Opinion ID: 2381939
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: liability of state farm

Text: The doctrine of unjust enrichment is an equitable one, Wolf v. Wolf, 356 Pa.Super. 365, 514 A.2d 901 (1986), which permits recovery where the claimant can show that a benefit was wrongly secured or passively received, and that it would be unconscionable for the party receiving the benefit to retain it without payment. Meehan v. Cheltenham Township, 410 Pa. 446, 189 A.2d 593 (1963); Roman Mosaic and Tile Co., Inc. v. Vollrath, 226 Pa.Super. 215, 218, 313 A.2d 305, 307 (1973). However, the most significant requirement for recovery is that the enrichment is unjust, Myers-Macomber Engineers v. M.L.W. Construction Corp. and HNC Mortgage and Realty Investors, 271 Pa.Super. 484, 414 A.2d 357 (1979). Therefore, we must focus not on the intention of the parties but on the extent to which the enrichment is unjust. Gee v. Eberle, 279 Pa.Super. 101, 420 A.2d 1050 (1980). In this case, there is no dispute that State Farm passively enjoyed the benefit of Bowe's storage of the car. However, the receipt of this benefit, under the unique facts of this case, was not unjust, so as to give rise in equity to an obligation by State Farm to pay for the storage. Bowe had no statutory or legal obligation to notify State Farm that he was storing the vehicle. However, Bowe himself testified that it was his customary practice to notify the owners of towed vehicles within 30 to 90 days of the date the vehicle was towed that the vehicle had been towed. Furthermore, Bowe testified that he was able to ascertain that State Farm was the owner of the particular vehicle in question simply by making one telephone call to the local police. Under these circumstances, where the garageman who is storing the towed vehicle has a customary practice of notifying owners of the vehicles he is storing, where he can ascertain the identity of the owner simply by placing one, local telephone call, and where the owner of the car is entirely unaware that the car is still in existence, let alone in storage, we hold that the owner of the vehicle has no duty to the garageman for a storage fee until the owner receives notice, from whatever source, that the vehicle is being stored. Until the owner is notified that the garageman is storing his vehicle, any enrichment to the owner is not unjust enrichment. On the contrary, it is unjust to permit the garageman who can easily ascertain the identity of a vehicle's owner, and whose custom it is to do so, to receive a storage fee for a period which he alone establishes simply by failing to notify the owner that he is in possession of the vehicle. We note that by our holding today we are not precluding all recovery to Bowe for his storage services. We are simply precluding recovery to him from the owner who had no notice of the storage. Bowe towed and stored the vehicle in this case pursuant to an agreement which he had with the Plymouth Township Police. The terms of that contractual arrangement are not relevant to the instant replevin action brought by State Farm to recover its property, and there is no claim presently before us by Bowe against the Plymouth Township Police pursuant to their contractual arrangement. Therefore, we do not resolve the question of whether Bowe may recover the storage fee, for the period prior to his notification to State Farm, from some other source. There is conflicting testimony in this case as to when Bowe notified State Farm that he was storing the vehicle. State Farm contends that it was not notified until May or June, 1983. Bowe too testified at one point that he did not notify State Farm until May, 1983. However, at a different point in his testimony, Bowe stated that he notified State Farm within 90 days of when he towed the vehicle. The trial court did not resolve this factual dispute because it found it unnecessary to do so based on its resolution of the case. Because we hold that State Farm is liable to Bowe for a storage fee from the date when State Farm was notified that Bowe was storing the vehicle, and because we cannot determine that date from this record, we will remand for the trial court to make this factual determination.
State Farm also contends that it should not be liable for the storage charges for the period between its demand on Bowe for return of the vehicle, in July, 1983, and its actual recovery of the vehicle pursuant to the writ of seizure. State Farm supports its argument by claiming that Bowe's continued possession of the car was illegal. Bowe contends that he was entitled to retain it because he had a common law garageman's lien for the towing and storage charges. It is the well-settled rule in this Commonwealth that possessory liens are consensual in nature and must arise from an agreement, either express or implied, between the owner of goods and the bailee who provides some service with regard to the goods. Associates Financial Services Co. v. O'Dell, 262 Pa.Super. 584, 396 A.2d 1324 (1979). The consensual nature of the transaction which gives rise to a possessory lien is an indispensable element of the common law possessory lien as recognized in this Commonwealth.. . . A garagekeeper's possessory lien is no different. His common law lien will arise where he has repaired, stored, or otherwise provided service to an automobile at the request of the owner. . . . However, the lien will not attach as against one who has not authorized, expressly or impliedly, the repairs or services rendered. Id., 262 Pa.Superior Ct. at 588-589, 396 A.2d at 1326 (citations omitted). In this case, Bowe had a legitimate garageman's lien against State Farm's vehicle only after State Farm learned that the vehicle was being stored. At that time, State Farm offered to pay a reasonable storage fee and a fee for the towing. It properly refused to pay a storage fee for the entire period in which the vehicle had been stored. Because State Farm was willing to pay a reasonable storage fee, which is all that State Farm was obligated to pay, Bowe had no right to assert a garageman's lien for any further sum and retain possession of the vehicle. State Farm therefore is not liable for any storage fee imposed for a period beyond the time when State Farm offered to pay a reasonable storage fee.