Wallace Imports, Inc. v. Howe

673 P.2d 961, 138 Ariz. 217, 1983 Ariz. App. LEXIS 594
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedSeptember 27, 1983
Docket1 CA-CIV 4869
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 673 P.2d 961 (Wallace Imports, Inc. v. Howe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wallace Imports, Inc. v. Howe, 673 P.2d 961, 138 Ariz. 217, 1983 Ariz. App. LEXIS 594 (Ark. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

OPINION

EUBANK, Judge.

This is an appeal from the trial court’s judgment resulting from a judicial review of an administrative decision pursuant to A.R.S. § 12-901 et seq. The trial court, in effect, set aside the administrative decision of the motor vehicle division, Department of Transportation (Division), which was in favor of Rosalie LaPorte Howe (Mrs. Howe), appellant, and instead entered judgment in favor of Wallace Imports (Wallace), appellee. Mrs. Howe has appealed pursuant to A.R.S. § 12-913.

Although a number of issues are raised on appeal, the first two, involving the scope of review and abuse of discretion by the trial court, are dispositive of this appeal. We are of the opinion that the trial judge ignored the scope of administrative review in this matter and thereby erred as a matter of law. Further, since the record supports the administrative decision, the trial court’s judgment must be reversed and the administrative decision reinstated.

[219]*219The facts found by the Division hearing officer are as follows. Mrs. Howe and James Howe purchased a Toyota automobile from Fann Toyota on March 22, 1978. (They were married the next day). Mrs. Howe paid for the automobile with her sole and separate property. On May 12, 1978, original title number D131748 for the Toyota was issued to Rosalie Howe or James Howe, as joint tenants with the right of survivorship, and each empowered and authorized the other to act “as their Attorney in-fact to assign the certificate of title by his or her signature alone, and thereby transfer, sell, mortgage, or otherwise encumber the vehicle in the same manner as though all joint owners had acted and signed.” As a result of marital problems James Howe left home on May 16, 1978, taking with him clothing, personal papers, and other personal effects of Mrs. Howe and her children. (At the time of the administrative hearing an annulment of the marriage was pending and James Howe had secreted himself to avoid service of process). On May 26,1978, Mrs. Howe filed an application with the Division for a duplicate title indicating that the original title was lost. The duplicate title, number D181093, was issued on May 30, 1978. On June 5, 1978, Mrs. Howe signed an application for title under her maiden name of Rosalie LaPorte. Title number D199472 was issued to her in that name on June 6, 1978. Sometime in the late evening of June 29 or early morning hours of June 30, 1978, James Howe, without Mrs. Howe’s personal consent or knowledge, took the Toyota from the driveway of Mrs. Howe’s home. On the morning of June 30, James Howe took the vehicle to Wallace, presented the original certificate of title, and sold the car to Wallace for $5,500. He immediately cashed the check and “departed for points unknown.” No attempt was made by Wallace to ascertain if the title presented by James Howe to Wallace was still valid.

The record of the hearing also shows that Mrs. Howe was notified on June 30 that her Toyota was at Wallace’s dealership, that she called the police and personally went to the dealer and demanded that Wallace return her vehicle, that Wallace refused her demand, and that a request was made to the Division to determine the title issue. The hearing was set by the Division under the authority of A.R.S. § 28-304(D), which grants to the Division the authority to issue and cancel certificates of title. The express purpose of the hearing, had on July 21, 1978, was “to determine if cause exists to cancel Title No. D199472,” the title issued to Mrs. Howe as Rosalie LaPorte on June 6, 1978.

Wallace’s main contention raised in its memorandum filed with the hearing officer and at the hearing was that Mrs. Howe’s sworn statement to the Division that she had “lost” the original certificate of title was untrue.1 Mrs. Howe was closely cross-examined on this issue at the hearing. The hearing officer found that “the evidence presented which purported to show that the original Title was not lost at the time the duplicate [title] application was signed was insufficient to substantiate the argument that the original Title was in fact not lost.” The clear implication of the finding is that Mrs. Howe believed the original title was lost when she signed the application for the issuance of a duplicate title. This issue involved a credibility question which was resolved by the fact finder in favor of Mrs. Howe.

On July 25, 1978, the hearing officer ruled that title number D199472 issued to Rosalie LaPorte on June 6, 1978, was valid and the original title, number D131748, issued on May 12, 1978, with which James Howe attempted to transfer title to Wallace, was null and void.

Wallace appealed the decision to the Superior Court under the Judicial Review of Administrative Decisions Act (A.R.S. § 12-901 et seq.,) by filing its complaint requesting a trial de novo and requesting that the [220]*220entire record of the Motor Vehicle Division’s hearing be transmitted to the court pursuant to A.R.S. § 12-909(B). The record was transmitted and filed with the court on December 14, 1978. It includes a full transcript of the July 21st hearing. The record shows that no objection was made to the filed record or transcript by any party.2 Thereafter both Mrs. Howe and the State filed their answers to Wallace’s complaint. Wallace then moved for “Judgment on the Pleadings” pursuant to Rule 12(c), Rules of Civil Procedure, 16 A.R.S. Such a motion is civil pretrial motion which neither comports with the Administrative Review Act, nor with A.R.S. § 12-910, the Scope of Review, which read in 1978 as follows:

A. An action to review a final administrative decision shall be heard and determined with convenient speed. The hearing and determination shall extend to all questions of law and fact presented by the entire record before the court. No new or additional evidence in support of or in opposition to a finding, order, determination or decision of the administrative agency shall be heard by the court, except in the event of a trial de novo or in cases where in the discretion of the court justice demands the admission of such evidence.
B. The trial shall be de novo if trial de novo is demanded in the complaint or answer of a defendant other than the agency and if no hearing was held by the agency or the proceedings before the agency were not stenographically reported so that a transcript might be made. When a trial de novo is available under the provisions of this section, it may be had with a jury upon demand of any party.

Mrs. Howe objected to Wallace’s motion as inappropriate under former A.R.S. § 12-910 and objected to Wallace’s attempt to raise a new issue of estoppel by way of its motion for judgment on the pleadings. As a part of her response, Mrs.

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Wallace Imports, Inc. v. Howe
673 P.2d 961 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
673 P.2d 961, 138 Ariz. 217, 1983 Ariz. App. LEXIS 594, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wallace-imports-inc-v-howe-arizctapp-1983.