National Acceptance Co. v. General Motors Acceptance Corp.

8 Tenn. App. 548, 1928 Tenn. App. LEXIS 177
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJune 9, 1928
StatusPublished

This text of 8 Tenn. App. 548 (National Acceptance Co. v. General Motors Acceptance Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Acceptance Co. v. General Motors Acceptance Corp., 8 Tenn. App. 548, 1928 Tenn. App. LEXIS 177 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

SENTER, J.

The bill filed in this cause seeks to enjoin the General Motors Acceptance Corporation, and its agent, R. L. Brubaker, from the prosecution of a replevin suit instituted and pending in *549 tbe Justice of the Peace court of Jake Levine, Esq., and to enjoin any judgment therein in the matter of the possession of a Chevrolet truck, under a certain conditional sales contract held and owned by the National Acceptance Company. The defendant, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, filed an answer and cross-bill, and in which it is alleged in substance that it is entitled to the possession of the above described property by reason of the conditional sales contract on the same track, executed and delivered to and owned by the General Motors Acceptance Corporation, and bearing date of October 20-, 1926, and which was prior to the date of the conditional sales contract owned and held by the National Acceptance Company. The answer denied that complainant was entitled to any of the relief sought, and by way of cross-bill prayed for judgment against the National Acceptance Company for the value of the property. The National Acceptance Company answered the cross-bill, admitting that the conditional sales contract of the General Motors Acceptance Corporation did bear a prior date to the one subsequently executed and then owned and held by the National Acceptance Company, but alleged that the truck made the subject of the conditional sales contract had been redelivered by the purchaser, and that said contract had been voluntarily rescinded by the General Motors Acceptance Corporation and alleging that the National Acceptance Company after said redelivery of said truck and after the cancellation of the former contract, the original vendee entered into a subsequent conditional sales contract, and it is this contract now held by the National Acceptance Company and which the answer to the cross-bill alleges gives to it prior rights'to possession of the truck involved.

The cause was heard before the Chancellor and the issues determined in favor of the original complainant, and the original bill was sustained and the cross-bill was dismissed. From this decree of the Chancellor, the General Motors Acceptance Corporation has appealed to this court and has assigned errors.

The facts as disclosed by the record, and as found by the Chancellor, will be summarized and stated as follows: C. L. Corley, a young man under tw.enty-one years of age, purchased of the David-Mathis Motor Company, of Lebanon, Tennessee, a Chevrolet automobile truck. He gave in part payment a used ear, and for the balance executed a conditional sale contract or installment note in which title was retained in the seller until the balance amounting to $371 was fully paid. The installments were divided-into ten monthly payments of $37.10 each. The conditional sales contract provided that in the event the conditional vendee failed to pay the installments as they became respectively due and payable, that the *550 conditional vendor, could at his option, declare all the installments remaining unpaid, due and payable. This contract of sale was dated October 20, 1926. David-Mathis Motor Company, transferred and assigned this conditional sales contract to the General Motors Acceptance Corporation, for value.

After the first installment became past due the General Motors Acceptance Corporation sent its representative, R. L. Brubaker, to Old Hickory, Tennessee where Corley lived, apparently for the purpose of collecting the first installment which was then past due, or at least to see Corley with reference to the payments. It was while Mr. Brubaker was on this visit to Mr. Corley that he discovered that Corley was not twenty-one years of age, and for this reason, and the further reason, that Corley had not met his first payment, he directed Corley to take the truck to the place of business of David-Mathis Motor Company at Lebanon the following Monday, where he could meet Corley and when Corley would turn the truck back to the David-Mathis Motor Company. In accordance with this instruction given by Brubaker to Corley, Corley took the truck to Lebanon where he met Mr. Brubaker as per appointment. At that time IT. P. David, President of the David-Mathis Motor Company met Corley and Brubaker, and requested Brubaker to continue the contract with Corley, by permitting Corley to pay his delinquent installments. Brubaker declined to agree to this arrangement, stating that Corley was under twenty-one years of age, and that his contract was that of a minor, and for this reason demanded on behalf of his principal, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, that David take up the conditional sales contract signed by Corley and by David-Mathis Motor Company, transferred to the General Motors Acceptance Corporation. It appears that David, in the presence of Corley, agreed to this arrangement, and gave to Brubaker a check payable to General Motors Acceptance Corporation, which check was drawn on a bank at Watertown, in Wilson county, Tennessee. Brubaker did not have the conditional sales contract with him at the time as it was then held by the General Motors Acceptance Corporation at its offices in Louisville, Kentucky, but Brubaker took the check with the understanding that he would return the conditional sales contract to the David-Mathis Motor Company. It appears that the David-Mathis Motor Company then resold the truck to Corley and had him to execute another contract of conditional sale for the truck, and the truck was then redelivered to Corley by David-Mathis Motor Company, which new conditional sales contract was assigned to the National Acceptance Company by David-Mathis Motor Company, the conditional vendor.

*551 It also appears that following this transaction some differences arose between the General Motors Acceptance Corporation and the David-Mathis Motor Company, concerning other matters and transactions, resulting in David-Mathis Motor Company stopping payment on the check which had been given to the General Motors Acceptance Corporation in the settlement of the Corley contract.

Corley failed to meet the first monthly installment under the conditional sales contract then held by the National Acceptance Company, and the National Acceptance Corporation took possession of the truck from Corley and was about to sell the truck under the conditional sales contract, when the defendant, General Motors Acceptance Corporation and R, L. Brubaker, secured a writ of re-plevin from Justice of the Peace Levine, and the prosecution of the replevin suit w,as enjoined, as hereinbefore set forth, and which injunction suit was sustained by the Chancellor.

From this action of the Chancellor the defendant and cross-complainant, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, has appealed and the several assignments of error present certain questions of law and fact which may be grouped and disposed of collectively.

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Bluebook (online)
8 Tenn. App. 548, 1928 Tenn. App. LEXIS 177, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-acceptance-co-v-general-motors-acceptance-corp-tennctapp-1928.