Studebaker Bros. Co. of Utah v. Mau

In Studebaker Bros. Co. of Utah v. Mau, 13 Wyo. 358, 80 P. 151, (1905), the seller, a Utah corporation, entered into a conditional sales contract in Utah for the sale of personal property situate in Utah to the buyers, also residents of Utah, wherein title to the personal property remained in the seller until the buyer paid for the property. At some point, one of the buyers (without the seller's consent) removed the personal property to Wyoming, where he sold it to another individual. Id. 130 Wyo. 358 at 152. Utah law provided that conditional sales contracts were valid between the parties and as to subsequent bona fine purchasers without first having to be recorded. Id. 80 P. at 154. Wyoming law provided that conditional sales were invalid as against subsequent bona fide purchasers without notice, unless the contract was recorded in the county where the property was situated. Id. In recognizing the interest of the Utah corporation in the personal property as against the third-party purchaser, the Court stated that "the validity and effect of contracts relating to personal property are to be determined by the laws of the state or country where they are made, and, as a matter of comity, they will, if valid there, be enforced in another state or country, although not executed or recorded according to the laws of the latter;" in other words, that: "where, as in this case, a conditional sale of personal property is made in one state between parties residing in that state, and where the property is then situated and delivered, and without any agreement or intention that the property is to be removed to another state, and such contract is valid, although not filed or recorded, in the state where made, against bona fide purchasers from the conditional vendee, and the conditional vendee, without the knowledge or consent of the vendor, removes the property to another state, and there sells it to a bona fide purchaser, such purchaser acquires only such rights in the property as the conditional vendee had therein; and that the conditional vendor can recover the property from such purchaser notwithstanding the fact that the conditional sale would have been invalid for want of filing or record under the laws of the state to which the property was removed and where it was sought to be recovered." (Id. 358 P. at 154.)