Montoya v. McCallister Auto Co.

306 P.2d 1098, 62 N.M. 176
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 29, 1957
DocketNo. 6101
StatusPublished

This text of 306 P.2d 1098 (Montoya v. McCallister Auto Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Montoya v. McCallister Auto Co., 306 P.2d 1098, 62 N.M. 176 (N.M. 1957).

Opinion

SADLER, Justice.

The plaintiff as an appellant before this Court complains of a summary judgment of dismissal with prejudice rendered against him by the district court of Sandoval County in favor of the defendants in an action in which he sought damages in the sum of $5,000 for the alleged conversion by defendants of a V/2 ton Studebaker certain truck said to have been owned by him. The parties will be referred to here as they were aligned below.

The plaintiff had purchased a motor truck from McCallister Auto Company, Inc., one of the defendants, giving as security therefor a note and chattel mortgage for the balance of the unpaid purchase price. The McCallister Company transferred the note and mortgage to Securities Acceptance Corporation, also one of the defendants, with which company the Mc-Callister Company had a repurchase agreement in case it should become necessary to repossess the truck. The plaintiff was provided an automobile insurance policy giving coverage, among other things, against loss by fire.

The insurer was the Central National Insurance Company, a Nebraska corporation, likewise a defendant herein. The policy issued was made payable to the plaintiff and the Securities Acceptance Corporation in event of loss, as their respective interests might appear. Thereafter, a fire occurred in which the truck suffered substantial damage of such a nature, as alleged in the complaint, that the insurer above named became liable to the plaintiff for the value of the motor truck, subject to the amount of any and all current indebtedness then due defendant, Securities Acceptance Corporation.

The complaint goes on to allege that the three named defendants then took possession of the truck for purposes of inspection and determining the fire damage suffered, and with plaintiff’s permission removed same from the ranch of plaintiff’s father, where it was, to a certain place of business in Albuquerque under control of the defendants. It is asserted by plaintiff that the three defendants named, having possession of the truck as aforesaid, conspired together to convert, and did convert it to their own use and to deprive plaintiff of the possession thereof.

The defendants answered, McCallister Auto Company setting up that the motor truck was delivered to it at its place of business for repairs and resale upon being repossessed by Securities Acceptance Corporation, one of the defendants. Securities Acceptance Corporation also answered, pleading plaintiff’s several delinquencies and, that McCallister Auto Company, Inc., paid them off on August 29, 1952, and obtained reassignment and endorsement of the note and mortgage which plaintiff had executed to secure payment of balance of purchase price for the motor truck. And, in like fashion, Central National Insurance Company of Omaha, Nebraska, also answered, admitting certain allegations in the complaint, denying others, and setting up as an affirmative defense the payment to securities Acceptance Corporation, holder at the time of the note and mortgage on the truck, of estimated damage thereto in the sum of $732.44 from the fire mentioned, discharging its liability under the policy of insurance it carried on the truck.

In due season after the filing of these answers, the depositions of numerous witnesses and parties were taken, some as adverse parties, either by stipulation of the parties, or pursuant to notice and their testimony was transcribed and filed in the cause. Several motions to dismiss, not necessary now to mention were later filed, as well as a motion for change of venue, some of which were denied and others not acted upon, hearings thereon presumably being waived.

The motion to dismiss, however, the granting of which is made the basis of the trial court’s summary dismissal, was one joined in by all three parties defendant. In it, after a recitation of various facts appearing from the pleadings and depositions by way of admissions or of an indisputable character, the defendants interposed the plea that there was no material issue of fact in dispute between the parties, the record thus showing the plaintiff was not entitled to the relief prayed for. The defendants then concluded that, by reason of the premises, summary judgment against the plaintiff should be granted for which they prayed.

This motion for judgment came on for hearing before the court, prior to the time the case was reached for trial and the court having heard the argument of counsel for all the parties, for and against the granting of the motion, entered its order sustaining the same, which order, omitting the formal portions, reads:

“ * * * and the Court having read the pleadings, depositions and affidavits filed of record, and after hearing the oral arguments of counsel, and being otherwise fully advised in the premises, Finds:
“1. That there is no genuine issue of fact and that upon the present state of record defendants are entitled to the granting of their motions for summary judgment.
“It Is Therefore, Ordered That the motions of all defendants for a summary judgment be and they are hereby granted.
“It Is Further Ordered That the complaint and the cross-complaint in the above entitled and numbered cause be and they are hereby dismissed with prejudice, to all of which plaintiff objects and excepts.
“It Is Further Ordered That defendants be and they are hereby granted judgments against the said plaintiff for costs to be taxed by the Clerk of the Court.”

We have carefully reviewed a rather extensive record, so it seems, as viewed in the light of the fact that the cause was determined on a motion for summary judgment. We are compelled to conclude that the trial court correctly appraised the pleadings, depositions and affidavits on file in the case by holding they left for trial no material issue of fact for litigation.

This being so, the case was ripe for summary judgment and it would have been an injustice to all parties to the action to impose upon them the expense of a long and tedious trial. If the obviously bulky transcript before us was necessary merely to ascertain the fact whether there was an issue for trial, it might be fairly assumed the trial of the issue actually found to exist would have required a record twice or thrice the size of the one before us for disposition of this appeal.

It is not in dispute under the pleadings that plaintiff held the truck in question under a note secured by mortgage for balance of the purchase price. It is an admitted fact that under terms of the mortgage the truck could be repossessed for default in payment of the installments of purchase price due monthly. We quote a proviso from the mortgage. It reads:

“1. Mortgagor agrees that if default shall be made in the payment, of the installments aforesaid * * * all of the unpaid installments of this mortgage and the note shall, without notice, become due and payable.” (Emphasis added.)

Neither is it open to dispute, under the pleadings and depositions, that plaintiff was in default as to the payment of three installments when the fire occurred which badly damaged plaintiff’s truck.

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Knoebel v. Chief Pontiac, Inc.
294 P.2d 625 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1956)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
306 P.2d 1098, 62 N.M. 176, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/montoya-v-mccallister-auto-co-nm-1957.