Giles v. First Virginia Credit Services, Inc.

Joann Giles (plaintiff) financed a car purchase with an installment sale contract, which was assigned to First Virginia Credit Services, Inc. (the bank) (defendant). The bank then had a perfected security interest on the car. Under the agreement, the bank had the right to repossess the car upon Giles’s default. Giles allegedly went into default under the terms of the agreement. The bank had Professional Auto Recovery (the repossession agent) (defendant) attempt to repossess the car. According to a later-filed affidavit from Giles’s neighbor, a loud truck pulled up to Gileses’ house at 4:00 a.m. Someone jumped out of the truck and approached Giles’s car in the driveway. The car then screeched off. The neighbor called the Gileses and told them someone was stealing their car, and police later arrived on the scene. In response, Giles sued the bank and the repossession agent for, among other things, wrongfully repossessing the car. On the wrongful-conversion claim, the bank moved for summary judgment, which the trial court granted on the grounds there was no genuine issue of material fact for that claim. Giles sought an interlocutory appeal, which the courts allowed. Giles argued that there was a genuine issue of fact as to whether the bank and the repossession agent repossessed the vehicle peaceably, consistent with the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).