R. T. Moore and Carol Moore v. State Farm

In this court-tried action at law, plaintiffs R.T. (Tarrant) and Carol Moore, who are husband and wife, obtained judgment in the aggregate sum of $1,510.06 (including $1,054.60 for actual damages, $105.46 for statutory penalty [Sec. 375.420], and $350.00 for attorneys' fees) against State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (hereinafter called the Company) under the $50 deductible collision coverage alleged to have been afforded by a policy issued by the Company to plaintiffs as the named insureds. (All statutory references are to RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S.) Defendant appeals. Plaintiffs are long-time residents of Greenfield, Missouri. In November 1961, Charles Ross Moore, plaintiffs' son then twenty years of age, lived in the home of his maternal aunt, Mrs. Maxine Thomas, in Columbia, Missouri, and worked as a clerk at Noel's United Supermarket in that city. Charles' attention was attracted by a 1958 MG roadster (hereinafter referred to as the MG) on the Columbia used car lot of Copeland Foreign Cars, a copartnership composed of Kenneth W. Copeland and Gerald Morris. Having determined to acquire the MG but being hindered in financing the purchase by the fact of his minority, Charles called his father, plaintiff Tarrant, over long distance from the Copeland lot on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, i.e., on November 18, 1961, and persuaded his father to ""sign for me ."" Thus assured of his father's cooperation, Charles made a down payment of $200 that same afternoon, signed the note (for the balance of the purchase price) which was to be mailed to his father for signature, and had an understanding with Copeland's representative (one Ribolt) that he (Charles) would pick up the MG on Thanksgiving Eve, November 22.