Thomas Fred Wallace and Norma May Wallace, Husband and Wife v. Employers Casualty Company

Thomas Wallace and Norma Wallace, plaintiffs below, appeal from a judgment granting the defendant’s motion for summary judgment. The parties agree as to the facts of this case, so the propriety of proceeding by way of summary judgment is therefore not at issue.

The facts are as follows: Olson Motors, of Williams, Arizona, sold a new car to a Jack Dent, and took in trade a 1957 Chevrolet. No question arises as to the validity of this transaction. On July 30, 1964, Olson Motors sold the 1957 Chevrolet to a Douglas Ezell, manager of the Potts Motor Company, of Phoenix, Arizona, and received $650 in full payment. Four days later, on August 3, 1964 Kenneth Lewis, an employee of Ezell, picked up the car at Olson Motors in order to drive it to Potts Motor. Later on in the day, that car, while being driven by Lewis in the scope of his employment and on his way to Phoenix, collided with a car in which the Wallaces were driver and passenger. As of the day of the accident the certificate of registration and title to the Chevrolet had not been signed over to Ezell by Olson Motors, as required by A.R.S. § 28-314, subsec. A.

The Wallaces brought suit in the Maricopa County, Arizona, Superior…