Court Opinion

ID: 9641383
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:30:13.502037+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:37.015026
License: Public Domain

OPINION '
LANGDON, Justice.
This is a suit by William C. Yancey and wife against C. O. Morgan Lincoln-Mercury, Inc., seeking to recover actual as well as exemplary damages for the conversion of their 1968 Mercury Cougar automobile.
Plaintiffs purchased this automobile from the defendant on or about July 23, 1971. At the time the purchase agreement was entered into there was stamped on the agreement that the defendant warranted the car for thirty days or 1,000 miles with a fifty-fifty warranty on motor, transmission and rear-end only and further provided that the work must be done in the shop of the defendant. Plaintiff William C. Yancey returned the car to the defendant for minor repairs some four or five times prior to the time he returned it for repairs on August 15, 1971. Repairs were made at that time and the defendant voluntarily turned the car over to the plaintiff William C. Yancey at a time when the defendant claims the bill for the repairs of August 15, 1971, totaled $188.55 of which defendant claimed plaintiffs owed one-half or $94.28 under the fifty-fifty warranty agreement.
Plaintiffs denied owing any part of the bill. This $94.28 bill was unpaid on January 17, 1972, when the plaintiff William C. Yancey returned the 1968 Mercury Cougar to the defendant’s shop for additional mechanical work, because of a “ping” or knock in the motor. On this occasion the plaintiff had the upper joints on the rocker arm on the front end of the automobile lubricated for which he paid the defendant $6.50. The pan was removed from the top of the motor and a broken push rod was found. The defendant claims that this repair work was accomplished and charged to the plaintiffs and that the automobile was impounded because the plaintiffs did not pay this bill. Plaintiffs claim that the car was impounded for their failure to pay the $94.28 bill.
The jury answered all issues favorably to the plaintiffs and the trial court entered judgment against the defendant for $1,900.00 actual damages, representing the value of the converted automobile, and $17,500.00 exemplary damages.
This appeal is from that judgment based upon fifteen points of error.