Lockwood

This appeal from a municipal court judgment has been transferred here upon certification by the appellate department of the superior court under rule 63, California Rules of Court, to settle a new and important question of law. The question presented is whether under Commercial Code section 2201, subdivision (3) (c), an oral contract for the sale of an automobile is made enforceable by reason of a part payment.

The action was brought by the buyer against the seller, demanding damages for breach of the oral contract. The complaint alleges that defendant, the owner of a 1967 “Silver Shadow” Rolls Royce, orally offered, to sell the vehicle to plaintiff for $11,400, of which $100 was to be paid upon acceptance of the offer and the balance on delivery; that plaintiff accepted the offer and paid defendant $100; that defendant thereafter failed to deliver the vehicle, xand notified plaintiff he had sold it to someone else. A demurrer to the complaint was sustained without leave to amend and judgment entered for defendant, from which this appeal was taken.

The oral contract, as pleaded, would have been enforceable under the law which existed prior to the adoption of the…