West Milton State Bank v. Foust

2 Pa. D. & C.3d 294, 1976 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 52
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Northumberland County
DecidedDecember 14, 1976
Docketno. 740
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2 Pa. D. & C.3d 294 (West Milton State Bank v. Foust) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Northumberland County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
West Milton State Bank v. Foust, 2 Pa. D. & C.3d 294, 1976 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 52 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1976).

Opinion

RANCK, J.,

HISTORY OF THE DISPUTE

It appears that defendants, like so many others, were victims of the “Agnes” deluge of 1972. Aid was secured in the form of a 12 foot by 54 foot 1972 Commodore mobile home supplied by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Defendants resided in this structure for about one year when, pursuant to HUD regulations, they were required to either return physical possession of the mobile home to HUD, or purchase same. Electing the latter course, defendants, on May 14, 1973, secured a loan from West Milton State Bank, plaintiff herein, to effectuate their desires. Defendants borrowed $3,100, and in conjunction therewith purchased $148.49 of various types of credit insurance. To this loan was assessed a total finance charge of $649.11, raising total payment owing to $3,897.60. The annual percentage rate was 9.24 percent. This debt was to be discharged in 48 equal installments. The security agreement listed defendants’ soon-to-be-acquired mobile home as collateral.

Two days after signing the security agreement with plaintiff, defendants entered into a contract [296]*296with the United States for purchase of the mobile home. Plaintiff alleges in his brief, and we can nowhere find denials or assertions to the contrary, that all negotiations concerning this sales contract were carried on exclusively between defendants and the agent for the Federal government. An examination of the sales contract, plaintiff ’s exhibit number one, reveals that it is not an installment sales contract. Rather, defendants, in consideration for the mobile home, were required to pay the full purchase price, in this case $2,705, sans sales tax. This sales contract was neither discounted nor in any other way assigned to plaintiff bank. Thus, this sales contract between defendants and the United States was both separate and distinct from the prior and independent transaction between plaintiff and defendants which appears, in both form and substance, to have been a purchase money direct loan repayable in installments and secured by the mobile home.

The parties, at trial, stipulated that defendants had made payments pursuant to the loan agreement until March 1975, and that, after that time, defendants were in default. Plaintiff soon thereafter initiated an action in replevin to gain possession of the collateral under the terms of the security agreement. Defendants filed an answer with new matter and plaintiff, in turn, lodged an answer to the new matter. A trial without a jury was held at which time the parties stipulated to the following issues:

(1) Does the Motor Vehicle Sales Finance Act apply to the instant case?

(2) If so, were its provisions violated?

(3) If violated, what is the effect of such violation?

[297]*297DISCUSSION

Defendants’ new matter alleges that the loan transaction in question is subject to and in violation of the Motor Vehicle Sales Finance Act of June 28, 1947, P.L. 1110, sec. 1, as amended, 69 P.S. § 601 et seq. The answer to this question involves drawing fine distinctions in statutory interpretation which at least one jurist has suggested is the most difficult job for a court to perform. Counsel are correct in stating that there are no cases directly on all fours, but there are at least two, not cited in either brief, which are helpful. Before we ponder the cases, a close inspection of the statute will be made.

Section 602(a) of the act states, in part:

“Such practices [those cited as improper] prevail not only among some sellers, but also among some sales finance companies and some banks, which acquire contracts arising out of installment sales of motor vehicles, and which frequently influence the credit policies of sellers.” (Emphasis supplied).

This language clearly brings banks and other lenders within reach of the act. But the operative words are: “which acquire contracts.” This phrase implies that the act operates only against those lenders who are intimately involved in the sales transaction themselves or are successors in interest. Of course, the most obvious situation is where the seller assigns the sales contract to the financing bank. The word “acquire” is not defined in the act, but its common meaning in the law of contracts is “to come to have” or “to secure” aright or contract. See Black’s Law Dictionary 41 (4th Ed., 1968). Itis our belief that the authors of the act used the term, “which acquire contracts,” in a re[298]*298strictive sense, limiting the act’s machinery to those situations where the lender is either a party to, or comes into possession of, the sales contract. The court in Beacon Loan Corporation v. Kemmerer, 51 Luz. 199 (1961), supports this interpretation: “That Act [Motor Vehicle Sales Finance Act] deals with sales of automobiles on an installment plan and the rights between seller and purchaser and any assignee of the seller.” (Emphasis supplied.)

It is again to be noted that there was no assignment, discounting or other transfer to plaintiff of the sales contract between defendants and the Federal government.

This position is fortified by the final summation of purpose in section 602 of the act. It is stated:

“Therefore, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to-. . . bring under the supervision of the Commonwealth all persons engaged in the business of extending consumer credit in conjunction with the installment sale of motor vehicles ...” (Emphasis supplied.)

The term “in conjunction with” means “in association with” (Black’s Law Dictionary 893 (4th Ed., 1968)), or having the same occurrence in time and space. Again, we believe that this is a term of restraint circumscribing the operation of the act to those lenders who are involved in sales transactions or acquire the fruits therefrom in the form of an assignment.

Defendants direct our attention to the definition of “installment sales contract” found in section 603, 69 P.S. § 603(10). The act is said to apply to all installment sales contracts for the sale of motor vehicles: 69 P.S. § 602. Installment sales contract [299]*299is defined, in material part, as “any contract for the retail sale of a motor vehicle . . . whether or not the seller has retained a security interest in such motor vehicle or has taken collateral security for the buyer’s obligation, and shall include any loan, any mortgage, any conditional sale contract, [and] any purchase-money chattel mortgage . .

Plaintiff focuses on the words, “whether or not the seller has retained a security interest” and concludes that this definition only embraces transactions between buyers and sellers and not the situation where a bank makes a direct loan. It is true that the above definition uses some rather broad language, but we agree with plaintiff’s conclusion, if not his reasoning, that a direct loan, independent from the sales transaction, is not governed by the act.

With this review of the act, we turn to the cases. Most courts have construed the act in the relatively simplistic setting of credit improprieties on the part of sellers. On this plane, it is rather easy to blithely state that the scope of the act is the protection of “innocent, unwary automobile purchasers against the existing dishonest and unscrupulous practices of some motor vehicle salesmen.” Newman v. Keys, 12 D. & C. 2d 705 (1957).

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Bluebook (online)
2 Pa. D. & C.3d 294, 1976 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 52, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-milton-state-bank-v-foust-pactcomplnorthu-1976.