Business Law
This paper provides legal counsel that Martin should consider in dealing with the theft of his car while transferring its ownership to a bona fide purchaser. In this case, Martin lost his car after trusting Benjamin to park it on his behalf. Benjamin had disguised himself as one of the hotel’s employees by wearing the hotel’s uniform despite the fact that he had been laid-off some time back. Martin’s car was stolen by a former employee of a hotel he had visited with his friend. Consequently, the car was sold to a third party who constituted a good faith purchaser because he was not privy to the fact that it had been stolen. Notwithstanding the fact that the good faith purchaser did not know if the car had been stolen, Martin has a legal right to claim the car from the good faith purchaser since the person who sold the car to the good faith purchaser had a voidable title, which means no title.
However, upon selling the car to the bona fide purchaser, the good faith purchaser firmly became the new owner of the title. This aspect of transfer is underlined by subsection 2-403 (1) of the Uniform Commercial Code (Emanuel, 2010). This code binds all states in the United States with reference to the sale of goods and property. Burke and Snoe (2010) assert that ‘a thief has no title while person buying stolen goods can be forced to relinquish the goods to the rightful owner’ (p. 58). Despite the absence of title by the thief, the person who purchases stolen goods attains good title to the property by virtue of being a bona fide purchaser. In dealing with the situation, Martin could only have been able to recover the goods from Benjamin, who did not possess title to the goods. His ownership to the property ceased to exist upon the transfer of the car to the bona fide purchaser.
In addition to the above approach, Martin should consider legal recourse against Benjamin considering that the car had been entrusted to him. Despite being entrusted with his car, Benjamin did not have the right to sell the car considering that he was not a dealer in automobiles. This means that Benjamin did not have the power to transfer the car under the section 2-403 (2) of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). According to Beatty and Samuelson (2015), sub section 2-403 of the UCC states that ‘any entrusting to a merchant who deals in goods of that kind gives him power to transfer all rights to the entruster to a buyer in the ordinary course of business’ (p. 457).
Therefore, Martin should sue Benjamin citing his contraction of subsection 2-403 of the UCC. In addition to the above aspects, Martin can sue the hotel for negligence. By giving his key to Benjamin whom he believed beyond reasonable doubt to be the hotel’s valet considering that he was wearing the hotel’s uniform, Martin duly transferred the possession of his car to the hotel. Accordingly, Martin can claim the existence of bailment relationship between him and the hotel (Blond, Chen & Marafino, 2009). The hotel should have exercised due process in ensuring that Benjamin returns his uniform upon his dismissal. The hotel should also have been cautious in protecting its guests against being defrauded by former employees. In this case however, the hotel was engaged in gross negligence. Barth and Hayes (2006) emphasise that ‘when bailment relationship is established, a hospitality operation will be liable for any damage or loss to a guest’s property’ (p.292). As a Christian, Martin should not take matters into his hands but should seek assistance from the justice system trusting that it will not pervert justice as stated in Exodus 23; 6-8, that the court system should not pervert justice against the poor (Gnuse, 2011).
References
Barth, S. & Hayes, D. (2006). Hospitality law; managing legal issues in the hospitality
industry. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Beatty, J., & Samuelson, S. (2015). Business law and legal environment, standard edition.
New York: Cengage Learning.
Blond, N., Chen, Y. & Marafino, J. (2009). Property. Aspen Publishers. Chicago.
Burke, B. & Snoe, J. (2008). Property; examples and explanations. New York: Aspen
Publishers.
Emanuel, S. (2010). Property. New York: Aspen Publishers.
Gnuse, R. (2011). You shall not steal community and property in the biblical tradition.
London: Wipf & Stock Publishers.
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