Deevy v. Lewis

SPENCE, J. In this action for the alleged conversion of certain farming equipment, plaintiff recovered judgment for $679.85 as the value of plaintiff’s alleged interest in said equipment, $500 for loss of use thereof and $1,000 as exemplary damages. Upon motion for a new trial, plaintiff consented to a reduction of the exemplary damages to $250 and the motion was denied. Defendants appeal from the judgment. The Deevy family, consisting of plaintiff together with his parents and his sister, lived upon a farm in Marin County. These parties, either jointly or individually or both, carried on activities in farming and cattle raising. Nellie Deevy, the mother of plaintiff, had an overdue account with defendants for cattle feed. In April, 1940, defendants commenced an action against Nellie Deévy and subsequently recovered judgment therein. A writ of attachment and a writ of execution had been issued in said action and levies had been made upon the farming equipment which is the subject of this action.

Prior to the commencement of said action against Nellie Deevy, plaintiff and said Nellie Deevy had entered into a conditional sales contract for the purchase of said farming equipment from The Grandi Company. Said company had discounted said contract by assignment to a bank. After numerous defaults by the purchasers under the terms of said contract, the bank reassigned said contract to The Grandi Company in June, 1940. Shortly thereafter, under instructions from plaintiff herein, The Grandi Company filed a third party claim in the action brought by defendants against Nellie Deevy. In said third party claim, The Grandi Company re[26]cited the facts concerning the conditional sales contract including the following: . which said contract has been breached by the purchasers above named for failure to pay the sums due upon said contract in accordance with the terms thereof and that the undersigned has elected to declare a breach of said contract and to retake possession of the property transferred thereunder. ...” It is conceded that the purchasers were in default at the time said third party claim was filed and that no further payments were thereafter made. At about the time of the filing of the third party claim by The Grandi Company, plaintiff herein also filed a third party claim in said action. In order to protect their interests, defendants herein purchased from The Grandi Company on June 20, 1940, the conditional sales contract paying therefor the sum of $1,020.15 which was the amount of the entire balance due thereon.

The hearing on said third party claim was held on August 2, 1940. At that hearing, plaintiff herein claimed that Nellie Deevy signed the conditional sales contract merely as an accommodation to him and that she had no interest in the farming equipment on which the levy had been made. The trial court determined that the legal title to said equipment was in defendants herein and that the equitable title was in plaintiff herein. In other words, it was determined that Nellie Deevy had no interest in said equipment and that the levy upon said equipment, made in said action against her, had failed. Defendants herein immediately advised plaintiff that repossession of the equipment would take place immediately.