Universal CIT Credit Corporation v. Hulett

151 So. 2d 705, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1496
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 9, 1963
Docket810
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 151 So. 2d 705 (Universal CIT Credit Corporation v. Hulett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Universal CIT Credit Corporation v. Hulett, 151 So. 2d 705, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1496 (La. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

151 So.2d 705 (1963)

UNIVERSAL C. I. T. CREDIT CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Henry HULETT et ux., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 810.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

April 9, 1963.

*706 William C. Boone, Leesville, for plaintiff-appellant.

Wm. C. Pegues, III, DeRidder, for defendants-appellees.

Before TATE, FRUGÉ and HOOD, JJ.

TATE, Judge.

This is a suit to recover a deficiency due for the purchase price of an automobile. The automobile was repossessed by the creditor in Louisiana and then sold in Indiana at a nonjudicial sale.

The central issue is a conflict-of-law question. The issue is whether the plaintiff's right to a deficiency judgment is to be determined by reference to the law of Louisiana or to the law of Indiana.

The trial court sustained the defendants' motion for summary judgment, since it held that under the undisputed facts the plaintiff's rights are to be determined by reference to the law of Louisiana, under which a deficiency judgment is barred when the repossession sale is made without appraisement. The plaintiff appeals from the consequent dismissal of its suit.

The undisputed facts show:

The defendants purchased an Edsel automobile in 1959 from an Indiana firm. The conveyance was made by a conditional sale contract executed in Indiana, which was immediately assigned to an Indiana office of the plaintiff finance company.

On its face, however, this contract showed that the defendants-purchasers were at the time residents of Louisiana and that following the purchase the car was to be brought to and kept in Vernon Parish, Louisiana.

Some five months after the Indiana sale, the automobile was repossessed by the plaintiff's agent in Vernon Parish, Louisiana, *707 with the written consent of the defendant wife.

The vehicle was immediately returned to Indiana, where it was sold by the plaintiff at a nonjudicial public sale in accordance with the Indiana statutes. The sale was made without appraisement, which is not required by Indiana law as a prerequisite to the creditor's obtaining a deficiency judgment.

If Louisiana law is regarded as regulating the question, the creditor is not entitled to a deficiency judgment under the statutory law and public policy of this State, because the repossessed vehicle was sold without the debtors having been afforded the benefit of a prior appraisement, which ordinarily fixes a minimum selling price. See the Louisiana Deficiency Judgment Act, LSA-R.S. 13:4106, 4107. As stated in David Investment Co. v. Wright, La.App. 1 Cir., 89 So.2d 442, 444, "under the stringent public policy provisions of the Deficiency Judgment Act as interpreted, a mortgage creditor is absolutely barred from a deficiency judgment where he provokes a sale, judicial or private, without the benefit of appraisement, * * *". See also Atlas Finance Corp. v. Whitehead, La.App. Orleans, 99 So.2d 481; Farmerville Bank v. Scheen, La.App. 2 Cir., 76 So.2d 581.

If, to the contrary, Indiana law is regarded as governing the question, the plaintiff creditor did comply with the Indiana prerequisites for a deficiency judgment. It gave prior written notice to the debtor of the repossession sale, and it also posted prior notice of the sale in three public places in the Indiana county of sale. Under Indiana statutory law, further, the creditor was entitled to hold the nonjudicial sale after repossession either at the place of the repossession (Vernon Parish, Louisiana) or at the place where the goods had originally been sole (Indiana).

In contending that the plaintiff company is entitled to a deficiency judgment because it had complied with all the necessary prerequisites of Indiana law therefor, able counsel for the plaintiff relies upon jurisprudence to the effect that the law of the state in which a contract is executed governs procedure in the performance of the provisions of the contract. Thus, argues counsel, this is an Indiana conditional sale of a motor vehicle located at the time in Indiana, which subsequent to its repossession was formally sold in Indiana by a public sale conducted in accordance with the laws of Indiana pursuant to which the plaintiff-creditor is entitled to a deficiency judgment.

