## Facts

- Norma J. Wade bought a 1979 Ford Thunderbird under a retail installment contract that was assigned to Ford Motor Credit Company (Ford), which held a perfected security interest.
- Wade became delinquent shortly after the first payment and made no payments after early March 1980.
- Ford mailed a statutory notice of default and right to cure by certified mail to Wade’s address listed in her credit documents; it was returned marked that she had moved without leaving an address, and Wade had not notified Ford of a new address.
- Ford hired an independent recovery service to repossess the vehicle.
- During a first attempt, the recovery agent did not take the car after noticing a serial-number discrepancy; Wade told the agent she had a gun and would use it if someone returned to repossess the car.
- After continued delinquency, the agent later repossessed the vehicle in the early morning from Wade’s property without Wade confronting the agent; Wade learned of the repossession after the agent had departed.
- Wade sued for conversion, loss of credit reputation, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees based on an alleged breach of the peace; Ford counterclaimed for the unpaid contract balance.

## Issues

1. Whether Ford’s self-help repossession constituted a “breach of the peace” under K.S.A. 84-9-503 (former U.C.C. § 9-503).
2. If a breach of the peace occurred, whether damages for conversion, loss of credit reputation, and punitive damages were supported.
3. Whether a debtor’s prior threat of violence, without confrontation at the time of repossession, makes a later repossession a breach of the peace.

## Decision

- The Kansas Court of Appeals reversed the judgment for Wade on her repossession-based claims.
- The court held the repossession was not a breach of the peace because it was completed without confrontation, violence, threats at the time of seizure, or public disturbance.
- Because the repossession was lawful, Wade’s conversion, credit-reputation, and punitive-damages awards were set aside.
- The judgment for Ford on its counterclaim for the outstanding debt was left undisturbed.

## Legal Principles

- Under K.S.A. 84-9-503 (former U.C.C. § 9-503), a secured party may repossess collateral without judicial process only if it can do so without breach of the peace.
- A breach of the peace turns on the manner of repossession (e.g., confrontation, violence, threats, forcible entry, or disturbance), not merely the debtor’s lack of consent.
- A creditor’s knowledge of a debtor’s prior verbal threat does not, by itself, convert an otherwise quiet, nonconfrontational repossession into a breach of the peace.
- Conversion requires a wrongful exercise of dominion; a repossession authorized by the security interest and conducted within U.C.C. limits is not wrongful.
- Punitive damages require an actionable wrong and willful or wanton misconduct; they are unavailable when the underlying conduct is lawful.

## Conclusion

The court held that a secured creditor’s peaceful, nonconfrontational self-help repossession does not breach the peace merely because the debtor previously threatened violence, and it reversed related liability and damages while leaving the creditor’s debt recovery intact.


Wade v. Ford Motor Credit Co., 668 P.2d 183 (Kan. Ct. App. 1983)