Lockwood v. Smigel

Opinion

FILES, P. J.

This appeal from a municipal court judgment has been transferred here upon certification by the appellate department of the superior court under rule 63, California Rules of Court, to settle a new and important question of law. The question presented is whether under Commercial Code section 2201, subdivision (3) (c), an oral contract for the sale of an automobile is made enforceable by reason of a part payment.

[802]

The action was brought by the buyer against the seller, demanding damages for breach of the oral contract. The complaint alleges that defendant, the owner of a 1967 “Silver Shadow” Rolls Royce, orally offered, to sell the vehicle to plaintiff for $11,400, of which $100 was to be paid upon acceptance of the offer and the balance on delivery; that plaintiff accepted the offer and paid defendant $100; that defendant thereafter failed to deliver the vehicle, xand notified plaintiff he had sold it to someone else. A demurrer to the complaint was sustained without leave to amend

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and judgment entered for defendant, from which this appeal was taken.

The oral contract, as pleaded, would have been enforceable under the law which existed prior to the adoption of the Commercial Code, effective January 1, 1965. (See

Warfield

v.

Basso

(1923) 62 Cal.App. 47, 51 [216 P. 48].) Under former Civil Code section 1624a, as under the English statute of frauds, an oral contract for the sale of goods was enforceable if the buyer gave part payment.

Civil Code section 1624a has been superseded in California by Commercial Code section 2201

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which provides: “(1) Except as otherwise provided in this section a contract for the sale of goods for the price of $500 or more is not enforceable by way of action or defense unless there is some writing sufficient to indicate that a contract for sale has been made between the parties and signed by the party against whom enforcement is sought or by his authorized agent or broker. A writing is not insufficient because it omits or incorrectly states a term agreed upon but the contract is not enforceable under this paragraph beyond the quantity of goods shown in such writing.