the said automobile had previously, on January 13, 1962, been in a collision with a car owned by one Layton, to whom the defendant, State Farm Mutual, had issued a liability insurance policy. That there was no liability coverage on the 1957 Chevrolet, and its owner was without financial responsibility; and therefore the defendant became liable to its own policy holder, Layton, under the uninsured motorist provision of its policy, and paid to him (Layton) $827.32 of the damages suffered by him in that collision; and to that extent the defendant by, or in anticipation of, assignment or subrogation, undertook to assert the rights of its said policy holder and took over the handling of his claim.

5. That as a result of said collision, and by operation of law, Layton, and subsequently the defendant through him, acquired a lien against the 1957 Chevrolet, which in its wrecked condition after the collision had a value of only $350.00.

6. That the defendant, State Farm Mutual, took control of the handling of Layton's claim for damages in order to protect its own interest; and in so pursuing its own interests did not attach the Chevrolet while it was in a wrecked condition and worth only $350.00.

7. That the defendant delayed for more than six months, until July 26, 1962, enforcement of the collision lien by attachment of the Chevrolet car, which in the meantime had passed through the hands of three other owners, had been repaired and put in good running condition, and finally had been bought for $970.00 by the plaintiff, an innocent purchaser, who had put additional improvements on it, making his total investment therein more than $1,000.00; all of which the defendant should have foreseen would result from its delay. But in pursuit of its own selfish purpose and unmindful of plaintiff and his rights as owner of a substantially greater interest in said 1957 Chevrolet car than defendant's said $350.00 lien interest therein (which defendant knew or should have known was the extent of defendant's interest therein), defendant wrongfully set about to recoup for itself the greater amount of damages it anticipated having to pay (and in fact subsequently did pay) to Bradley A. Layton, in the amount of $827.32.

8. That in said circumstances and by reason of its lien on said Chevrolet car, the defendant, as it well knew or should have known was entitled to recover only $350.00, the value of said car immediately after the collision; But defendant unlawfully and in violation of plaintiff's rights sought to recover a greater amount as aforesaid, and completely disregarding plaintiff's greater interest in said 1957 Chevrolet car as repaired (he having invested more than $1,000.00 in it as aforesaid) and without making any demand on plaintiff or giving him any opportunity to pay said $350.00, defendant proceeded to have said car attached and taken from plaintiff's possession, and held same for payment of $949.08 or the posting of bond therefor, and refused to accept the sum of $350.00 or the posting of bond therefor for release of said attachment and return of said car to plaintiff; and plaintiff has been greatly damaged thereby.

9. That if defendant had given plaintiff an opportunity to do so plaintiff could have arranged payment of said $350.00 without cost to himself (through Motor Credit Company who had repossessed said 1957 Chevrolet car following the collision and had first sold it for $350.00), and as aforesaid such amount was all that defendant was entitled to recover from its said lien at the time it attached said car and took it away from plaintiff. Furthermore, defendant had...