Auto Procurement, Inc. v. Westgate California Insurance

A portion of section 4157 of the Vehicle Code must be interpreted for the first time on this appeal. That section reads as follows:

The Facts

On January 26, 1973, Donna Neptune offered to sell a 1971 Chevrolet station wagon to respondent Auto Procurement, Inc. This establishment specialized in purchases of out-of-state cars, having found them highly profitable, and its advertisements were directed toward such purchases. Mrs. Neptune produced a registration card from Alabama, but the owner of Auto Procurement, Mr. O’Donnell, found this insufficient to protect him as a dealer. Mrs. Neptune told him that she had bought the vehicle from a private party, the bill of sale had been lost, and that the private party was not available for execution of another bill of sale. (A bill of sale written on scratch paper was produced at the DMV. It was dated Jan. 10, 1973, from a William Messer of Mobile, Alabama.) Mr. O’Donnell brought the vehicle to the department which checked the vehicle identification number physically with the registration certificate. Mr. O’Donnell then telephoned to Alabama and ascertained that the registration was in order and examined papers which…