Citations
- 110 F. Supp. 41
Full opinion text
BARKSDALE, District Judge.
This action, by stipulation, has -been submitted to the court without a jury upon the libel of information, the petition of claimant, Aubrey K. Ferrell, certain stipulated facts, and the written statements of witnesses for both the United States and the petitioner, to be taken as their evidence. I therefore find the facts specially, and state separately my conclusions of law, as follows:
Findings of Fact.
Prior to February 8, 1952, the automobile here in controversy was the property of claimant, Aubrey K. Ferrell, a certificate of title having theretofore been issued to him by the Motor Vehicle Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and was used as a demonstrator in and about the business of the FerreH Motor Car Corporation, of which claimant was an officer. On February 8, 1952, a salesman of Ferrell Motor Car Corporation, within the scope of his authority, entered into an agreement with one Eugene B. Mann, Jr., and his wife, for the purchase and sale of said automobile. The purchasers delivered their used automobile, which had been purchased from the Ferrell Corporation several years before, in lieu of a down payment, and executed a conditional sales contract and an ■application for credit on forms furnished by Commercial Credit Corporation, and these papers were forwarded from the Ferrell Company’s office at Danville to the Roanoke office of ■ Commercial Credit Corporation. The said automobile was delivered to Eugene B. Maim, Jr., and both he and the agent of the Ferrell Company considered that' a sale had been made. However, claimant, Aubrey K. ■ Ferrell, was away from home, so that he, the owner of the vehicle, did not endorse “an assignment and warranty of title upon the reverse side of the certificate of title of the motor vehicle, * * * ”, nor did he “deliver the certificate to the purchaser or transferee at the time of delivering the motor vehicle, * * * ”, as required by Section 46-84 of the Code of Virginia 1950, so that it was, of course, impossible for Mann to “immediately forward the certificate to the Division” of Motor Vehicles as required by Section 46-85 of the Code.
Eugene B. Mann, Jr., had no record or reputation for violation of either State or Federal laws pertaining to liquor, prior to January 1, 1952. On that date, he went into business with his sister in the operation of a restaurant and filling station known as Bradley’s Lunch, at and from which whiskey had been sold illegally for a considerable period of time,.
Very soon after January 1, 1952, both Federal and State officers began to receive reports that Eugene B. Mann, Jr., was il- • legally selling whiskey at Bradley’s Lunch. The services of an under-cover agent of the Virginia A. B. C. Board were procured, and on three occasions this agent purchased from Mann at Bradley’s Lunch whiskey upon which the federal tax had been paid, in each instance the whiskey at the time of the sale having be