## Facts

- David Williams bought a Ford Mustang under a sales contract and security agreement later assigned to Ford Motor Credit Company (FMCC); the vehicle title listed both David and Cathy Williams.
- After the couple divorced, a state court awarded Cathy title to the car and ordered David to keep making payments to FMCC for 18 months.
- David defaulted and signed a voluntary repossession authorization for FMCC.
- FMCC retained S & S Recovery, Inc. to repossess the Mustang.
- Around 4:30 a.m., Cathy Williams awoke to a noise and saw a wrecker already attached to the Mustang and beginning to tow it away from her trailer home.
- Williams went outside and yelled; the tow truck stopped.
- The repossession agent explained he was repossessing on FMCC’s behalf, retrieved Williams’s personal items from the car upon request, and left with the vehicle.
- Williams testified the agent was polite, did not threaten her, and did not cause her to fear physical injury.
- Williams reported the car stolen and sued FMCC for conversion, alleging the self-help repossession was unlawful because it breached the peace under Arkansas’s version of U.C.C. § 9-503.
- A jury found a breach of the peace and awarded Williams $5,000, but the district court entered judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) for FMCC.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence, viewed most favorably to Williams, permitted a reasonable jury to find a “breach of the peace” under Arkansas’s U.C.C. § 9-503 during FMCC’s self-help repossession.
2. Whether, absent a breach of the peace, the repossession was lawful and therefore not a conversion.
3. Whether FMCC’s third-party indemnity claim against the repossession company required review after disposition of Williams’s claim.

## Decision

- The court of appeals affirmed the district court’s JNOV for FMCC.
- It held that, as a matter of law, the repossession did not involve a breach of the peace and therefore could not support liability for conversion.
- FMCC’s cross-appeal concerning indemnity against S & S Recovery was moot in light of FMCC’s lack of liability.

## Legal Principles

- Under U.C.C. § 9-503 as adopted in Arkansas, a secured party may repossess collateral without judicial process only if it can be done without breach of the peace.
- A breach of the peace requires more than a debtor’s verbal objection; it turns on whether the repossession involves force, threats, intimidation, or conduct creating violence or a substantial risk of violence.
- When undisputed facts show no threats, no physical confrontation, and no circumstances likely to provoke violence, a court may determine as a matter of law that no breach of the peace occurred and may set aside a jury verdict via JNOV.
- A conversion claim premised on repossession fails if the repossession is lawful under the applicable self-help statute.

## Conclusion

Because the repossession was conducted without threats, force, or circumstances likely to provoke violence—despite Williams’s objection—the court held there was no breach of the peace under Arkansas’s U.C.C. standard, making the self-help repossession lawful and defeating the conversion verdict.


Williams v. Ford Motor Credit Co., 674 F.2d 717 (8th Cir. 1982)