Rawl's Auto Auction Sales, Inc. v. Dick Herriman Ford, Inc.

690 F.2d 422, 34 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1155
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedOctober 8, 1982
DocketNos. 81-1886, 81-1887
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 690 F.2d 422 (Rawl's Auto Auction Sales, Inc. v. Dick Herriman Ford, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rawl's Auto Auction Sales, Inc. v. Dick Herriman Ford, Inc., 690 F.2d 422, 34 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1155 (4th Cir. 1982).

Opinion

CHAPMAN, Circuit Judge:

This appeal by plaintiff below is from a declaratory judgment action to determine ownership to the original certificates of title to 38 automobiles. Defendants below also cross appeal the denial of their counterclaims filed in response to the declaratory judgment action. The automobiles in question were purchased from the defendants (three Virginia retail automobile dealers), transported to South Carolina and sold to other automobile dealers at Rawl’s Auto Auction Sales, Inc. (hereafter “Rawl’s”). Despite the transfer of possession of the automobiles, the original certificates of title [424]*424remain in the possession and control of the Virginia dealers. Rawl’s brought a declaratory judgment action seeking an order directing the Virginia dealers to surrender possession of the certificates of title to Rawl’s. The Virginia dealers counterclaimed, asserting a superior interest in the automobiles and seeking damages from Rawl’s for conversion of the automobiles and damages for unfair trade practices. The district court denied the relief sought by all parties. We affirm.

I

Rawl’s is a wholesale automobile auction. Only registered automobile dealers may buy and sell at the auction. Rawl’s does not permit dealers to participate in the auction until Rawl’s personnel have undertaken an investigation of that dealer’s reputation and credit standing. Rawl’s does not require the dealers it approves to produce title certificates for the automobiles before they are auctioned. When the dealers bring the automobiles for auction, they are assigned a number and location on the auction lot. When the automobile’s number is called, the selling dealer describes the automobile and bidding by the purchasing dealers commences. When the selling dealer agrees to a price, the auctioneer closes the deal. The purchasing dealer then inspects the vehicle. If the purchasing dealer is satisfied with the vehicle, he returns to Rawl’s headquarters and pays Rawl’s for the automobile. Rawl’s, in return, issues its own guarantee of title to the purchasing dealer.

At the end of the day, Rawl’s issues a check drawn on its own account to pay the selling dealers for the cars each dealer has sold that day. At all times relevant to the instant law suit, Rawl’s had two basic methods of payment. If the dealer had a well established business relationship with the auction, Rawl’s simply issued a regular check to the selling dealer for his automobiles. At the time of payment, the selling dealer usually surrendered any title certificates he possessed; in the case of those automobiles for which he did not possess title certificates, the selling dealer agreed to send Rawl’s the titles as soon as they were received.

Although there is some conflict in the testimony on this point, Rawl’s apparently issued regular checks to about 57 of the approximately 160 dealers who sold cars at the lot. This amounted to approximately one-half of the automobiles being auctioned at the lot.

The other method of payment was by title-attached check. The recipient of a title-attached check could not cash the cheek without first surrendering the title certificates to the automobiles for which the check was issued. These certificates were attached to the check when it was cashed and returned to Rawl’s. Both the fact that Rawl’s did not require dealers to produce title certificates before auctioning their cars and the fact that Rawl’s issued its own title guarantee, permitted dealers to auction cars before actually possessing the title. Rawl’s apparently issued title-attached checks to approximately two-thirds of the dealers who sold cars at the lot.

There was a time prior to 1979, when Rawl’s attempted to obtain temporary so-called “S” titles from the South Carolina Highway Department for dealers who were unable to immediately produce the original title certificate to an automobile. Under this procedure, Rawl’s would make a guarantee of title to the Highway Department. The Department would then issue Rawl’s a temporary “S” title. Sometime later, when Rawl’s received the original title, Rawl’s would send the original title to the Highway Department and the Department would issue a regular title certificate to the automobile in question. The practice of issuing “S” titles ceased in 1979.

Prior to its bankruptcy in 1978 or 1979, H. L. Irvin, Inc. operated a small used car lot in Greenville, South Carolina. William Irvin, on behalf of H. L. Irvin, Inc., purchased automobiles wholesale from a number of sources including those in Virginia. Some of these used cars were resold through the Greenville used car lot. Many were resold to other dealers through Rawl’s auction. H. L. Irvin, Inc. first began dealing with [425]*425Rawl’s around 1970 or 1971. At first, Rawl’s always issued title-attached checks to H. L. Irvin,. Inc. Beginning in 1974, however, Rawl’s began issuing regular checks rather than title-attached checks to H. L. Irvin, Inc.

For many years William Irvin traveled to Virginia, acting on behalf of H. L. Irvin, Inc., and purchased used automobiles from each of the Virginia dealers, as well as other automobile dealers located in Virginia. In most instances, Irvin would travel to Virginia, look over the automobiles, and agree to buy certain of them while in Virginia. On some occasions, the purchase would be negotiated by telephone. In all these transactions, Irvin employed a fairly standard procedure of purchasing used automobiles.

Once Irvin and the individual dealer had agreed on the sale of specific vehicles, Irvin presented the individual dealer with an envelope draft (when negotiations were conducted by telephone, Irvin, of course, mailed the envelope draft to the dealer in question). On the face of the envelope, Irvin obligated H. L. Irvin, Inc. to pay the agreed price of the automobiles. In return for the envelope draft, the dealers gave Irvin possession of the automobiles, the keys to the automobiles, and a buyer’s order for the automobiles. Irvin then transported the automobiles to South Carolina for resale. Upon receiving an envelope draft from Irvin, the dealers placed a bill of sale and the relevant automobile certificates of title in the envelope draft. The draft was then deposited in banking channels for collection. Several days after Irvin arrived back in South Carolina, the envelope draft would arrive at his bank. Irvin would authorize payment of the draft and he would be given possession of the bill of sale and the title certificates to the automobiles.

During the latter half of 1977, Irvin began to experience financial difficulties. The Virginia dealers began to notice that Irvin’s payments were slow and that they had to authorize Irvin’s bank to hold the envelope drafts for a longer period than the three days normally allowed for payment. Rawl’s also began to notice that Irvin was slow in returning the titles to automobiles that had been auctioned. Upon inquiry Irvin usually responded that he had not been by the bank or that he was experiencing a little difficulty and needed some extra time. Both the Virginia dealers and Rawl’s continued to deal with Irvin during late 1977 and early 1978. This is true even though some titles remained at the bank for as long as one month.

All of the vehicles that are the subject of this action were sold at various times by the three Virginia dealers to H. L. Irvin, Inc. in late 1977 or early 1978. The usual envelope drafts were used in payment for each of the vehicles. All of the automobiles were transported to South Carolina and sold by Irvin to other dealers through Rawl’s auction.

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690 F.2d 422, 34 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rawls-auto-auction-sales-inc-v-dick-herriman-ford-inc-ca4-1982.