Widmer v. Modern Ford Tractor Sales

426 S.W.2d 806, 244 Ark. 696, 1968 Ark. LEXIS 1404
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 22, 1968
Docket5-4512
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 426 S.W.2d 806 (Widmer v. Modern Ford Tractor Sales) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Widmer v. Modern Ford Tractor Sales, 426 S.W.2d 806, 244 Ark. 696, 1968 Ark. LEXIS 1404 (Ark. 1968).

Opinion

J. Fred Jones, Justice.

On January 2, 1962, the appellant, Carl Widmer, purchased from the appellees, Modern Ford Tractor Sales and its agent, W. A. “Jake” Davis, a Landmaster tiller under a conditional sales contract for a total purchase price of $1,195.14. When appellant defaulted in the final payment due on January 2, 1963, the tiller was repossessed by appellees.

On December 3, 1965, appellant filed suit in the Sebastian'County Circuit Court alleging damages in the amount of $3,250.00 because of breach of warranties in the sale of the tiller and alleging that the tiller with the attachments was worth $1,250.00 when appellees wrongfully trespassed and took the equipment from appellant. Appellant prayed judgment for compensatory and punitive damages in the total amount of $7,556.25.

The issues were joined by answer and counterclaim on a welding and repair bill allegedly owed to appellees by the appellant. After the answer and counterclaim was filed, appellant, on April 12, 1966, filed a request for admission of the truth of 27 separate statements covering all of the detailed allegations in the complaint. Each of the facts stated by appellant, which he requested appellees to admit, were all separately denied, or admitted, by the appellees on April 22, 1966, and copy was mailed to Widmer on April 23. Appellant then on July 5 filed “Interrogatories to Defendant” which in effect required that the answers to the original requests for admission be made more definite and certain. Example: “Please state the facts on which you base your denial of request for admission of fact No. 5.” On July 8, 1966, appellant filed additional requests for admissions. Example: “That the Landmaster Mark 650 Tiller literature from which the photo-copies of statement No. 1 were obtained, was obtained in the showroom of Modern Ford Tractor Sales located at 1320 Towson Ave. in Fort Smith, Arkansas.” On July 15 appellant propounded additional interrogatories to appellees.

On July 15 appellees filed a motion to quash the interrogatories filed on July 5 and the request for admission of facts filed on July 8. On July 22 appellees filed a motion to quash the additional interrogatories filed by appellant. On July 22 appellant filed a motion to stay proceedings on appellees’ motions pending appellant’s full opportunity to exercise his rights under discovery procedure. By agreement of the parties, On August 3, 1966, an order of the court was entered .requiring that all discovery procedures be completed by September 1, 1966, and setting the case for trial on September 27, 1966. On August 29, 1966, appellees’ motion to quash the interrogatories filed on July 4, was granted and the motion to quash the requests for admissions of fact filed on July 8 and the interrogatories filed on July 15, were granted in part and denied in part. Ap-pellees filed answers to the interrogatories and requests for admission on which their motion to quash was denied.

The case was not tried on September 27, 1966, as originally set, and on March 17, 1967, appellant filed additional requests for admission. Example:

“That the net fair market value of the crop losses suffered by plaintiff because of the delays in planting and subsequent reduction in yields of the crops, as set out in statement 6, after harvesting- costs, would be $900.00 for the 60 acres of Spring Barley; $1,275.00 for the 85 acres of Spring Oats; and $1,-075.00 for the 170 acres of Fall Soybeans; and that the total net fair market value after harvesting costs, of the crop losses suffered by plaintiff because of delays in planting and subsequent reduction in yields of crops resulting therefrom during •the 1962 crop year would be $3,250.00.”

On March 22 appellees filed mob on to quash the requests for admissions alleging in their motion as follows :

“That since the 3rd day of December, 1965, plaintiff has pursued this matter against the defendants and others in this court and in other courts of this county, and the plaintiff has from time to time since said date filed an untold number of interrogatories and requests for admission of facts which have been answered; that now the continued propounding of same is simply for the purpose of annoyance, expense, embarrassment and oppression, .all of which is contrary to the spirit and purposes of the discovery procedures of this state; that the same are irrelevant and argumentative and that the Request is otherwise improper in whole or in part, and for said reasons same should be quashed.
“It is further pointed out that all discovery procedures were closed in this matter as of September 1, 1966, by court order of August 3, 1966.”

This motion was granted on March 22, and on April 21, 1967, appellant filed motion for summary judgment.

A jury was waived and on May 29, 1967, this case proceeded to trial before the court sitting as a jury, at which time the court made the following comments of record:

“Upon examination of the file, I find that the request for the admissions of fact dated April 12, 1966, were all answered and denied by the defendant on April 22, 1966. So, contrary to the assertion here, they are not deemed admitted in their entirety for failure to respond.”

The court then continued, as revealed by the record, as follows:

“Now, Mr. Widmer, gentlemen, the requests for admissions of fact dated March 17th were ruled out by the Court. We said that defendant was not required to answer them, and that was done in the Court’s order of March 22, 1967. Now, that is what the defendant [sic] relies upon except that he says he has a verified complaint and that what admissions of fact he has, and I don’t know what he is referring to really — in the interrogatories I haven’t found anything of significance — -basically it seems he’s resting on his verified complaint. Here is the plaintiff representing himself and he, in effect, as I understand it, has submitted his verified complaint as an affidavit in support of his motion for summary judgment. Is that correct, Mr. Widmer?
MR. WIDMER: Yes, but, Your Honor, there are answers to two interrogatories — you know, where they set out the amount of funds they received for the sale of this tiller, that they did answer. Other words, the court order and the order to these where they state who they sold it to and the amount they received.
THE 'COURT: Right, and that would' go to the counterclaim. That’s- going as a defense to the counterclaim?
MR. WIDMER: Yes, that’s right.
THE COURT: But for the reasons I’ve said— and, Mr. Widmer, I’ve been, if anything, overly meticulous about this, to try to get you to understand why the Court feels that it cannot render your motion for summary judgment. I hope you understand the basis for my ruling.
MR. WIDMER: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: Now, we’re talking about the ifiotion for summary judgment on the complaint. Both counts I and II. So let me ask you now — do I understand you correctly that it’s your wish to simply stand on your motion?
MR. WIDMER: That is right, your Honor.

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Bluebook (online)
426 S.W.2d 806, 244 Ark. 696, 1968 Ark. LEXIS 1404, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/widmer-v-modern-ford-tractor-sales-ark-1968.