Mercantile Trust Co. v. Roland

1930 OK 138, 288 P. 300, 143 Okla. 190, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 600
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 25, 1930
Docket18437
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 1930 OK 138 (Mercantile Trust Co. v. Roland) 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
Mercantile Trust Co. v. Roland, 1930 OK 138, 288 P. 300, 143 Okla. 190, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 600 (Okla. 1930).

Opinion

LEACH, C.

This action was commenced in the district court of Carter county by' the Mercantile Trust Company of'Illinois, a corporation, as plaintiff, against Gorman Roland and T. E. Roland, defendants, to recover possession of one Maxwell automobile truck, which truck was purchased by the defendants from the Slaughter Motor Company of Ardmore, Okla.; a portion of the purchase price of such truck was paid at the time of the sale and the remainder was evidenced by *191 eleven promissory notes payable monthly, and a conditional sale contract wherein- the title to the truck was specificaLy reserved and retained by the seller until the full purchase price was paid, and it was provided therein that upon default of any of the terms of the contract, the seller would be entitled to the possession of the truck, and that all payments made by the buyer should be considered and treated as payment for the* use of the truck and as damages for the failure of the purchaser to carry out the terms of the contract. The notes and contract were duly assigned to the Mercantile Trust Company, the plaintiff, who alleged in its petition that default had been made under the terms of the conditional sales- contract in failing to pay maturing installment notes, and prayed that it be awarded possession of the truck and adjudged the owner thereof, and that it recover damages for the unlawful detention thereof; a writ of replevin was issued in the cause whereunder the truck was delivered to the plaintiff.

The defendants answered by general denial.

At the first trial of the cause, the court directed a verdict -and entered judgment for the defendants, and that judgment was reversed on the ground that the trial court erred in failing to submit the issues to the jury and in directing a verdict. Mercantile Truck Co. v. Roland, 92 Okla. 126, 218 Pac. 826.

Upon remand of the action to the district court, a second trial was had which resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the defendants for the possession and return of the truck or its value, from which latter judgment the plaintiff brings this appeal and assigns several errors as grounds for reversal.

It is first contended that the evidence was insufficient to support the judgment; that the plaintiff, Mercantile Trust Company, was a bona fide purchaser for value in due course of the conditional sales contract and the notes, withomt notice of any defect therein or breach of warranty on the part of the seller, -and that it is entitled to be protected as such, and, in support of such contention, it quotes the following from 11 Corpus Juris, 668:

“The rule as laid down in most jurisdictions is that a bona fide assignee of a negotiable mortgage note, before maturity, and for value, will take the mortgaged property free from equities and defenses existing between the original parties to the mortgage, at least where the equities are secret or latent; and it would seem that this rule obtains, although the assignee takes the secured note as collateral security. It has been held, however, that the rule applies only where the mortgage secures negotiable paper. Unless the assignee stands in the position of a bona fide purchaser, however, he will take subject to all equities and defenses between the original parties, as where he takes with notice of such equities or defenses, or where the note secured by the mortgage is overdue at the time it is assigned.”

The plaintiff also quotes frcan Anglo-California Trust Co. v. Pacific Acceptance Corporation (Cal.) 232 Pac. 489, and Long v. McAvoy (Wash.) 233 Pac. 930, which actions involved conditional sales contracts on automobiles, but the issues in those cases did not involve the question of negotiability of the contracts, for such question apparently was not raised or decided. The facts in those cases are not similar to those in the case before us, and the decision and the rules of law therein announced do not aid us in the determination of the question here raised.

The plaintiff also cites a number of cases from this court, among such being Western Exch. Bank of Kansas City, Mo., v. Coleman, 38 Okla. 178, 132 Pac. 488, and later cases following the same rule, wherein it was held that the maker of a negotiable promissory note could not defeat the same in the hands of a bona fide purcnaser for value before maturity by alleging and showing the violation of a warranty on collateral agreement relating to the sale of certain property for which the note had been given which occurred subsequent to the transfer of the notes. The rule quoted from Corpus Juris, and the cases cited from this court, all relate to and are based upon actions founded on negotiable paper, or to security given thereon, and none relate to an! action based upon an instrument similar in character to the conditional sales contract under which the plaintiff here based its right of action.

The plaintiff advances argument as though it were suing to enforce a lien or security on the notes referred to in the contract, and that it is protected by reason of such notes.

Such argument and premise, however, cannot be sustained, because the plaintiff based its right of -action wholly upon the conditional sales contract and alleged that it was the titi-e holder and owner of the truck, and prayed judgment accordingly, thereby abandoning' any rights or benefits which wonild have arisen under the notes had the seller or assignee elected to treat the sale as ah- *192 solute instead of conditional and rescinding the same.

The plaintiff does not seek to foreclose any lien against the truck, or to repossess the same in order to. sell it as security for the payment of the notes, but relies upon the terms and conditions of the conditional sales contract wherein the title to the property is retained in the seller, treats the sale as rescinded and the contract terminated, and claims absolute ownership of the truck.

The legal assertion or enforcement by the plaintiff of any indebtedness as against the defendants on the notes referred to* in the contract would be inconsistent with its claim of absolute ownership of title to the truck, and any action to enforce liability ctn such notes by the plaintiff would be held an election to treat the sale of the truck as absolute and the title thereto would vest in the buyer free of any lien in favor of the seller and defeat the plaintiff’s asserted claim of ownership in the truck under the conditional sales contract.

“Where a sale of personal property is made in which the vendor retains) the title to the) property until the purchase price therecff is paid and takes notes from the purchaser for such purchase price, and upon default in the payment of said notes the vendor brings an action upon said notes, it is an election by the vendor to make such conditional sale absolute and defeats the right of the vendor to maintain action of replevin for said personal property.” Galbreath v. Mayo, 70 Okla. 252, 174 Pac. 517.

In the case of National Cash Register Co. v. Stockyards Cash Market, 100 Okla. 150, 228 Pac. 778, the plaintiff obtained judgment for the balance due on certain notes given as evidence of part of the purchase price of cash registers sold and also sought to replevin the registers by virtue of a conditional sales contract wherein the title to the machines was retained in the seller until payment of the full purchase price.

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Bluebook (online)
1930 OK 138, 288 P. 300, 143 Okla. 190, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mercantile-trust-co-v-roland-okla-1930.