Newport News Shipbuilding Employees’ Credit Union, Inc. v. B & L Auto Body, Inc. (Va. 1991)

Citation: 241 Va. 31 (1991) · Court: Supreme Court of Virginia (Record No. 900569) · Decided: Jan. 11, 1991 · Opinion: Compton, J.

Source note (2026-10-18):

• Links on this page to https://static.case.law/va/241/cases/0031-01.json are an (unofficial Caselaw Access Project copy, retrieved before 2026-10-18; host disallows automated access); no official or otherwise permitted full-text copy was located on 2026-10-18.

Case page. Legal information, not legal advice. Last verified: 2026-10-16. Source: Caselaw Access Project scan of Virginia Reports (https://static.case.law/va/241/cases/0031-01.json), retrieved 2026-10-16 — a digitization, not the court’s own publication.

Facts

The credit union financed Lawrence Cooper’s 1985 Buick for USD 11,995, and its security interest was recorded on the DMV title. After vandals damaged the car in October 1988, B & L Auto Body (also trading as B & L Towing) towed it at Cooper’s request and stored it. In November 1988, before the credit union could fund the charges, B & L sold the car at public auction. Its only notice was a letter (received November 14) saying the car “WILL BE SOLD AT PUBLIC AUCTION TEN DAYS FROM RECEIPT OF THIS LETTER,” plus a newspaper advertisement listing the car among “abandoned & wrecked vehicles” for a November 26 auction at a different address. The credit union sued to enjoin issuance of a new title and for the value of its lien; the trial court struck its evidence because it had not proved the car’s value at the time of sale.

Holding

Reversed and remanded. Under former Code § 43-34 a lienor selling without a court must advertise the time, place and terms “in a public place” — “a premises owned by the Commonwealth,” a political subdivision “or an agency of either which is open to the general public” — and “[a]n ad in a newspaper does not qualify.” The written notices to the owner and the title lienholder “should state the specific time and place of the sale”; a sale “ten days ‘from receipt of this letter’” is “too indefinite.” Once the credit union made out “a prima facie case of a void sale due to defective notice, the burden shifted to B & L to go forward and present evidence of a valid sale,” including proof of value, which determined whether a court order was required.

Reasoning

• The statute empowered the lienor to sell “by public auction, for cash,” without court intervention only below the then-USD 3,000 value threshold; above it a petition to the general district or circuit court was required.
• The USD 600 secured-party notice rule applies to financing-statement collateral, not titled motor vehicles; for vehicles the lienor must check DMV and give certified notice to the title lienholder.
• “The forum or method employed is controlled by the vehicle’s value at the time of sale. Therefore, the burden of establishing value is upon the possessor of the property, who has ready access to it for appraisal purposes and who has undertaken to conduct the sale.”

Practical impact

For buyers at Virginia lien sales: a sale on vague or misdirected notice is treated as void, exposing the buyer’s title to the lender’s challenge (here the lender obtained an injunction against DMV issuing a new title). For lienors: the lienor carries the burden of proving value and the correct forum. The vehicle provisions were later moved into the DMV-run procedure of Code §§ 46.2-644.01 to 46.2-644.03, under which DMV itself sends certified notice and posts the sale; the decision’s notice and burden principles remain the clearest Virginia appellate statement on defective lien-sale notice and still bear on § 43-34 sales of boats, aircraft and other personal property.

Good-law status

No citator check run this session (needs_verification). Section 43-34 has since been amended (value thresholds now USD 10,000/25,000; advertising may be in a public place, on a government website or in a newspaper), and vehicle lien sales now run under § 46.2-644.03.

Applies in →

virginia, towing-storage-and-mechanics-lien-sales, motor-vehicles