Court Opinion

ID: 9588658
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:36:41.679269+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:43:39.923848
License: Public Domain

Banke, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
There is no denying that GMAC has been unjustly enriched at the expense of the appellants in this case. Through their expenditure of money and labor, the appellants restored value to a wrecked vehicle, only to see that value appropriated by GMAC in satisfaction of a pre-existing indebtedness owed by the titular owner of the vehicle. It is, of course, true that the appellants had constructive notice of the existence of GMAC’s security interest at the time they performed the repairs, in the sense that the interest was a matter of public record. However, there has been no contention that they were acting in anything other than the utmost good faith in performing the repairs.
The appellants concede the superiority of GMAC’s security interest over their mechanic’s lien and further concede that, as a result of the superiority of the security interest, they have no cause of action against GMAC for the value of their labor. However, in reliance on *205this court’s decision in Austrian Motors v. Travelers Ins. Co., 156 Ga. App. 618 (275 SE2d 702) (1980), they contend that the law should not and does not require them to enrich GMAC with free replacement parts. I agree.
In the Austrian Motors case, an auto repair shop had performed repairs on a vehicle which, unbeknownst to it, was stolen. The vehicle was later seized by police and ultimately claimed by an insurance company, which had acquired title by assignment from its insured. The repair shop instituted an action against the insurer to recover for the “parts, labor and tires” which had gone into the repair of the vehicle. This court held that although the repair shop could not recover for its labor, it did have a claim against the insurer for conversion of any readily detachable repair parts which it may have affixed to the vehicle. The court reasoned as follows: “Upon a careful consideration of the decisions reached in other jurisdictions on the question, we find the better reasoned rule and the rule which should be followed in this state to be that an innocent trespasser loses his title to personal property which has been attached to that rightfully belonging to another only to the extent that his property may not be readily detached and returned to him without injury to the whole. This is but another way of saying that the owner of personal property to which an innocent trespasser has attached his own personal property acquires title to the latter by accession only to the extent that such additions become ‘such an integral part’ of the former and is ‘of such a nature’ and ‘so attached to it’ as to constitute ‘one and the same thing.’ (Cits.) We find such a rule preferable under the circumstances so as to avoid the imposition of an unfair loss upon the innocent trespasser and the consequent unjust enrichment to the true owner of the property to which the attachments are affixed.” Id. at 621.
Having articulated this rule, the court went on to hold in the Austrian Motors case that, except for the paint job which had been applied to the vehicle (which was conclusively determined to be an accession) and the replacement tires and wheels (which were conclusively determined not to be accessions), factual questions remained as to “what personal property of [the repair shop], if any . . . was not lost by accession through attachment to the automobile and may have been converted when [the vehicle was] sold by [the insurer].” Id. at 622.
Of course, the appellants in the present action were not acting as trespassers, innocent or otherwise, in performing the repairs on the vehicle but were contractually authorized by the owner to perform the repairs. This distinction, however, should serve to strengthen their legal position rather than to weaken it. I cannot agree with the majority’s conclusion that the appellants’ rights in this connection are defeated by the language of the security agreement giving the appellees *206a security interest in “any accessories, equipment and replacement parts installed in the vehicle.” While this language was certainly effective to transfer to GMAC a security interest in all after-acquired accessories, equipment, and replacement parts belonging to the debtor, no language would have been effective to enable the debtor to transfer a security interest in property owned by someone else. Under the Austrian Motors decision, GMAC was no more entitled to claim a security interest in the readily detachable replacement parts affixed to the vehicle by the appellants in this case than it would have been entitled to claim a security interest in, say, a watch or radio inadvertently left inside the vehicle by one of the appellants’ employees. Indeed, it would appear that GMAC acknowledged the validity of the appellants’ claim to the replacement parts by agreeing to pursue a claim against the casualty insurer for the appellants’ repair bill in return for their agreement not to remove the replacement parts.
Decided March 31, 1989.
Lee R. Hasty, for appellants.
Ernest Kirk II, for appellee.
I would hold that material issues of fact remain to be decided with respect to the appellants’ counterclaim in this case and that the trial court accordingly erred in granting GMAC’s motion for summary judgment.
I am authorized to state that Judge Pope and Judge Benham concur with this dissent.