Elster's Sales v. El Bodrero Hotel, Inc.

Elster’s, the seller of restaurant equipment, sought to recover in rounded figures $13,000 from El Bodrero, the buyer, on a defaulted conditional sales contract. El Bodrero cross-complained for $2,500, contending that on repossession and resale of the equipment Elster’s had realized a surplus above the amount of the debt El Bodrero owed under its contract. Judgment went for El Bodrero for $2,500 plus interest from the date of resale, and Elster’s appeals.

In May 1961 Elster’s had sold restaurant equipment under conditional sales contract to El Bodrero for $72,000. In July 1962 El Bodrero defaulted on its contract still owing $49,500, and in January 1963 Bister’s repossessed the equipment. In February 1963 Elster’s entered a new conditional sales contract with Growth Development for the sale of the repossessed equipment for $54,000 and paid a sales tax of $2,000, which on paper left it $2,500 ahead of the $49,500 owed it by El Bodrero. Had the resale of the equipment been completed according to the terms of the new contract both parties agree that the surplus of $2,500 would belong to El Bodrero.

But Growth Development, after making time payments of $4,000, likewise defaulted.…