Procedural Posture

[Saim Khan]

Defendant furniture store appealed an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County (California), which entered judgment in favor of plaintiff buyer and defendant landlord in the buyer's action to foreclose a chattel mortgage. The trial court also entered judgment in favor of defendant landlord on his cross-claim against defendant tenants.

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Overview

The tenants bought furniture from the store on conditional sale, secured by a chattel mortgage. The tenant then gave a second mortgage on the furniture to his landlord to secure the rent. The tenants defaulted on the rent, and even though they were not in default on the furniture, they returned it to the store. The next week, the buyer paid the store for the furniture and demanded possession. The furniture store refused and while the buyer's action was pending, the store sold the furniture. On appeal, the store contended that the buyer's tender did not discharge the title of the store because the buyer did not deposit the payment in a bank in the name of the store, under Cal. Civ. Code § 1500. The court disagreed and affirmed. The buyer's tender of the money due on the furniture had the same effect as if the tenants, as the conditional buyers, had paid it. Accordingly, title to the property had vested in the tenants and the furniture store's subsequent resale was a conversion. The court also affirmed the damages awarded to the buyer. Because of the conversion after the tenants acquired title, the measure of damages was the value of the furniture under Cal. Civ. Code § 3336.

Outcome

The court affirmed the trial court's judgment and the award of damages in favor of the buyer.