The Fourth Appellate District affirmed a judgment. The court held that a wholesale car dealer’s successful lawsuit to recover monies owed it by a bankrupt retailer did not entitle it to attorney’s fees based on a fee provision in the contracts between the retailer and its retail customers.
Hyduke’s Valley Motors was a wholesale used car dealer. It sold vehicles to a second car dealer, doing business as U.S. Auto, with the agreement that U.S. Auto would pay Hyduke’s when certificates of title were available to be transferred. U.S. Auto sold the vehicles to consumers under form conditional sales contracts executed by U.S. Auto and the retail purchaser. U.S. Auto then sold and assigned the conditional sales contracts to finance companies County Finance Services (CFS) and Lobel Financial Corporation. U.S. Auto went bankrupt before paying Hyduke’s for the certificates of title.
