Chrysler Credit Corp. v. Sharp

56 Misc. 2d 261, 288 N.Y.S.2d 525, 5 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 226, 1968 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1867
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 22, 1968
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 56 Misc. 2d 261 (Chrysler Credit Corp. v. Sharp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chrysler Credit Corp. v. Sharp, 56 Misc. 2d 261, 288 N.Y.S.2d 525, 5 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 226, 1968 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1867 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1968).

Opinion

William W. Serra, J.

This is an action brought against Dorothy Mae Sharp, as buyer, upon a retail installment contract to recover the amount due upon an automobile sales contract, and also to recover against the Marine Midland Trust Company of Western New York, the bank which provided floor-plan financing to the automobile dealer, on the theory of conversion for the reasonable market value of an automobile seized and sold by the said defendant bank. The action against Alfred M. Heintzman, individually, sounding in fraud, has been withdrawn from the consideration of the court by stipulation. The defendant, Dorothy Mae Sharp, has never been served and her whereabouts are unknown. The determinations are based on a nonjury trial of the issues.

Upon the evidence, in February, 1966, Mrs. Sharp contacted a car dealer in the City of Buffalo, Heintzman-McRae Motors, Inc., through its sales manager, William Peterson, and sought the purchase of a 1963 Chevrolet automobile. On February 16, 1966, she signed a printed form captioned ‘ ‘ car order ’ ’ which was received by the dealer subject to acceptance after a credit investigation by the plaintiff as proposed retail finaneer. The proposed purchase was, according to records of the plaintiff, phoned into for approval at 9:40 o’clock and approved at 10:30 o’clock by the plaintiff. Thereafter, a formal printed instrument entitled ‘ ‘ Retail Installment Contract ’ ’ was signed by Mrs. Sharp and by the dealer’s office manager. The contract follows the form requirements of article 9 of the Personal Property Law. It was dated February 16, 1966. On the following day, it was indorsed by the president of the dealer corporation to the plaintiff. Payment of the cash balance received by the dealer from the sale of the retail finance contract to the plaintiff was deposited by the dealer in its deposit account with the defendant bank on February 17, 1966. On February 24, 1966, a financing statement, form UCC-1, was filed in the office of the Clerk of the County of Erie to perfect the security interest of the plaintiff, as required by paragraph (d) of subdivision (1) of section 9-302 of the Uniform Commercial Code and paragraph (b) of subdivision (1) of section 9-401 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The retail installment contract contained, in a printed portion, an acknowledgment of delivery and acceptance of the car by the buyer. In fine print on the reverse side under the assignment portion of the contract, the dealer war[263]*263rants, among other things, that the buyer paid the down payment as stated in the contract. The contract, by its terms, provides for a trade-in which was actually delivered to the dealer at or about the time of signing the contract. It further provided for a cash down payment of $443, a payment of $100 to be due March 16, 1966, and a 30-payment deferred balance of $1,710.70. The $443 in cash was in fact not paid on the signing of the contract despite the form recitations. The arrangement between the sales manager and Mrs. Sharp was that she, as retail purchaser, was to make the cash payment when she received an income tax refund which she expected to receive in the immediate future and that the car was to be left on the lot until the cash payment was made. On or about March 18, 1966, and before the delivery of the car, the defendant, Marine Midland Trust Company of Western New York, seized all of the dealer’s automobiles then remaining on its lot, including the 1963 Chevrolet automobile described in the Sharp contract. The automobile was sold by the bank and the right to the proceeds is the issue to be determined herein.

In determining the rights of the parties, we are dealing with a question of first impression under the newly enacted Uniform Commercial Code as to which neither party nor the court has uncovered any decisive interpretive case law on the issues herein in this or any other jurisdiction governed by the new code. The Uniform Commercial Code has been law in New York since September 27, 1964 (L. 1962, eh. 553, as amd.). Situations such as this are, moreover, commonplace, according to counsel, in insolvent automobile dealerships and with major appliance dealers.

Various authorities have been cited by both parties with reference to venerable principles of contract law affecting the passage of title as claimed to be determinative of the issue of whether Mrs. Sharp was a “ buyer in the ordinary course of business ” under subdivision (9) of section 1-201 of the Uniform Commercial Code. These cases are largely distinguishable as being interpretations of repealed statutes not consistent with the broad changes of the Uniform Commerical Code or not otherwise applicable to this particular situation. Doyle’s Main Motors v. Davis (118 N. Y. S. 2d 867) applies to the literal interpretation of former rule 1 of section 100 of the Personal Property Law changed in format and over-all effect by subdivision (3) of section 2-401 of the Uniform Commercial Code in cases where title is determinative. Bank of Italy v. Merchants’ Nat. Bank (113 Misc. 314) similarly turns on former rule 1 of section 100 of the Personal Property Law and the [264]*264interpretation of the word ‘ ‘ guarantee ” as a contract consideration in relation to the passage of title rule. In Rand’s Discount Co. v. Universal C.I.T. Credit Corp. (9 N Y 2d 454) the determining factor is the failure of the defendant to file its conditional sales agreement as against a subsequently filed chattel mortgage from a dealer. First Nat. Bank of Binghamton v. Hermann Co. (275 App. Div. 415) is determinative of the issue of whether, in successive sales the second seller was a “dealer ” having an implied right to pass title to goods to a purchaser in the ordinary course of business under former section 69 of the Personal Property Law. Citizens Nat. Bank of Springville v. Conger (176 Misc. 1048) involves a fraudulent mortgage of a car by a fraudulent buyer and a salesman to his personal account completely out of authority and not comparable to these facts. Decker v. Furniss (14 N. Y. 611) merely rules as to completion of performance and passage of title, that title passes according to the intent of the parties. Empire State Type Founding Co. v. Grant (114 N. Y. 40) is to the same effect.

The New York State car registration was never transferred in the instant case. The fact that the delivery of such papers (Motor Vehicle Form MV-50) is evidence of the passage of title (Ferris v. Sterling, 214 N. Y. 249) does not control herein if the intention of the parties was to delay delivery of the otherwise “sold” car until a later date. The case merely confirms such intention as a rule of evidence.

This court is inclined to feel that, while title questions may be of significance in determining many issues under the Uniform Commercial Code, the theory of the act and its relation to the problem relegate the issue of title in this case to a subordinate position. The Uniform Commercial Code is the result of the rapid expansion of credit operations in the business world, both wholesale and .retail, to the position where traditional paper in the form of chattel mortgages, conditional sales forms, and even trust receipt floor planning do not, in large, fast-moving operations, meet the needs of a rapid flow of credit. The financing of inventories, particularly, has long baffled those accustomed to the country store with its annual inventory and slow movement of goods.

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56 Misc. 2d 261, 288 N.Y.S.2d 525, 5 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 226, 1968 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1867, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chrysler-credit-corp-v-sharp-nysupct-1968.