Johnson Motors, Inc. v. Coleman

232 So. 2d 716, 1970 Miss. LEXIS 1638
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 9, 1970
DocketNo. 45677
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 232 So. 2d 716 (Johnson Motors, Inc. v. Coleman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson Motors, Inc. v. Coleman, 232 So. 2d 716, 1970 Miss. LEXIS 1638 (Mich. 1970).

Opinion

BRADY, Justice:

This is an appeal from the Chancery Court of Alcorn County, Mississippi, wherein a decree was entered disallowing the claim of Johnson Motors, Inc. against the Estate of Susan- Hathcock Jones, Deceased. The claim, based on a conditional sales contract for the purchase of a 1967 Oldsmobile, was made while Susan Hath-cock Jones was a minor, eighteen years of age, and was disaffirmed by her administrator after her death. From this decree an appeal is taken.

On April 5, 1967, Susan Hathcock Jones, seventeen years of age, hereinafter designated as Minor, and her husband, Raymond Lee Jones, an adult, purchased from Johnson Motors, Inc., the Oldsmobile dealer in Corinth, Mississippi, a 1967 Oldsmobile. The Minor traded in her 1965 Oldsmobile convertible and she and her husband executed a retail installment contract for the balance of the purchase price to pay for the 1967 Oldsmobile. To further secure the balance due, they executed a deed of trust conveying as additional collateral a 1965 Dodge pickup truck, a boat and motor, and other personal property which be[718]*718longed to Raymond Lee Jones and which is not involved in this lawsuit.

The 1965 Oldsmobile convertible that was traded in was found by the court to have been the property of the Minor. She had acquired the 1965 Oldsmobile through an exchange made for a Cadillac automobile she inherited from her mother when she was seventeen years old.

On September 11, 1967, a decree was entered by the Chancery Court of Alcorn County, removing the disability of minority of the Minor, who was then eighteen years of age. On December 4, 1967, the Minor and her husband, Raymond Jones, both died, apparently because of a homicide and a suicide.

On March 1, 1968, the chancery court entered a decree authorizing the administrator of the estates of the decedents to sell their real and personal property for the payment of debts. On March 30, 1968, the administrator sold the personal property of the decedents, including the 1967 Oldsmobile, pursuant to the decree of the court. On April 5, 1968, the sales were confirmed. The automobile brought $2,290 at the sale, but the sale was rescinded when the controversy arose with the appellant. On April 8, 1968, Credit Life Insurance Company advised that it would not pay the death benefits on account of the death of Raymond Lee Jones since he had committed suicide. Moreover, GMAC is not involved in determining the rights of the litigants in this cause, Johnson Motors, Inc., having settled with GMAC. The record indicates that apparently both appellant and appellee anticipated that Credit Life Insurance Company would pay to David L. Coleman, the administrator, the $1500 due under their policy.

On April 17, 1968, the administrator advised the appellant by letter that he was disaffirming the conditional sales contract which had been executed by the Minor on April 5, 1967, because of her minority at that time. On April 18, 1968, the appellant responded asserting there would have to be full restoration to the status quo as nearly as possible before the contract could be disaffirmed on the part of the Minor, and demanded payment of $3,811.68 plüs the 1967 Oldsmobile to place all parties in status quo.

On April 22, 1968, the appellant filed a petition in chancery court praying that the administrator be required to complete the rescisión of the contract of the Minor by delivering the 1967 Oldsmobile plus the $3,811.68. The $3,811.68 constitutes the balance due on the 1967 automobile of $1,807.47, together with insurance charges, interest on money and recording fees, totaling $2,301.60. The difference between the value of the Dodge pickup truck when sold and its original value, with depreciation, amounted to $1,510, so that the appellant made a demand upon the appellee for the $3,811.68 in order that his interpretation of status quo would be met.

On April 23, 1968, the appellant filed a petition in chancery court averring that the Minor did not own any interest in the 1967 Oldsmobile and praying that the court set aside its decree of April 5, 1968, approving the sale of the personal property, and require the administrator to pay the indebtedness alleged to be due to the appellant.

On June 5, 1968, appellant probated a claim for $3,244.55 against the estate of the Minor based on the conditional sales contract executed April 5, 1967, to secure the payment of the balance due on the purchase price of the 1967 Oldsmobile.

On June 20, 1968, in order to escape further depreciation, the chancery court entered a decree authorizing the administrator to deliver the 1967 Oldsmobile to the appellant to be sold free and clear of all claims for a sum not less than $2,290 and the proceeds to be delivered to the administrator to be held in lieu of the car.

On September 6, 1968, a decree was entered adjudging (1) that the retail installment contract dated April 5, 1967, had been effectively rescinded by the adminis[719]*719trator as to the Minor, (2) that the administrator’s sale of the personal property should be confirmed, (3) that the probated claims of the appellant against the estate of the Minor should be denied, and (4) that the estate of the Minor was entitled to recover $2,264.22 from the appellant in lieu of the return of the 1965 Oldsmobile convertible. This is the amount that was allowed for the 1965 Oldsmobile on the trade-in for the 1967 Oldsmobile. From that decision this appeal is taken.

The appellant assigns as error (1) that the lower court erred in finding that the Minor and the administrator of her estate “had not become estopped” to rescind her contract or to deny the ratification of her contract; (2) that the lower court erred in awarding a judgment against the appellant for $2,264.22 because there is no substantial evidence that the fair market value of the 1965 Oldsmobile was $2,264.22 on April 5, 1967; (3) that the lower court erred in rendering a judgment against the appellant because no claim was ever made against the appellant by the appellee for the value of the 1965 Oldsmobile; (4) that the lower court erred in rendering a judgment against the appellant because the action of the Minor at the time of the purchase led the appellant to believe that the purchaser was of full age; and (5) that the court erred in refusing to charge the estate of Susan Hathcock Jones with any of the depreciation of the car, any of the finance charges, insurance charges, et cetera, during the period the Minor had and used the 1967 Oldsmobile.

This case was well tried and excellent briefs were filed herewith. Though numerous errors are assigned by the appellant, we will treat only those errors which we feel deserve comment, the first being that the lower court erred in finding that the Minor and the administrator of her estate were not estopped to rescind her contract or to deny the ratification of her contract. Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 271 (1956), “Contracts during infancy — how ratified,” states as follows:

An action shall not be maintained whereby to charge any person upon any promise made after full age to pay any debt contracted during infancy, or upon any ratification after full age of any promise or contract made during infancy, unless such promise or ratification shall be made by some writing, signed by the person to be charged therewith.

This Court in Bell v. Smith, 155 Miss. 227, 124 So. 331 (1929), from a factual situation similar to the case at bar, held that:

A contract with an infant is voidable, not void.

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Bluebook (online)
232 So. 2d 716, 1970 Miss. LEXIS 1638, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-motors-inc-v-coleman-miss-1970.