## Facts

- George Salisbury III obtained a $13,000 loan from Colorado Central Credit Union secured by several motor vehicles.
- After default and a short extension, the borrower again defaulted on the loan.
- The collateral vehicles were located on the Ladder Ranch in Wyoming on land owned by Salisbury Livestock Company, a separate corporate entity that was not a party to the loan or security agreement.
- Colorado Central employed repossession agents who entered the ranch at dawn and took the vehicles from a secluded yard adjacent to a residence, where the vehicles were not visible from a public place.
- The repossession occurred without prior notice to Salisbury Livestock and without its express consent.
- No face-to-face confrontation or physical altercation occurred during the repossession.
- Salisbury Livestock sued for trespass and wrongful repossession, arguing that unauthorized entry onto a non-debtor’s land could constitute a breach of the peace and defeat any self-help privilege.
- The trial court directed a verdict for Colorado Central at the close of Salisbury Livestock’s evidence, ruling the entry was privileged under Wyoming’s self-help repossession statute.

## Issues

1. Whether, viewing the evidence favorably to Salisbury Livestock, reasonable jurors could find the entry and repossession were not privileged under Wyoming’s self-help repossession statute or by consent, making a directed verdict improper.
2. Whether a “breach of the peace” requires actual confrontation or violence during repossession.
3. Whether a secured creditor’s self-help repossession right extends to entry onto land owned by a non-debtor third party without that landowner’s consent.

## Decision

- The Wyoming Supreme Court reversed the directed verdict and remanded for a new trial.
- The court held that reasonable jurors could find the entry and repossession were not privileged and could constitute trespass and wrongful repossession.
- The court rejected the view that absence of confrontation or violence conclusively establishes no breach of the peace.
- The circumstances—dawn entry onto a secluded ranch yard near a residence on property owned by a third party—created a jury question on breach of the peace, reasonableness, privilege, and consent.

## Legal Principles

- A secured party may repossess collateral without judicial process only if it can be done without breach of the peace.
- Breach of the peace does not require actual confrontation or violence; a significant risk or possibility of immediate violence may suffice.
- The time, place, and manner of entry are central to whether repossession was peaceful and legally permissible.
- Unauthorized entry onto property owned by a non-debtor third party can support a finding of no privilege and breach of the peace; whether consent or privilege exists may be a fact question.
- A directed verdict is improper when reasonable minds could differ on whether the repossession was privileged and non-tortious under the circumstances.

## Conclusion

The court held that self-help repossession is limited by the requirement of no breach of the peace and by third-party property rights, and it ruled that a jury could reasonably find the creditor’s dawn entry onto a secluded ranch yard owned by a non-debtor was unprivileged, making the directed verdict erroneous.


Salisbury Livestock Co. v. Colo. Cent. Credit Union, 793 P.2d 470 (Wyo. 1990)