Court Opinion

ID: 9644505
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:57:56.781039+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:14.346415
License: Public Domain

REILLY, Chief Judge, Retired,
with whom NEBEKER and HARRIS, Associate Judges, join, concurring in part and dissenting in part:
For the reasons stated in our original decision in this case, 368 A.2d 1151,1154-55, I concur with the holding of the majority that the finance charge challenged by appellants was not a usurious transaction, but was permissible under the Motor Vehicle Financing Act, D.C.Code 1973, § 40-902. When the division of the court heard this case, appellants’ objections to the trial court’s judgment were focused primarily upon this issue and an asserted misconstruction of the Consumer Credit Protection Act of 1971 — a question which the en banc court found it unnecessary to reach in view of its interpretation of § 504(3) of the Uniform Commercial Code (D.C.Code 1973, § 28:9— 504(3)).
In short, the en banc court has overruled the division which decided this case in the first instance by holding that because the creditor failed to conform to the letter of this subsection by neglecting to send a second notice of resale to the debtor, the trial court was powerless to grant a deficiency judgment even though it remedied whatever loss the delinquent debtor might have sustained from lack of notice by crediting him with the fair value of the security (i. e., the repossessed car) over and above the proceeds of the resale. In our original opinion, we viewed this offset against the balance of the claimed deficiency as a sufficient remedy for the grievance suffered by the creditor’s non-observance of all the procedural requirements of Section 504(3).
*353Despite the extensive research of the authorities which shaped the result reached by the majority, I am not convinced that it was the intent of Super.Ct.Civ.R. 55-II(b) to deprive the trial courts here of any authority whatsoever to entertain actions for deficiency judgments if there is some showing of a minor departure from all the procedural steps enumerated in Section 504, supra, and the local regulations,1 which, on their face, merely paraphrase the applicable statutory provisions. The underlying purpose of these provisions is to prevent a debtor’s obligations from being unfairly increased by crediting him only with the proceeds of a collusive resale instead of the reasonable commercial value of the repossessed commodity. Thus, as the majority opinion (with meticulous fairness) recognizes, the courts of many jurisdictions have construed these provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code as not barring a deficiency judgment, despite a lack of notice of resale, if the debtor’s account is ultimately credited with the fair value of the forfeited security.2
The opinion also cites with approval an impressive list of decisions by other courts holding to the contrary.3 With all deference to the majority, I do not regard the rationale of those decisions as so persuasive that this court should now reverse the judgment of the trial court. There is nothing in the trial record which even remotely indicates that the appellants here might have taken steps to redeem the car had they received notice of the second resale, for it is apparent that once the car had been repossessed they made no efforts to negotiate with their creditors any terms for reclaiming it.
While the majority disclaims reading any substantive content into Super.Ct.Civ.R. 55 — 11(b), its opinion does attach what seems to me undue relevance to it in arriving at its conclusion with respect to the intent of the applicable statute.
It is not within the province of the Superior Court to issue rules which are other than procedural. Congress has ordained that such court shall conduct its business according to the federal rules of civil and criminal procedure and may modify such rules only with the approval of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.4 This particular rule is not a part of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. It was submitted to this court as one of many items in a large package of revisions of the rules of the Court of General Sessions pursuant to the mandate of the District of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act of 1970, Pub.L.91-358, 84 Stat. 487. In granting approval of these revisions, our court made it clear that to the extent such rules modified the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, no rights conferred by substantive law were affected.5 Thus it is apparent that Rule 55-II(b) when read in light of this reservation did not preclude the trial court here — in the absence of any controlling decision in this jurisdiction — from considering plaintiff’s rights to a deficiency judgment under the relevant provisions of the Code.
In the earlier decision, our affirmance of the denial of the belated motion to file a counterclaim was academic in view of our treatment of the numerous defenses presented after the amended answer. In light of the reversal of this judgment, the en banc court does have to deal with this issue. I do not agree, however, that previous decisions of this court compel us to reverse the ruling of the motions judge and remand the case for reinstatement and trial of the counterclaim.
*354While the filing of a counterclaim with the answer, if it arises out of the same transaction that is the subject of the opposing party’s claim, is indeed required under Super.Ct.Civ.R. 13(a), such filing is compulsory only in the sense that failure to do so bars the potential counterclaimant from thereafter commencing a separate action for recovery. Wholly unlike the case of Delaney v. Basiliko, D.C.Mun.App., 208 A.2d 630 (1965),6 upon which the opinion relies, an answer was filed. It did not advert to any counterclaim. Thus, defendants failed to preserve such right. It is true that such oversight is not necessarily fatal, for a defendant may later set up the counterclaim as an amendment with leave of the court under subsection (f) of Rule 13, supra. But the text of this subsection, in contradistinction to the compulsory language of subsection (a), makes it clear that such leave is entirely within the discretion of the court passing upon the request. In Pyramid Nat. Van Lines v. Goetze, D.C.Mun.App., 66 A.2d 693, 695 (1949), where leave to reinstate a previously withdrawn counterclaim was granted at a new trial, this court in upholding such ruling did so on the ground that “the trial court is allowed wide discretion in determining such matters.” While the majority opinion here cites some other language from Pyramid in support of its directive, it is plain that the reversal of the trial court’s ruling impinges upon rather than vindicates the discretion committed to trial judges by the rule.

. 5AA DCRR §§ 5.2 and 5.3.

. See note 12, supra.

. See note 11, supra.

. D.C.Code 1973, § 11-946.

. Such approval was expressed in an order dated Feb. 1, 1971, as follows:
ORDERED that, to the extent these rules modify the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, they are hereby approved. This approval does not preclude assertion of any rights otherwise conferred by law which may be denied through the application of any of these rules or confer any authority not otherwise provided by law. (Emphasis added.)

. There, the defendant did not file an answer within the time prescribed, but later obtained from the trial court leave to file a late answer. The only issue on appeal was whether on the basis of this ruling he was not also entitled to file a counterclaim. Citing the mandatory text of Super.Ct.Civ.R. 13(a), our court held that he was.