Thornton v. Carson

533 P.2d 657, 111 Ariz. 490, 1975 Ariz. LEXIS 265
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedApril 3, 1975
Docket11962
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 533 P.2d 657 (Thornton v. Carson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thornton v. Carson, 533 P.2d 657, 111 Ariz. 490, 1975 Ariz. LEXIS 265 (Ark. 1975).

Opinion

CAMERON, Chief Justice.

We accepted jurisdiction of this petition for special action to consider the constitutionality of Arizona’s replevin statute, A. R.S. § 12-1301 et seq.

The facts necessary for a determination of this matter are as follows. On 29 April 1974, the petitioners, drapery manufacturers, entered into a contract with the Industrial Sewing Machine Exchange, Inc., an Arizona corporation, to buy a new U.S. Blindstitch industrial sewing machine, model number 718-9. The price was $670.-80, half to be paid at the time of the contract and the remainder in three monthly installments of $111.80. The agreement provided that the Industrial Sewing Machine Exchange, Inc., not only had a security interest in the sewing machine, but retained title to the goods until all sums due as provided by the contract were fully paid. The contract also provided that for failure to make timely payments the Industrial Sewing Machine Exchange, Inc., could, with or without notice or legal process, repossess the sewing machine. This agreement was recorded with the Maricopa County Recorder. Thereafter a dispute arose as to the servicing of the machine and the payment due on or before 1 August 1974 was not made.

On 6 September 1974 the Industrial Sewing Machine Exchange, Inc., secured a replevin bond for the requisite amount, submitted the bond together with a verified complaint specifically setting forth the facts and incorporating the sales order and agreement. At the same time an affidavit in replevin as required by statute, A.R.S. § 12-1301, was also filed. For reasons not apparent in the record before us, filing was not accepted until 18 September 1974 when a summons was issued and the order for taking the property was signed by the justice of the peace and given to the constable.

*491 On 24 September 1974 the property was seized. The petitioner counterclaimed for an amount in excess of the justice court’s jurisdiction and the action was transferred to the Superior Court pursuant to A.R.S. § 22-201. Petitioners filed a motion for partial summary judgment before the Honorable Dorothy Carson, Judge of the Superior Court, which was denied. Judge Carson granted the motion of Industrial Sewing Machine Exchange, Inc., to dismiss the counterclaim. A petition for special action was filed in this court and we accepted jurisdiction in order to consider the constitutionality of our replevin statute in light of recent United States Supreme Court decisions.

The Arizona replevin statute is contained in A.R.S. § 12-1301 et seq. A.R.S. § 12-1301 provides:

“If a plaintiff claims in his complaint the possession of specific personal property, he may at any time before rendition of judgment file an affidavit showing:
“1. That he is the owner of the property claimed, sufficiently describing it, or is lawfully entitled to its possession.
“2. That the property is wrongfully detained by the defendant.
“3. The actual value of the property and that it has not been seized under any process, execution, or attachment against the property of the plaintiff, or, if so seized, that it is by statute exempt from such seizure.”

A.R.S. § 12-1302 reads as follows:

“Upon filing of the affidavit prescribed in § 12-1301, the clerk of the court or justice of the peace shall make an order requiring the sheriff, or if in a justice court the constable, to take the property specified in the affidavit from the defendant and deliver it to the plaintiff.”

The replevin statute, Article 12, Chapter 8, Title 12 of the Arizona Revised Statutes provides for a redelivery bond in double the value of the property taken, the same amount the plaintiff creditor had to post before obtaining the order for taking the property. A.R.S. § 12-1302.

In 1972 four members of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Fuentes v. Shevin, 407 U.S. 67, 92 S.Ct. 1983, 32 L.Ed.2d 556 (1972), held unconstitutional the replevin statutes of Pennsylvania and Florida, the court stating:

“We hold that the Florida and Pennsylvania prejudgment replevin provisions work a deprivation of property without due process of law insofar as they deny the right to a prior opportunity to be heard before chattels are taken from their possessor. * * * ” Fuentes v. Shevin, supra, 92 S.Ct. at 2002.

This court in Roofing Wholesale, Inc. v. Palmer, 108 Ariz. 508, 502 P.2d 1327 (1973) declined to recognize the Fuentes v. Shevin case, supra, as binding because the matter was determined by a four justice majority in a seven justice court. We indicated, however, that if the majority of the full court should follow the majority in Fuentes, we would, of course, comply with the United States Supreme Court’s decision.

Following Fuentes, supra, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Mitchell v. W. T. Grant Co., 416 U.S. 600, 94 S.Ct. 1895, 40 L.Ed.2d 406 (1974). If Mitchell, supra, did not overrule Fuentes, Mitchell retreated considerably from the position held by the four man majority in Fuentes. The court held in Mitchell, contrary to Fuentes, that property may be seized without notice to the debtor or an opportunity for prior adversary hearing when (1) the writ is issued upon a verified affidavit sufficiently setting forth the facts that support the seizure, (2) when a judge’s discretion is placed between the creditor’s application and issuance of the writ or order of seizure, and (3) when the debtor may immediately be heard on the matter and the writ or order dissolved unless the creditor proves the grounds for the issuance.

*492 Following Mitchell, supra, the United States Supreme Court in January of 1975 handed down the case of North Georgia Finishing, Inc. v. Di-Chem, Inc., 419 U.S. 601, 95 S.Ct. 719, 42 L.Ed.2d 751 (1975). In that case the Supreme Court held that a garnishment statute which deprives the defendant of the use of the property pending the litigation and making no provision for an early hearing violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, citing Sniadach v. Family Finance, 395 U.S. 337, 89 S.Ct. 1820, 23 L.Ed.2d 349 (1969); Fuentes; and Mitchell, supra. In that case the court stated:

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Bluebook (online)
533 P.2d 657, 111 Ariz. 490, 1975 Ariz. LEXIS 265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thornton-v-carson-ariz-1975.