Court Opinion

ID: 9726276
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:40:19.338263+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:24.866188
License: Public Domain

MOLINARI, P. J.
I concur in the decision reached by my colleague Justice Elkington and in the rationale of his decision, excepting that I do not subscribe to the suggestion that the repossession of the vehicle may have been felonious or to the suggestion that the course of conduct employed in this case by Pacific Finance Corporation is pursuant to a company policy of repossessing cars which it has no right to repossess. In this case both Pacific and the dealer Steitz acted maliciously and oppressively. With particular regard to Pacific’s conduct I am satisfied that the record supports the inference that, as between Pacific and Steitz, the former, as the assignee and owner of the conditional sales contract under which the vehicle was sold, had it within its power to compel Steitz, who was Pacific’s agent in the repossession, to return the vehicle to plaintiff Ferraro, at least up to the time Pacific sold the contract back to Steitz. In my opinion Pacific was not justified in reselling the contract to Steitz under the circumstances. Under the “Repurchase Agreement” executed as part of the assignment from Steitz to Pacific the former agreed to pay the latter the unpaid balance under the contract upon demand of Pacific if Pacific repossessed or recovered the vehicle, provided the vehicle was tendered to Steitz by Pacific within a specified period. Here the record is bereft of any such demand by Pacific, but more important, the repurchase agreement contemplates a valid repossession and recovery by Pacific. Here, assuming that Pacific did make the subject demand, it acted oppressively when, knowing or having reason to believe, that it did not have the right to repossess as against an innocent purchaser, it assigned its rights to the vehicle back to Steitz.
Although the award against Pacific is high in relation to the actual damages sustained by Ferraro, I do not consider it so grossly disproportionate as to raise a presumption that it is the result of passion or prejudice.  As indicated in the opinion of Justice Elkington the purpose of an award of exemplary damages is solely to punish the defendant and to make an example of him. The object of exemplary damages is to make the example as well as the punishment fit the offense (Thomson v. Catalina, 205 Cal. 402, 405-406 [271 P. 198]), and in determining the amount necessary to impose the appropriate punitive effect the jury was entitled to consider the wealth of Pacific. (Marriott v. Williams, 152 Cal. 705, 710 [93 P. 875]; Oakes v. McCarthy Co., 267 Cal.App.2d 231, 264 [73 Cal.Rptr. 127]; Di Giorgio Fruit Corp. v. AFL-CIO, 215 Cal.App.2d 560, 581 [30 Cal.Rptr. 350]; MacDonald v. Joslyn, 275 Cal.App.2d 282, 293 [79 Cal. *358Rptr. 707]; Rest., Torts, § 908.) Here in the present case the jury measured the punishment in the light of the evidence indicating Pacific’s ability to respond to the award (see Coy v. Superior Court, 58 Cal.2d 210, 223 [23 Cal.Rptr. 393, 373 P.2d 457, 9 A.L.R.3d 678]), and in doing so made the example as well as the punishment fit the offense. If Pacific has in fact persisted in the type of conduct disclosed in this case the award of exemplary damages in the substantial sum of $25,000 should serve to act as a deterrent against its repetition.