Brennan

Plaintiffs Joseph and Keith Brennan appeal from a summary judgment entered upon the motion of defendant Gordon Ball, Inc. The undisputed facts are that on August 1, 1981, a vehicle driven by Joseph Uppleger left the roadway and crashed, killing both Uppleger and Lori Ann Brennan, a passenger in the vehicle. On March 9, 1981, defendant had made a bona fide sale of the vehicle to Uppleger. On that date, a bill of sale was executed and defendant properly indorsed the ownership certificate and presented the same to Uppleger. On March 19, 1981, defendant sent by certified mail the registration card to Uppleger at the address shown on the bill of sale. Three weeks later, however, on April 9, 1981, the registration card was returned to defendant because it had been unclaimed by Uppleger and defendant thereafter retained possession of the registration card until the time of the accident.

The record fails to disclose whether defendant at any time delivered or mailed to the Department of Motor Vehicles (Department) a notice of the sale of the vehicle. As there is no evidence to the contrary we assume the records of the Department continued to list defendant as the legal and…