Moe v. John Deere Co.

516 S.W.2d 332 (1994)

Facts

Moe (P) purchased a new tractor from Deere (D) and financed the transaction. P was late with his payments and made partial payments, but P and D agreed that P could make the payments under a new schedule. That schedule was missed, and eventually, a representative of D agreed that P could pay a partial payment and that D would allow P to pay the rest when he started to harvest. No date was specified as to when the partial payment was due. D then repossessed the tractor without warning. P did not receive notice of the repossession because he was in Oklahoma. D then assigned P's contract to Implement. P finally got notice of the intent to repossess 19 days later. Implement sold the tractor for $44,000 and paid D in full and applied to proceeds to P's lender. P sued D for wrongful repossession, fraudulent repossession, commercially unreasonable sale, and failure to account for the surplus. D moved for partial summary judgment on the third and fourth issues. The trial court gave D the motion and P appealed.