Harden M. Johnson and Martha Johnson V‪.‬

This is a suit for actual and punitive damages for fraud in the installation of an improper transmission in plaintiffs' automobile. Trial to a jury resulted in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiffs for actual damages in the amount of $700.00 and for punitive damages in the amount of $10,000.00. On motion, the trial court set aside the judgment for plaintiffs and entered judgment for defendant and in the alternative sustained defendant's motion for new trial on the grounds, among others, that the ""Verdict was so excessive that it indicates bias and prejudice of the jury against defendant."" Plaintiffs have duly appealed from this action. We shall refer to the parties as they appeared below. On September 8, 1964, Mrs. Johnson took the 1955 Buick Special automobile, owned by herself and her husband, to defendant's place of business in North Kansas City, Missouri, because it had a leak in the transmission. She talked to defendant's employee, Mr. Tongue, who was in charge. It developed that defendant owned several places of business wherein he engaged in repairing and installing transmissions. Mrs. Johnson was advised that it would probably cost $35.00 to $40.00 to repair the leak but she and her husband were later advised that the installation of a new or rebuilt transmission was necessary and this would cost more money. A rebuilt transmission was installed and the bill was $292.23. Payment in this amount in cash or its equivalent was required and defendant's employee refused to take a personal check. Mrs. Johnson secured a bank money order payable to Allen's Motor and Transmission Company, paid the bill and drove away in the car. In the matter of a few blocks she realized that something was wrong with the car. It had a noise in the rear end that it had not had before and it operated differently than it had before - it seemed to ""hang up"" and did not want to go around the corner. She immediately drove back to defendant's transmission shop and called her husband. When Mr. Johnson arrived, he felt under the car and came up with transmission fluid on his hand. After considerable conversation, some of it heated, a new seal was placed in the transmission and Mr. Johnson and one of the mechanics drove the car. When they returned, there was further heated Discussion and defendant's employees, including Mr. Tongue, assured the plaintiffs that everything was all right with the car; that the noise was caused by a faulty muffler system and that the new seal would stop the leak. During these events, Mrs. Johnson had picked up the bank money order from the desk in the office but upon these assurances, she returned the money order to defendant's employee and she and her husband left in the car. The transmission continued to leak and the car did not operate properly. Plaintiffs unsuccessfully tried to contact defendant over a long period of time to complain about the car but were unsuccessful in talking to defendant. However, each of them were successful in getting ""cussed out"" by defendant's employees. Plaintiffs finally succeeded in talking to defendant but the matter was not settled and this suit followed.