On the other hand, as counsel for the appellees argues, this conditional sales contract may indeed have been executed in Indiana, but it shows on its face that the vehicle was sold to Louisiana residents in order to be brought into Louisiana, as a result of which the effects of the conditional sale and the subsequent repossession sale all must be regarded as governed by the law of Louisiana. "In Louisiana, the rule has been generally stated to be that the law of the place where the contract is to have effect determines the rights and obligations of the parties. See General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Pine Tree Amusement Co., 180 La. 529, 156 So. 812; American Slicing Machine Co. v. Rothschild et al., 12 La.App. 287, 125 So. 499, and Finance Security Co., Inc. v. Mexic, La.App., 188 So. 657". McKane v. New Amsterdam Casualty Co., La.App., Orleans, 199 So. 175, 182.

Thus, even though conditional sales and unrecorded chattel mortgages are not recognized in Louisiana, through comity the Louisiana courts will nevertheless enforce such transactions when validly confected in another state, even to the prejudice of innocent third persons who have dealt with the property in Louisiana—providing the property has been brought into Louisiana without the creditor's consent. If the chattel which was the object of the foreign conditional sale or chattel mortgage is brought into Louisiana with the consent or to the knowledge of the creditor, however, the Louisiana courts will then apply the Louisiana law and policy protecting third *708 persons who deal with the property in Louisiana (instead of enforcing the conflicting foreign-law rights of the creditor), on the theory that the creditor consented to or intended the application of Louisiana law to dealings with the movable brought to Louisiana with his consent or to his knowledge. See, e. g.: Fisher v. Bullington, 223 La. 368, 65 So.2d 880 and Finance Security Co. v. Mexic, La.App.Orleans, 188 So. 657 (conditional sales—also Restatement of Conflict of Laws, Sections 275 and 276); G. F. C. Corp. v. Rollins, 221 La. 166, 59 So.2d 108 and General Motors Acceptance Corp. v. Nuss, 195 La. 209, 196 So. 323 (chattel mortgages—also Restatement, Sections 268, 269, 271).

The cited jurisprudence relates only to the effect of the extra-state transaction insofar as affecting the rights of innocent third parties dealing with the property after it has been brought into Louisiana.

Nevertheless, perhaps the rationale of these cases can be said to apply insofar as also determining under which state's law the rights of the parties to the contract themselves should be determined. Under the rationale of such jurisprudence, the present might then be regarded as a situation where the conditional sale of the automobile, as well as the right to repossess it and to obtain a deficiency judgment, all are regarded as regulated by the law of the place where the contract was intended to have effect—namely, Louisiana, where the purchased automobile was intended to be brought and thereafter to be maintained by the purchaser or to be repossessed by the seller in the event of default, and in which place the vehicle was actually repossessed.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Farmers-Merchants Bank & Trust Co. v. Southern Structures, LLC
134 So. 3d 142 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2014)
In Re Combustion, Inc.
960 F. Supp. 1056 (W.D. Louisiana, 1997)
Interfirst Bank Clifton v. Julian E. Fernandez
853 F.2d 292 (First Circuit, 1988)
Business Air Center, Inc. v. Puritan Insurance
593 F. Supp. 1048 (W.D. Louisiana, 1984)
Gulf National Bank at Lake Charles v. Ryan
432 So. 2d 1122 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1983)
Domingues Motors, Inc. v. Lalonde
417 So. 2d 900 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1982)
Justice v. Caballero
393 So. 2d 866 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1981)
Chischilly v. General Motors Acceptance Corp.
629 P.2d 340 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1980)
Tarver v. Anderson
363 So. 2d 941 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1978)
Ford Motor Credit Company v. Soileau
323 So. 2d 221 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1975)
Exchange National Bank of Chicago v. Spalitta
321 So. 2d 338 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1975)
Figuero v. Figuero
303 So. 2d 801 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1974)
Jim v. CIT Financial Services Corporation
527 P.2d 1222 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1974)
Exchange National Bank of Chicago v. Spalitta
295 So. 2d 18 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1974)
Bolin Farms v. American Cotton Shippers Association
370 F. Supp. 1353 (W.D. Louisiana, 1974)
Davis v. Humble Oil & Refining Company
283 So. 2d 783 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1973)
Bowl-Opp, Inc. v. Larson
334 F. Supp. 222 (E.D. Louisiana, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
151 So. 2d 705, 1963 La. App. LEXIS 1496, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/universal-cit-credit-corporation-v-hulett-lactapp-1963.