Comfort v. United Insurance Finance Corp.

7 Mass. App. Div. 217

This text of 7 Mass. App. Div. 217 (Comfort v. United Insurance Finance Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts District Court, Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Comfort v. United Insurance Finance Corp., 7 Mass. App. Div. 217 (Mass. Ct. App. 1942).

Opinion

Pettingell, P. J.:

This is an action in which the plaintiff seeks to recover for the conversion of an automobile of which [218]*218the defendant took possession, as the holder of a conditional sales agreement covering it, the defendant being an innocent purchaser for value of the said sales agreement.

The trial judge in his findings of fact found in part as follows:

The automobile was originally the property of one J. A. Bice, a dealer, whose son, Sewell M. Bice, was employed by the father as a salesman. Sewell M. Bice signed a conditional sales contract for the purchase of the automobile in question, giving J. A. Bice for the purchase price a promissory note attached to the conditional bill of sale. The note and the conditional bill of sale J. A. Bice assigned to the defendant for cash paid. At the time of this latter transaction J. A. Bice and Sewell M. Bice were together with the automobile at the defendant’s place of business. At no time was the automobile ever delivered to Sewell M. Bice; J. A. Bice retaining possession of it until the sale and delivery to the plaintiff.

After the conditional sales contract was sold to the defendant, the plaintiff purchased the automobile from J. A. Bice for an adequate consideration and without notice of the conditional sales agreement held by the defendant. The automobile was brought by J. A. Bice to her house and left in her garage. In his disposition of the various rulings requested by the plaintiff and the defendant, the trial judge found that the transaction between J. A. Bice and Sewell M. Bice was not a mortgage and that the transaction from J. A. Bice to the defendant was not a mortgage. He found also that there was no evidence to warrant a finding that J. A. Bice was the agent of the defendant nor any evidence to warrant a finding that the defendant gave J. A. Bice express or implied authority to sell or dispose of the automobile in [219]*219question. He found also that “when and after J. A. Bice transferred the conditional sales agreement and note to the defendant, he had no further interest whatsoever in the automobile in question, and no evidence of title or interest in it”; also that the transfer to the defendant constituted a sale and that payments made by Sewell M. Rice to the defendant on the conditional sales contract constituted sufficient evidence to warrant a finding that there was a bona fide sale by J. A. Rice to Sewell M. Rice. He found further that the transfer to the defendant was not a mortgage.

There was also a finding that after the sale to the plaintiff both J. A. Bice and Sewell M. Bice left their place of business for parts unknown. In addition to the evidence appearing in the trial judge’s finding there was evidence also that at the time of the assignment of the conditional sales agreement to the defendant when the automobile was in front of the office of the defendant, the treasurer of the defendant went out to inspect the automobile and check its serial and motor numbers; that he then saw upon the automobile a dealer’s registration plate; that two or three months before the plaintiff bought it the automobile was seen at various places with J. A. Bice’s dealer’s number plates on it. There was a finding for the plaintiff.

The plaintiff filed fourteen requests for rulings of which the trial judge gave the 1st, 2nd, 10th, 11th and 12th. He did not pass on the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th and 14th. These latter requests must be treated as denied. Hurley v. Boston Elevated Railway, 213 Mass. 192, at 193. Plimpton v. New York, New Haven & Hartford R. R., 221 Mass. 548, at 551. Simmons v. Poole, 227 Mass. 29, at 34. Jos. S. Waterman & Sons, Inc. v. Soliday, 231 Mass. 422, at 423. American Congregational Association v. Abbott, 252 Mass. 535, at 537. [220]*220Woodworth v. Woodworth, 271 Mass. 398, at 400. Kravets v. Lipofsky, 294 Mass. 80, at 84. Commonwealth v. Hull, 297 Mass. 327, 329. The defendant can claim error only as to those requests which were given, the 1st, 2nd, 10th, 11th and 12th. Bangs v. Farr, 209 Mass. 339, at 344. These are as follows:

“1. That the conditional sale contract of the Automobile in question, dated January 8, 1940, between J. A. Bice, doing business as the Bice Motor Sales and Service and Sewell Bice, together with the assignment to the United Insurance Finance Corporation, being a written instrument, fixed the rights of the parties thereto and could not be varied or affected by paroi evidence. Goldenberg v. Taglino, 218 Mass. 357. Spevack v. Budish, 238 Mass. 215, 217. Beacon Tool and Machinery Co. v. National Products Manuf. Co., 252 Mass. 88, 91, yet the plaintiff, who is a stranger and not privy to the parties "to the said conditional sale contract or its assignment, is not bound by the terms of said contract or its assignment and may show that it did not express the purpose of the parties and may vary or contradict its terms. Kellogg v. Tompson, 142 Mass. 76. Spooner v. Cummings, 151 Mass. 313. Johnson v. Von Scholley, 218 Mass. 454, 457. Guaranty Security Corp. vs. Eastern Steamship Co., 241 Mass. 120, 123. Tripp v. National Shawmut Bank, 263 Mass. 505, 511. Simons v. Northeastern Finance Corporation, 217 Mass. 289.
“2. That unless J. A. Rice, doing business as the Bice Motor Sales and Service, was the owner or had control of the automobile in question, he had no lawful right to permit the use of his dealer’s plates on the said automobile. McDonald v. Dundon, 242 Mass. 229, 231. Tripp v. National Shawmut Bank, 263 Mass. 505, 512.
“10. That if possession of plaintiff’s automobile was obtained with plaintiff’s consent by Defendant, Morris Cordon, and such consent was procured wrongfully by the said defendant then no proof that demand for return of the automobile was made by the plaintiff, [221]*221is necessary for plaintiff to maintain this action of conversion.
“11. In conversion no wrongful intention on the part of the wrongdoer need be proved. Carter v. Kingman, 103 Mass. 517.
“12. That if defendant, United Insurance Finance Corporation, has sold or conveyed plaintiff’s automobile to any person whatever, then such sale or conveyance is a conversion. Carter v. Kingman, 103 Mass. 517.”

The defendant also filed fourteen requests for rulings of which the trial judge gave the 2nd, 4th, 5 th, 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th, and denied the 1st, 3rd, 8th, 9th and 14th. The defendant cannot claim error as to those given, DiLorenzo v. Atlantic National Bank, 278 Mass. 321, at 323. Thomas H. Jewett Jr. Inc. v. Keystone Driller Co., 282 Mass. 469, at 475. Woodman v. Haynes, 289 Mass. 114, at 117, 118. Baker v. Davis, 299 Mass. 345, at 348. Korb v. Albany Carpet Cleaning Co., 301 Mass. 317, at 318; but only as to those denied. The 1st, 3d, 8th, 9th and 14th are the only ones upon which the defendant can rely as creating error. These are as follows:

“1. That there is not sufficient evidence in this action to warrant a finding that the plaintiff has a right to immediate possession of the automobile alleged to have been converted and that, therefore, the plaintiff can not recover in this action.
“3. That J. A.

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Bluebook (online)
7 Mass. App. Div. 217, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/comfort-v-united-insurance-finance-corp-massdistctapp-1942.