Dial Finance & Thrift Co. 5, Inc. v. Patterson-McCarty Buick, Inc.

1972 OK 125, 501 P.2d 825, 1972 Okla. LEXIS 417
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 26, 1972
DocketNo. 43188
StatusPublished

This text of 1972 OK 125 (Dial Finance & Thrift Co. 5, Inc. v. Patterson-McCarty Buick, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dial Finance & Thrift Co. 5, Inc. v. Patterson-McCarty Buick, Inc., 1972 OK 125, 501 P.2d 825, 1972 Okla. LEXIS 417 (Okla. 1972).

Opinion

LAVENDER, Justice.

This appeal arises in an action for money had and received brought by the appel-lee herein, Dial Finance & Thrift Company #5, Inc., as plaintiff, against the appellant herein, Patterson-McCarty Buick, Inc., as sole defendant.

At the trial, without a jury, the trial court overruled the defendant’s demurrer [827]*827to the plaintiff’s evidence. The defendant stood on its demurrer. The trial court rendered judgment for the plaintiff, in the amount of $1,740.00 and the costs of the action, as prayed for in its amended petition. After its motion for a new trial was overruled, the defendant perfected this appeal on case-made.

In its amended petition, the plaintiff alleged that, at all times involved in the action, one John Winningham, an individual doing business as Bank & Finance Sales, also known as B & F Sales, and engaged in the business of selling used automobiles, was the undisclosed agent of the defendant, and was acting within the scope of his authority; and that the defendant delivered to Winningham several used automobiles, including a certain Dodge and a certain Plymouth, to be sold to the general public, and allowed Winningham to retain possession of the automobiles and represent to others that he was the owner thereof.

The plaintiff alleged that, on a stated date, Winningham sold the Plymouth and brought the purchaser to the plaintiff’s office where the plaintiff took a promissory note in the principal amount of $525.00 signed by the purchaser and payable to the order of the plaintiff, and a chattel mortgage on the car from the purchaser, and paid Winningham the sum of $345.00 as the purchase price of the car; and that, thirteen days later, Winningham sold the Dodge and brought the purchaser to the plaintiff’s office where the plaintiff took a promissory note in the principal amount of $2,190.00 signed by the purchaser and payable to the order of the plaintiff, and a chattel mortgage on the car from the purchaser, and paid Winningham the amount of $1,395.00 as the purchase price of the car.

Plaintiff also alleged that, two days after the last transaction, the defendant, acting through Charles W. McCarty as its agent, informed the plaintiff that the defendant was the true owner of the Dodge and Plymouth automobiles and payment for those cars had not been received from Winningham; that, at the suggestion of McCarty, the plaintiff paid the sum of $1,740.00 to the defendant and ordered its bank to stop payment on its checks issued to Winningham; and that, despite the stop-payment orders, the plaintiff’s bank paid those checks.

The plaintiff then alleged that, “by reason of the agency existing between the defendant and the said John Winningham d/b/a B & F Auto Sales,” the payment direct to the defendant constituted “double payment” to the defendant, and by reason thereof the plaintiff is entitled to recover from the defendant the sum of $1,740.00 and the costs of the action.

In addition to a general denial and a denial of any indebtedness to the plaintiff, the defendant, in its verified answer, specifically denied that Winningham at any time was the agent of the defendant or in any manner acted in a representative capacity for it. The defendant alleged that, if the plaintiff did pay Winningham any amount of money in the alleged transactions, it did so without exercising ordinary care in ascertaining ownership of the automobiles upon which it accepted chattel mortgages, and had full knowledge of such ownership prior to the time any of the checks given to Winningham were paid by its bank.

The defendant’s reply consisted of a general denial of any new matter inconsistent with the allegations of its petition.

Bob Lang, manager of the plaintiff’s Oklahoma City loan office, testified that, about a month and a half to two months prior to the first loan transaction pleaded by the plaintiff, he noticed that some one had opened a used-car lot at Southwest 29th and Walker in Oklahoma City. He stopped by, met Winningham, and arranged to finance car sales for him. He made a number of loans to Winningham’s customers but did not buy any paper from Winningham. He made the loans direct to the car purchasers only, and did so in these two instances. He testified about making those loans and identified three exhibits as checks issued as the proceeds of the two loans.

[828]*828Two checks, one in the amount of $245.-00 and the other in the amount of $100.00, were issued in connection with the loan on the Plymouth car, because they misunderstood the purchase price as $245.00 when contacted by phone about the loan, and issued the $100.00 check when the loan was closed. Both checks were payable to the order of the borrower and B & F Sales and are so endorsed on the back. The $245.00 check is stamped “paid” by the drawee bank. The $100.00 check is not stamped as paid but has the words “stop payment” stamped in at least eight places on its face. The third check, in the amount of $1,395.00 was issued as the proceeds of the loan on the Dodge car. It was payable to the order of the borrower and Bank & Finance Sales, and is so endorsed on the back. It is stamped “paid” by the drawee bank as of the same date that the $245.00 check was paid.

Until two days after the last loan transaction, Mr. Lang had thought that Win-ningham was on his own and had- never inquired about the ownership of any of the cars he was selling. At the time these two loans were made, Mr. Lang had had no indication that any one other than B & F Sales and the purchasers to whom the loans were made claimed any interest in either vehicle.

Two days after the last loan transaction, Mr. McCarty, of the defendant company, came to his office and said he had been letting Winningham have some cars to sell and that he had not been paid for the Dodge mentioned herein, and still held the certificate of title. He asked Lang to think about stopping payment on the loan check and issuing a new check to the defendant. Three days later (which was seven days before two of the three loan checks were paid by the drawee bank), Mr. McCarty contacted him again, and he stopped payment on the $1,395.00 check and issued a new check in that amount to the defendant company. He said the plaintiff always tried to protect its customers and “Mr. McCarty told me that if I would, if I would stop payment on the check that he would stand behind me later on down the line if we ran into any problems.” He remembered only the one check being issued at that time, but shortly thereafter another check, in the amount of $345.00, was issued to the defendant company.

Charles W. McCarty, of the defendant company, was called as a witness for the plaintiff. The defendant had a used-car operation in connection with its new car distributorship and a part of its business was the wholesaling of used cars to used-car dealers. A month or two before these check transactions, Winningham came to him and talked about getting some cars to sell on a used-car lot he wanted to open, but was broke and would have to be trusted with the cars. He told Winningham he would advance cars to him on a “consignment type” basis, and would deliver the certificate of title to a car when the car was sold and the agreed “wholesale type” price was paid to him. He arranged for electricity and telephone service for Win-ningham’s used-car lot and, ¡personally, agreed to stand good for those bills. He never informed any one that Winningham was an agent of the defendant company or that Winningham did not own the cars.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

D. W. L., Inc. v. Goodner-Van Engineering Co.
1962 OK 121 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1962)
Knight v. Yoakam
1959 OK 65 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1959)
Yellow Jacket Boat Co. v. Little Glasses Corp.
338 P.2d 1105 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1959)
Roussel v. Russell
1959 OK 84 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1959)
Al's Auto Sales v. Moskowitz
1950 OK 94 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1950)
Williams v. Williams
1954 OK 199 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1954)
Continental Oil Co. v. H. E. Rapp
1956 OK 171 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1956)
Sarber v. Harris
1962 OK 4 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1962)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1972 OK 125, 501 P.2d 825, 1972 Okla. LEXIS 417, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dial-finance-thrift-co-5-inc-v-patterson-mccarty-buick-inc-okla-1972.