Court Opinion

ID: 9736784
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:06:32.569474+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:23:54.632896
License: Public Domain

Brown, C. J.
(concurring). I concur in the conclusion that there was error. I am in full agreement with what is stated in the preceding opinion as to the purpose of the statute and as to the court’s duty to enforce strict compliance with it for the protection of bona fide purchasers and creditors. The vendor’s gross carelessness and disregard for the requirements of the statute in this case are manifest, not only from its failure to state in the instrument the dates when the monthly payments were to be made but also in the inadequacy of the acknowledgment.
Among other of the applicable provisions of § 6692 is one that all conditional sales contracts “shall be acknowledged before some competent authority.” When a corporation is the vendor in such a contract, it “is essential that it appear from the certificate, when read in connection with the instrument acknowledged, that the acknowledgment is made on behalf of the corporation and therefore is its acknowledgment, and not merely that of the individual who executed the instrument.” Commercial Credit Corporation v. Carlson, 114 Conn. 514, 518, 159 A. 352. In other words, under our statute a certificate is insufficient unless it (1) identifies the subscriber, (2) specifies the writing subscribed, (3) states the capacity in which he executed it, and (4) certifies his acknowledgment thereof. At the end of this contract, just below what appears to be the buyer’s signature, this appears: “Seller *547Signs Windham Motor Sales, Inc., B. Hochberg, Pres. Columbia Ave., Willimantic, Conn.” The certificate of acknowledgment states: “Personally appeared Windham Motor Sales, Inc. (Seller) and Emile W. Jacques (Purchaser) signers and sealers of the foregoing instrument and acknowledge the same ... to be their free act and deed (and the free act and deed of corporation when either party is corporation), before me.
When the purported signature of the vendor, and the certificate, are read together, if it is assumed that the first three of the above requisites essential to a valid certificate were satisfied, it is clear that the fourth was not. Even though the vendor s signature is construed to be that of the corporation, by Hochberg as its president, there is nothing to show that he, rather than some other person without even ostensible authority to act on its behalf, acknowledged the instrument. Since a corporation can act only through its agents, the certification that Windham Motor Sales, Inc., “personally appeared,” adds nothing and means nothing. It follows that the certificate is insufficient and judgment must be directed for the defendant.