Opinion
13848
May 14, 1934.
Before FEATHERSTONE, J., Greenwood, September, 1932. Affirmed.
Action by the General Motors Acceptance Corporation against Mrs. M.M. Richey. From an order denying the petition of defendant that Clyde L. Stone be made a party to the action, defendant appeals.
The order of the Hon. C.C. Featherstone, Circuit Judge, directed to be reported, was as follows:
The defendant made a motion before me pursuant to notice on December 4th for an order requiring the plaintiff to make one Clyde L. Stone, a party defendant in the abovestated action.
The action herein is in claim and delivery. The plaintiff alleges that it is the owner and holder of the property sought to be recovered by virtue of a certain chattel mortgage or contract reserving title given to the said Clyde L. Stone and assigned to the plaintiff herein.
The defendant claims that the said Clyde L. Stone guaranteed to the plaintiff the payment of the indebtedness claimed to be due by the defendant and also guaranteed the automobile which she purchased, and for these reasons should be made a party defendant in the action.
Upon consideration of the motion it appears to the Court that the said Clyde L. Stone is neither a necessary nor a proper party to a determination of matters involved in this litigation, and it is therefore ordered that the motion be, and it is hereby, refused.
Mr. Leon W. Harris, for appellant, cites: As to parties to action: 171 S.E., 20; 140 S.E., 253; 153 S.E., 128; 57 S.E., 1109; 129 S.E., 131; 145 S.E., 692.
Messrs. J. Davis Kerr and Greene Greene, for respondent, cite: Claim and delivery: 128 S.C. 509; 23 R.C.L., 855; 44 S.C. 444.
May 14, 1934. The opinion of the Court was delivered by
This action, commenced in the Court of Common Pleas for Greenwood County, by the plaintiff, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, against the defendant, Mrs. M.M. Richey, by service of summons and complaint, affidavit, requisition, and copy of bond, on the defendant, September, 1932, is an action in claim and delivery for possession of one Pontiac automobile, sold by Clyde L. Stone, of Anderson, S.C. to the defendant, upon which a conditional sale contract was executed by the defendant for the balance of the purchase price of said automobile; it being alleged by the plaintiff that the plaintiff holds the said conditional sales contract as purchaser thereof for value before maturity. In its complaint the plaintiff also asks for $500.00, as actual and punitive damages for the alleged wrongful detention of the said automobile. The defendant filed her answer and at the same time presented to the Court her petition to the Court to require the said Clyde L. Stone to be made a party to the action, on the ground that he was a necessary, material, and proper party to the proceedings. The plaintiff filed its return to the petition and the matter was heard by his Honor, Judge C.C. Featherstone, who upon due consideration issued an order in the cause refusing to grant the petition. From this order, pursuant to due notice, the defendant appealed to this Court and asks a reversal of the judgment upon exceptions filed, imputing error to the Circuit Judge in refusing the petition, and in holding that Clyde L. Stone was neither a necessary nor a proper party to the determination of the matters involved in the action, and in not holding that Clyde L. Stone was a necessary and proper party to the determination of the matters involved in the litigation.
The ruling of his Honor, Judge Featherstone, is satisfactory to this Court, and, for the reasons assigned by his Honor in the order issued, it is the judgment of this Court that the order appealed from be, and the same is hereby, affirmed.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE BLEASE, MESSRS. JUSTICES STABLER and BONHAM, and MR. ACTING ASSOCIATE JUSTICE W.C. COTHRAN concur.