Thomas v. General Motors Accept. Corp.

1936 OK 334, 56 P.2d 844, 176 Okla. 488, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 244
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 7, 1936
DocketNo. 25388.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1936 OK 334 (Thomas v. General Motors Accept. Corp.) 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
Thomas v. General Motors Accept. Corp., 1936 OK 334, 56 P.2d 844, 176 Okla. 488, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 244 (Okla. 1936).

Opinion

BAYLESS, J.

The plaintiff in error, G. C. Thomas, was plaintiff in an action in the district court of Tulsa county, Okla., wherein defendant in err.or, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, a corporation, was defendant and cross-petitioner. The parties will be referred to herein as they appeared in the trial court.

The history of this action is long and rather complicated, and the contentions numerous. In order to understand these contentions it is necessary to set out at length, in a summarized fashion, this history.

About January 26, 1931, plaintiff made a deal with Roberts Chevrolet Company, Sand Springs, Okla., (alleged to be an agent of defendant), to purchase the Chevrolet automobile, the subject-matter of this action: the written contract evidencing this deal is between plaintiff and Mid-west Chevrolet Company, Tulsa, Okla., and the court is frank to say that we cannot understand the relationship between the two Chevrolet companies from the record before us, but the parties do not make any particular contention regarding the difference, if any, between these companies, and we will deal with the record as best we can; plaintiff traded in a car on the new one for $263 according to the written contract, or $277 according to plaintiff’s testimony, and according to plaintiff and defendant there was a balance due on $608, which plaintiff was to pay in 16 months at the rate of *489 $3S per month; at the same time plaintiff left with Roberts Chevrolet Company another car, given to him by his son, upon which there was a balance owing to defendant of $364, none of which was delinquent according to plaintiff, but $84 of which was delinquent according to defendant; a memorandum receipt for this car was given plaintiff, and it reads; “1930 sport sedan to be held and held for $464 or until such time as G. M. A. C. or Mr. Thomas may see fit, or G. M. A. C. may take same, and we do not assume any liability on sedan” ; Roberts Chevrolet Company constructively turned this car to G. M. A. C., upon its demand for repossession, and paid G. M. A. C. the balance due on it, retained possession and sold it to another party; plaintiff claims that the agreement was the car should be sold for $464, the $364 paid to G. M. A. C. and the $100' difference, or more if the car brought more than $464, was to be credited upon the purchase price of the car in litigation, whereas defendant denies this, and alleges it repossessed the car under its lien claim, received what money was due it from Roberts Chevrolet Company, and nothing was due plaintiff thereon; plaintiff made ten payments of $38 each, and fell into arrears; he then executed a new contract with defendant, for which defendant made a renewal charge of $12, by which he was to pay the agreed balance of $228 at the rate of $25 per month; plaintiff made three such payments, and fell into arrears on this contract; he then executed a new contract with defendant, for which defendant made a renewal charge of $13.65, by which he was to pay the agreed balance of $166.65 at the rate of $14 per month; plaintiff made four such payments, and fell into arrears on this contract ; defendant thereupon instituted an action in a justice of the peace court, re-plevined the car, took judgment for the possession thereof from plaintiff by default, and posted notices of intention to sell said automobile; plaintiff thereupon filed an action in the district court aforesaid for the purpose of requiring defendant to foreclose its contract upon this car as a chattel mortgage and in said court and action; defendant appeared, without being served with summons, and filed an answer and cross-petition ; and at the conclusion of the trial received judgment against plaintiff for the balance due, $110, and the foreclosure of its lien.

A review of the pleadings will be of assistance in trying to decide what the issues are, and in determining these issues. Plaintiff's petition admitted the purchase of the automobile, admitted the balance of $608 due on the purchase price, but asserted this amount included $98 interest and insurance, pleaded the execution of the renewal contract and the various payments paid by him in a sum total, including the trade in price of his car, of $798, admitted a balance due on the last contract of $110.65, but alleged that this represented usurious exac-tions, alleged that he owed nothing on the purchase price of the ear, alleged that certain illegal and wrongful steps had been taken in a justice of the peace court by which plaintiff had been deprived of the possession of his car and that steps were being taken to sell it in violation of plaintiff’s rights, alleged that plaintiff owed nothing and had a legal counterclaim or set-off, alleges defendant should account to him and that he is entitled “to have said defendant’s pretended conditional sales contract foreclosed in the above-entitled court, which has jurisdiction of the subject-matter involved herein.” To this defendant filed a general denial.

The parties in their briefs treat this as a proceeding in the district court to require defendant to foreclose its contract, presumably as a chattel mortgage, under section 11272, O. S. 1931. The record does not disclose that a summons was issued or served upon defendant, but it immediately answered. The record does not disclose what proceedings took place before the trial court on this issue. The parties give us to understand that the trial judge decided to require defendant to treat its contract as a chattel mortgage and to foreclose it by court action.

The plaintiff now declares that this constitutes an election of remedies, and under Galbreath v. Mayo, 70 Okla. 252, 174 P. 517, defendant elected to treat its contract as a note, and thereby vested complete title in plaintiff and waived or lost its lien. Under the petition above outlined the district court had no jurisdiction to proceed: (1) Because it appears from the face of the petition that a court of competent jurisdiction was entertaining an action in replevin and we have held that this is sufficiently flexible proceedings to enable the litigants to settle their differences (Cherry v. Sharp, 172 Okla. 241, 45 P. [2d] 70). This is, of course, subject to the monetary limitation of jurisdictions, but such does not appear in this petition. (2) No claim is made in the petition that the contract is a chattel mortgage, but it is referred to as a conditional sales contract. Section 11272, supra, relates only to chattel mortgages, and not to conditional sales contracts.

*490 If the contract is to lie treated as chattel mortgage, it is because of the action instituted by plaintiff and the court’s decision. This does not constitute an election in the sense that election of remedies is regarded. The freely adopted course of action of the defendant was interfered with and defendant was brought into another court and to some extent coerced into following another course of action. See 20 C. J. 42, sec. 39, note 89, and McKenzie v. A. P. Cook Co., 113 Mich. 452, 71 N. W. 868.

The plaintiff sought the powers of a court to require defendant to treat the contract as a chattel mortgage, and apparently the court exercised such powers in plaintiff’s behalf.

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Bluebook (online)
1936 OK 334, 56 P.2d 844, 176 Okla. 488, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-general-motors-accept-corp-okla-1936.