Western Coach Corp. v. Vaughn
| Decision Date | 27 March 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 1,CA-CIV,1 |
| Citation | 9 Ariz.App. 336,452 P.2d 117 |
| Parties | WESTERN COACH CORPORATION, an Arizona corporation, Appellant, v. Wayne VAUGHN and Orthella Vaughn, husband and wife, Appellees. 691. |
| Court | Arizona Court of Appeals |
Henry Jacobowitz, Phoenix, for appellant.
Ronald McKelvey, Yuma, for appellees.
This is an appeal from a judgment allowing $1,250 compensatory damages and $750 punitive damages to the owner of a house trailer against the company which the owners contend agreed to haul the trailer from Parker to Phoenix, Arizona.
The questions raised on appeal are whether the plaintiffs proved a contract of hauling with the defendant, Western Coach Corporation, whether the compensatory damages are excessive, and whether there is any basis for the punitive damages.
The facts giving rise to this action, construing the evidence favorably to support the judgment, are, in very sketchy form, as follows. The plaintiffs, husband and wife, and their five children, had been living in a newly purchased trailer for a year and a half in Parker, Arizona. When it became necessary to move their trailer-home to Phoenix, they talked with the manager of Western Coach's trailer sales lot in Parker, both over the telephone and in person, and he agreed to move their trailer to Phoenix at a price of 50 cents per mile. There was never any direct mention in these conversations of the name of Western Coach Corporation, but the manager used words of the general import that 'we' would move the trailer, he was operating out of a business establishment clearly marked as a Western Coach business, he was without question Western Coach's manager in Parker, and the plaintiffs believed they were dealing with Western Coach when they made this contract of hauling.
The person sent by this manager to pick up the plaintiffs' trailer was an employee of Western Coach. This employee picked up the plaintiffs' trailer, and their belongings within it, on a Thursday afternoon and was to have it at another trailer park in Phoenix that evening. There followed a series of events which resulted in considerable damage to the trailer and the plaintiffs not knowing exactly where their trailer was for a day of two. The trailer ended up parked alongside of the road approximately 60 miles east of Parker, with two wheels missing, with the main frame of the trailer substantially bent, with many of the cupboards in the trailer torn loose, the flooring bent, the paneling pulled apart in places throughout the trailer, and the underside of the carriage damaged by being dragged on the ground for a considerable distance.
There is evidence in the record from which the trial court could have concluded that this damage was caused by the driver's negligence in not checking the lug bolts of the wheels of the trailer to assure that they were tight, in driving in excess of the usual speed for this type of haul, in loading the trailer with the cement blocks which had formed the piers under the trailer while it was stationary (rather than placing these blocks in the truck, as is customary), in failing to note that a wheel had come off the trailer and continuing to pull the trailer down the road without a wheel, and in leaving the trailer beside the road unattended.
When the trailer did not arrive as scheduled, the plaintiffs contacted the Western Coach manager in Phoenix and were told the trailer would not arrive until Monday morning. Needing clothes to wear, they drove back on the road to Parker and on Saturday evening found their trailer parked alongside the road, unattended, with the front door latch broken and their cupboard drawers 'gone through' by persons unknown. On the door of the trailer, they found a note signed by Max Morgan, later identified as the president of Western Coach Corporation, instructing a named driver, whose name they could not recall, to pick up the trailer and haul it to Phoenix.
The plaintiffs returned to Phoenix and 'tried and tried' on Sunday to talk to the manager of Western Coach in Phoenix, but this manager had always just left for one of the other trailer sales lots maintained by Western Coach in that city. Mrs. Vaughn was able to contact this manager on Monday morning and at this time this manager told her, when she asked him what he was going to do about her trailer:
'* * * 'Nothing, absolutely nothing. As far as I am concerned, it can set there from now on. * * * 'Mr. Vaughn was rude to me and we tried to do a favor to you people and he was rude.' * * * 'We are out $250 on parts we can't do anything about."
Thereafter, the Vaughns employed another firm to haul their trailer to Phoenix, and this suit followed. At the time of trial, it developed that the Western Coach employee who hauled plaintiffs' trailer had been hired only a few days before the events with which we are concerned on a 'contract basis' and that he abruptly terminated his employment on the Monday morning when the plaintiffs were forced to hire another firm to bring their trailer to Phoenix. Western Coach had no written records of this man's employment, was not able to give the name of the employee to the court, and throughout the trial this driver was referred to as 'Bob,' because he had this name sewn on the front of his shirt. The first question raised on appeal is whether there was sufficient evidence to establish a contract of hauling between the plaintiffs and Western Coach. Though the Western Coach president, Mr. Max Morgan, testified that his employees were not authorized to enter into hauling contracts and that Western Coach had no license from the Arizona Corporation Commission to act as a contract hauler in this manner, the trial court found that there was ostensible authority to enter into this contract, which had been relied upon by the plaintiffs. We find ample evidence in the record to support this finding. See § 27, Restatement of Law of Agency (Second). As a matter of fact, during the trial, the defendant as much as admitted there was sufficient evidence in the record in this regard:
'THE COURT: You are not seeking to escape the consequences of Mr. Dunlop's (manager in Parker) acts?
...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Embrey v. Holly
...accordingly, we express no opinion as to their correctness and do not consider them further here.6 E.g., Western Coach Corp. v. Vaughn, 9 Ariz.App. 336, 452 P.2d 117, 119 (1969); Standard Oil Co. of Kentucky v. Gunn, 234 Ala. 598, 176 So. 332, 334 (1937); Miller v. Blanton, 213 Ark. 246, 21......
-
Briner v. Hyslop
...Oil Co. of Kentucky v. Gunn, 234 Ala. 598, 176 So. 332 (1937) (oil company's agent sold adulterated oil); Western Coach Corp. v. Vaughn, 9 Ariz.App. 336, 452 P.2d 117 (1969) (scope of employment); Miller v. Blanton, 213 Ark. 246, 210 S.W.2d 293 (1948) (intoxicated driver in auto accident); ......
-
Haralson v. Fisher Surveying, Inc.
...business and acting within the scope of employment.'" Wiper, 152 Ariz. at 310,732 P.2d at 201 (quoting Western Coach Corp. v. Vaughn, 9 Ariz.App. 336, 338-39, 452 P.2d 117, 119-20 (1969)); see also Echols v. Beauty Built Homes, Inc., 132 Ariz. 498, 502, 647 P.2d 629, 633 (1982); Boyce, 26 A......
-
Hyatt Regency Phoenix Hotel Co. v. Winston & Strawn
...damages for acts an employee commits in furtherance of the business and within the scope of employment. Western Coach Corp. v. Vaughn, 9 Ariz.App. 336, 338, 452 P.2d 117, 119 (1969) (citing Southern Pac. Co. v. Boyce, 26 Ariz. 162, 223 P. 116 (1924)). Winston & Strawn asserts that recent ap......