Yellow Manufacturing Acceptance Corp. v. Handler

83 N.W.2d 103, 249 Minn. 539, 1957 Minn. LEXIS 599
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedMay 17, 1957
Docket37,028
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 83 N.W.2d 103 (Yellow Manufacturing Acceptance Corp. v. Handler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yellow Manufacturing Acceptance Corp. v. Handler, 83 N.W.2d 103, 249 Minn. 539, 1957 Minn. LEXIS 599 (Mich. 1957).

Opinion

Nelson, Justice.

The General Truck and Equipment Company of St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 12, 1952, sold and delivered to defendant Carl Handler one 1952 GMC truck and van for $7,651.81 upon terms and conditions set forth in a conditional sales contract. Defendant C. A. Wolk executed a written guaranty by which he guaranteed payment of all sums to be paid by Handler under the contract. The conditional sales contract and the guaranty was thereafter, for value, assigned to plaintiff, Yellow Manufacturing Acceptance Corporation, *541 and these instruments and the assignment were duly recorded in the office of the city clerk of Minneapolis on September 18,1952.

Handler defaulted in his payments on June 12, 1953. Before reclaiming the property, plaintiff gave notice to Wolk of the default, demanding payment of sums required under the terms of the contract and his guaranty. Wolk refused to comply with the demand.

Neither the plaintiff’s pleadings nor its evidence is of material aid in disclosing the exact date or the manner in which the truck and van was reclaimed. However, even without anything further, the inference would be that repossession occurred shortly after Handler defaulted. The record made on motions for summary judgment in the court below furnishes additional information upon which this court is entitled to place some reliance. Before this case went to trial, both plaintiff and defendant Wolk moved for summary judgment. An affidavit of Carl Handler was filed by Wolk as a supporting as well as an opposing document pursuant to Buie 56, Buies of Civil Procedure, which provides that either claimant or defending party may move for summary judgment with or without supporting affidavits. No affidavits were filed in opposition to the Handler affidavit, nor was any motion made to strike it, and it became a part of the record for the trial court’s consideration in ruling on the motions. Attached to the order denying both of the motions is a memorandum which states that the court believed that there was a real issue of fact between the parties hinging upon a conversation or conversations, if any, which took place and other facts and circumstances at the time of the surrender of the chattel in question. It is evident from the memorandum that the trial court gave consideration to Handler’s affidavit in reaching his determination to deny the motions and hear the controversy on the merits.

Handler states in his affidavit that repossession occurred on the afternoon of July 23, 1953; that one Bliss appeared in front of his business establishment, introducing himself as plaintiff’s representative and demanding payment of $255.03, on the contract; that Handler stated that he did not have it and could not give it to him; that Bliss replied that he would have to take the truck, which was *542 parked across the street; that Handler told him to go ahead and take it; that Bliss then by telephone directed someone to pick up the truck, which was done within 15 or 20 minutes. Handler further states in the affidavit that no paper of any kind was handed to him or sent to him when the truck was taken, nor mention made of any kind of lien or words to that effect.

The district court file was introduced at the trial below but plaintiff voiced objection to the Handler affidavit being admitted in evidence, and it appears from the record that the parties stipulated that it was not to be considered as received in evidence with the other contents of the district court file. This affidavit, however, became a part of the record upon which the trial court denied the motions for summary judgment. At no time has there been an application to reopen the proceedings had on the motions for summary judgment, and the affidavit simply remains a part of the record for what it is worth. If the date and the circumstances of repossession were other than as therein stated, the plaintiff was free to state what he knew to be the correct date at the trial below.

We are not bound by stipulations concerning the legal effect of that which, from the record made, appears to stand as admitted facts. The court cannot be controlled by agreement of counsel on a subsidiary question of law. Questions of legal effect must be decided by the court uninfluenced by stipulations of the parties or counsel. Tynan v. KSTP, Inc. 247 Minn. 168, 77 N. W. (2d) 200.

It is undisputed that plaintiff had the van and truck sold at public auction February 23, 1954. The sale was conducted by the sheriff of Ramsey County, and they were sold to the highest bidder for $2,000. The record does not disclose that any notice of the sale, written or otherwise, was served upon Handler or Wolk. Plaintiff claimed a deduction due to necessary expenses in seizure, care, and sale of the property in the sum of $159.50, and this sum was not controverted. As a result $1,840.50 was applied against the unpaid balance on the contract leaving a deficiency of $3,770.16, which plaintiff sued to recover together with reasonable attorney’s fees and expenses. Only Wolk answered in these proceedings. There was no appear *543 anee by Handler, who at the time of trial was living in California. Wolk appeared only by his attorney.

Plaintiff did not avail itself of the remedy of foreclosure in a court proceeding as it might have done under its reservation of title in the conditional sales contract, by virtue of his common-law seller’s lien coupled with the right to take a deficiency judgment should the property involved sell for less than the amount due. See, National Cash Register Co. v. Ness, 204 Minn. 148, 282 N. W. 827.

Plaintiff’s case consisted of concessions by defendant Wolk in reply to requested admissions and documentary evidence consisting of the conditional sales contract; the guaranty; the assignment of both to plaintiff; and the district court file, subject to the stipulation as to the Handler affidavit. At the close of plaintiff’s case, Wolk moved for a dismissal of the action on the merits on the ground that there had been a repossession of the personal property involved; that there was no showing that it had been repossessed for the purpose of foreclosing the seller’s lien; that the mere taking without notice of its purpose other than to repossess canceled the contract and likewise the guaranty; and that the sale of the truck and van with the attendant procedure was immaterial and wholly without effect in protecting a seller’s lien under the terms of the conditional sales contract. The trial court denied the motion and after defendant rested ordered judgment for plaintiff against Wolk, who appeals from the judgment.

The legal issues involved on this appeal are: (1) Does the bare act of repossession by the plaintiff, without notice of its intention regarding the purpose of the repossession, constitute a choice or election of remedies divesting plaintiff of the right to commence an action for the deficiency; (2) does the termination of the conditional sales contract and the release of the vendee by the acts of the plaintiff in effecting the repossession also release the defendant Wolk from liability on his contract of guaranty.

A review of the Minnesota law on the subject of conditional sales contracts indicates that from the earliest cases up to the time of the decision in Midland Loan Finance Co. v. Osterberg, 201 Minn.

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Bluebook (online)
83 N.W.2d 103, 249 Minn. 539, 1957 Minn. LEXIS 599, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yellow-manufacturing-acceptance-corp-v-handler-minn-1957.