Fidelity Financial Services v. Blaser

1994 OK 144, 889 P.2d 268, 25 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 975, 65 O.B.A.J. 4178, 1994 Okla. LEXIS 165, 1994 WL 706190
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 20, 1994
Docket79988
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1994 OK 144 (Fidelity Financial Services v. Blaser) 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
Fidelity Financial Services v. Blaser, 1994 OK 144, 889 P.2d 268, 25 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 975, 65 O.B.A.J. 4178, 1994 Okla. LEXIS 165, 1994 WL 706190 (Okla. 1994).

Opinions

HARGRAVE, Justice.

The Defendants Gary Blaser and Debbie Blaser, aka Debbie Underwood, (“Borrowers”) signed a promissory note and security agreement in favor of Fidelity Financial Services (Lender) for the purchase of a 1987 Nissan Maxima automobile. Lender perfected its security interest by filing a lien entry form with the Oklahoma Tax Commission on November 21, 1990. On or about May 24, 1991, the Nissan automobile was damaged as a result of an accident with defendant Bertha Walcott.

Walcott’s liability insurance carrier, Trader’s Insurance Company, negotiated the property damage claim with Debbie Blaser and paid her approximately $8,000 for the damage to the Nissan automobile as a result of the collision with Trader’s insured. Trader’s caused the Nissan automobile to be stored with a third party for repairs. Subsequently Trader’s learned of Lender’s interest and sought a release of lien. This was the first time that Lender learned of damage to its collateral. Lender refused to release the lien and Trader’s abandoned the vehicle, which was sold to foreclose the garageman’s lien. At the time of the sale, the Blasers owed Lender $5,846.06. The Blasers did not pay Fidelity Financial Services with the money received from Trader’s Insurance Company for destruction of the automobile.

Lender sued, alleging 1) that Trader’s had interfered with its collateral by allowing storage and repair charges to be assessed against the vehicle and failing to pay for storage and for repairs to the vehicle; 2) that Trader’s, although on notice of Lender’s lien, failed to obtain a release of lien from Lender, but instead caused storage charges and repair charges to be assessed against the vehicle in slander of plaintiffs security interest. Lender also argued that it was the beneficiary of any contract between Trader’s and borrowers regarding the collateral. Lender’s claim was for $6,640.00 in damages, that being the amount of the possessory lien held by the garageman, plus costs and attorney fees. Trader’s asserted defenses of accord and satisfaction, estoppel, laches, payment and release and waiver. Trader’s asserted that plaintiff only was entitled to salvage value of the automobile, if anything, under Oklahoma’s U.C.C.

Trader’s Insurance Company moved for summary judgment, arguing that it had no duty to protect Lender’s security interest, and alleging further that there were no contractual obligations between Lender or borrowers and Trader’s or tortfeasor to which Lender could be a third-party beneficiary. [270]*270Trader’s noted that 12A O.S.1991 § 9-3061 provides that insurance payments are “proceeds” and that the section provides only for continuance of a security interest in proceeds. They argued that section 9-306 did not create a duty on the part of a tortfeasor’s insurance company to ascertain the existence of a lender’s security interest, but merely provided a mechanism to track the secured interest and recover from the debtor or the debtor’s transferee.

In response to Trader’s motion for summary judgment, Lender did not argue that there were facts in dispute, but argued only that jurisdictions were split on whether a duty is owed by a third party to protect a secured party’s interest, citing in support of its position a 1933 Louisiana case, a 1934 Oregon case, and a 1979 Mississippi case. The only issue presented to the trial court on summary judgment was whether Trader’s had any legal duty to protect the secured party’s interest. The trial court found no substantial controversy as to any material fact and rendered judgment for Trader’s Insurance Company as a matter of law.

Lender appealed, raising only two issues: 1) that Trader’s had a duty under statutory and case law to satisfy Lender’s lien prior to or simultaneous with its payment to borrowers, and 2) that Trader’s had a duty as a matter of public policy to satisfy liens of record of which it has notice prior to the taking of title to collateral. Lender’s brief for the first time asserted that such duty arises under Title 12A O.S. § 9-306 and that summary judgment should be granted to Lender as a matter of law. The Court of Appeals reversed the summary judgment granted to Trader’s and directed that judgment be entered for Lender, although Lender had not moved for summary judgment in the trial court. The Court of Appeals based its decision on 12A O.S.1991 § 9-306.

Although Lender states in its brief-in-chief that the basis for the appeal is that insurer is liable to Lender both for not protecting its interest in the proceeds when it issued payment solely to the debtor and for failure to protect its interest in the salvaged vehicle by allowing it to be sold to satisfy the garage-man’s lien, the only issue presented on appeal was whether Trader’s had a duty to satisfy Lender’s lien prior to or simultaneous with its payment to borrower and prior to taking title to the collateral. For the reasons set out below, we find that Trader’s did not have a duty in this instance to protect Lender’s security interest.

The Security Agreement covering the vehicle required the borrowers to keep the security insured against loss by fire, theft and collision, and borrowers agreed that neither loss of, nor injury to the security would relieve their obligation on the note and security agreement. The security agreement did not require borrowers to notify Lender of damage to or loss of the vehicle.

A number of the cases cited by Lender are premised on conversion, which was not advanced as a theory of recovery in the case at bar. See, for example, Farmers & Merchants Nat’l Bank v. Fairview State Bank, 766 P.2d S30 (Okla.1988) an action for conversion where the dispute was between competing creditors, which held that a security interest in payment-in-kind benefits remained continuously perfected as proceeds of collateral. In the case at bar, the secured party sued a third-party insurance company for recovery of storage and repair charges assessed against the vehicle. The case at bar is not one for recovery of the proceeds in the hands of the borrowers. (The borrowers [271]*271were named as parties to the suit but were not served). We do not consider Lender’s conversion arguments because they were not raised in the trial court. See, Bane v. Anderson, Bryant & Co., 786 P.2d 1230 (Okla.1989).

It has been held that only one cause of action arises out of a tortfeasor’s misconduct and that settlement in full between the tort-feasor and debtor for all property damage, absent fraud or collusion, bars a subsequent suit by the secured party. See, International Harvester Credit Corp. v. Valdez, 42 Wash.App. 189, 709 P.2d 1233, 1235 (1985) and cases cited therein. The sole issue in Valdez was whether the holder of a security interest in a motor vehicle was barred from bringing suit against a tortfeasor who had destroyed the secured vehicle, after the tort-feasor had settled with the registered owner. The court held the suit was barred, adopting what it considered the majority view.

Valdez reasoned that the purpose of the certificate of title acts was to protect secured parties against creditors, transferees and creditors’ representatives in insolvency. Because the debtor has the right to possession, subject only to its obligation to fulfill the terms of the security agreement, the debtor was entitled to recover the full amount of damage.

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Fidelity Financial Services v. Blaser
1994 OK 144 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1994)

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Bluebook (online)
1994 OK 144, 889 P.2d 268, 25 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 975, 65 O.B.A.J. 4178, 1994 Okla. LEXIS 165, 1994 WL 706190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fidelity-financial-services-v-blaser-okla-1994.