General Motors Acceptance Corp. v. Hayes Motor Co.

172 A. 343, 12 N.J. Misc. 384, 1934 N.J. Misc. LEXIS 13
CourtUnited States District Court
DecidedApril 12, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 172 A. 343 (General Motors Acceptance Corp. v. Hayes Motor Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States District Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
General Motors Acceptance Corp. v. Hayes Motor Co., 172 A. 343, 12 N.J. Misc. 384, 1934 N.J. Misc. LEXIS 13 (usdistct 1934).

Opinion

Tallman, J.

In January, 1933, one Eohert J. McKeon purchased under a conditional sale contract from Moore Chevrolet Company, Incorporated, a 1932 Chevrolet one and one-half ton truck, Motor Ho. 2MB09-11470, Serial T3354309, which conditional sale contract was assigned to the plaintiff herein. General Motors Acceptance Corporation is engaged in what is commonly called “the finance business,” and more specifically, in the business of purchasing for valuable consideration, conditional sale contracts covering, among other things, automobiles. The said conditional sale con[385]*385tracts reserve title in the seller, or its assignee, until the full purchase price has been paid by the buyer of the vehicle. Kobert J. MeKeon, having defaulted in the payments due under the terms of the conditional sale contract, executed by him, the vehicle was repossessed and the title cleared in accordance with the Uniform Conditional Sale act, Pamph. L. 1919, ch. 210. The vehicle was then returned to Moore Chevrolet Company, Incorporated.

On October 30th, 1933, Moore Chevrolet Company, Incorported, again sold the vehicle to one M. H. Latting, residing at 223 Thompson street, Koselle, New Jersey, who executed a conditional sale contract for the vehicle. The contract was thereupon assigned to General Motors Acceptance Corporation for value. The conditional sale contract was filed in the office of the register of deeds for Union county on November 8th, 1933, in accordance with sections 5 and 6 of the Uniform Conditional Sale act, section 5 providing for the filing of the contract, or a copy thereof, within ten days after the making of the conditional sale contract, and section 6 providing that the contract, or a copy, shall be filed in the office of the county clerk or where there is a register of deeds, in the office of such register of deeds in the county in which the goods are first kept for use by the buyer after the sale.

On November 6th, 1933, while the afore-described vehicle was being operated at Buttsville, it was seized for overloading, of which fact General Motors Acceptance Corporation became aware in January, 1934, as a result of an investigation instituted by reason of the fact that M. H. Latting had defaulted in the terms and conditions of the contract executed by him. As a result of the investigation, it was ascertained for the first time by General Motors Acceptance Corporation, that this vehicle still bore the registration plates of Bobert J. MeKeon, the first conditional vendee from whom the vehicle had heretofore been retaken.

General Motors Acceptance Corporation demanded possession of the vehicle from J. Bussell Doyle, sheriff of Warren [386]*386county, and from a representative of Hayes Motor Company, in whose custody and possession the vehicle had been placed by the sheriff. The sheriff refused to deliver possession of the vehicle to General Motors Acceptance Corporation until and unless the fine assessed against the alleged owner of the vehicle had been paid, which, of course, General Motors Acceptance Corporation refused to do. Hayes Motor Company refused to deliver the vehicle to General Motors Acceptance Corporation until the payment of the fine to the sheriff and payment of its garage bill for storage, which General Motors Acceptance Corporation also refused to pay.

These facts were established at the trial of the above matter, and the matter resolves itself to the following questions of law, there being no dispute as to the facts:

(1) Is General Motors Acceptance Corporation liable for the payment of the fine as the owner of the vehicle in accordance with the provisions of the Motor Vehicle act?

(2) Does the fine imposed against the owner of the vehicle and assessable against the vehicle come within the scope of the Hniform Conditional Sale act providing for certain liens to be paramount to the rights of the conditional vendor ?

(3) Was there such a removal of the vehicle from Hnion county to Warren county as would necessitate a refiling of the conditional sale contract in Warren county, and

(a) If there was such a removal, did General Motors Acceptance Corporation have such knowledge as would debar it from its right to possession of the vehicle by reason of its failure to refile?

(4) Does General Motors Acceptance Corporation have the right by virtue of its conditional sale contract, to maintain replevin proceedings for the possession of the vehicle ?

(5) Does this case come within the prohibition of section 121 of the District Court act?

Point 1. General Motors Acceptance Corporation is not such an owner in the contemplation of the Motor Vehicle act as would make it liable for the payment of a fine for overloading.

[387]*387Pamph. L. 1933, ch. 151, provides as follows:

“Provided that no automobile, commercial vehicle, trailer, semi-trailer, or tractor, shall be registered by the commissioner of motor vehicles unless the same are equipped with rubber tires on all wheels; and provided, further, that the owner of any commercial vehicle, tractor, trailer or semitrailer, whose vehicle shall be found overloaded on a public highway or operated with a load beyond the gross weight shown in the registration certificate * * * shall be fined not less than $100 nor more than $250 for the first offense, &e., &c.”

Admitting that the vehicle in question was overloaded, and that the fine which is sought to be charged and for payment of which the vehicle in question is being detained, can the vehicle be so detained as aganst General Motors Acceptance Corporation, the finance company. I think not in view of Pamph. L. 1926, ch. 251, which is a supplement to the Motor Yehicle act and which provides as follows:

“The word ‘owner’ as used in the act to which this act is a supplement shall also be taken to mean and include a person acquiring possession of a motor vehicle under and by virtue of a conditional sale contract, lease, bailment, agreement, chattel mortgage or other security agreement.”

Surely, from a reading of this excerpt from the statute, it can clearly be seen that the intention of the legislature for the purpose of the Motor Yehicle act and all its provisions, applies solely to the person in whose name the vehicle is, or is presumed to be registered, omitting specifically and entirely the finance company who are the owners of the vehicle only by virtue of their conditional sale contract.

Under the Uniform Conditional Sale act, the conditional vendor or finance company is construed to be the owner of the vehicle, the conditional sale act specifically stating that a conditional sale is actually a bailment.

Heading Pamph. L. 1926, ch. 251, and Pamph. L. 1933, ch. 151, together, the construction that must necessarily be placed upon these two sections of the same act is that the [388]*388owner in contemplation of law for the purpose of the Motor Vehicle act is none other than the registered owner as it appears in the records of the commissioner of motor vehicles at Trenton.

It is undoubtedly true that General Motors Acceptance Corporation is .the legal owner of the vehicle in view of its conditional sale contract. However, the Conditional Sale act stands separate and apart from the Motor Vehicle act, which fact was specifically stated in the case of General Motors Acceptance Corporation v.

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Bluebook (online)
172 A. 343, 12 N.J. Misc. 384, 1934 N.J. Misc. LEXIS 13, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/general-motors-acceptance-corp-v-hayes-motor-co-usdistct-1934.