ORDER
Appellant, Augusta, purchased a Ford automobile from a Ford Dealer, appellee Marshall Motor Co. Augusta desired financing of the purchase, which Marshall arranged through appellee Ford Motor Credit Co. Augusta executed an “instalment contract” which was forthwith assigned by Marshall to Ford Credit, and Augusta was shortly thereafter supplied with a payment coupon book by Ford Credit.
Augusta then sued Marshall and Ford Credit, contending that under the Truth-In-Lending Act and Regulation Z issued by the Federal Reserve Board pursuant to the Act, Marshall and Ford Credit were required to reveal at the time of the purchase that Ford Credit was a creditor of Augusta and that this was not done. Ford Credit and Marshall contended that Ford Credit, as an assignee of the instalment contract, was not a “creditor” of Augusta within the meaning of the Regulation and that, in any event, Augusta received notice that Ford Credit was a creditor by the very terms of the instalment contract and also by the payment coupon book sent to him by Ford Credit.
Augusta, Ford Credit and Marshall moved for summary judgment, and District Judge Krupansky granted summary judgment in favor of Ford Credit and Marshall and against Augusta. 453 F.Supp. 912. Judge Krupansky did not determine whether Ford Credit, as an assignee, was a “creditor” within the meaning of the Regulation, but he did determine that Augusta received notice that Ford Credit was a creditor by the terms of the instalment contract and also the payment coupon book.
We need not decide whether Ford Credit was, as an assignee, a “creditor” within the meaning of the Regulation and need not decide whether the payment coupon book gave timely notice, if such was required. We determine that Judge Krupansky was correct in holding that the instalment contract itself gave adequate notice of Ford Credit’s involvement in the transaction. This issue involving this very contract form was before the court in Milhollin v. Ford Motor Credit Co., 586 F.2d 753 (9th Cir. 1978), and the court held that the contract gave such notice, pointing out that Ford Credit was shown as assignee on the contract át a point close to two separate places that the purchaser must sign the contract. The court also determined that the fact that Ford Credit is not described as a “creditor" and instead is shown as the assignee does not vitiate the notice to the purchaser. We also point out that at the top of the contract form are the words “Ford Motor Credit Company,” which although torn off after the contract is executed, were there when Augusta signed it.
The judgment of the district court is therefore
AFFIRMED.
What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Intervenors who participated as parties at the courts of appeals should be counted as either appellants or respondents when it can be determined whose position they supported. For example, if there were two plaintiffs who lost in district court, appealed, and were joined by four intervenors who also asked the court of appeals to reverse the district court, the number of appellants should be coded as six.
In some cases there is some confusion over who should be listed as the appellant and who as the respondent. This confusion is primarily the result of the presence of multiple docket numbers consolidated into a single appeal that is disposed of by a single opinion. Most frequently, this occurs when there are cross appeals and/or when one litigant sued (or was sued by) multiple litigants that were originally filed in district court as separate actions. The coding rule followed in such cases should be to go strictly by the designation provided in the title of the case. The first person listed in the title as the appellant should be coded as the appellant even if they subsequently appeared in a second docket number as the respondent and regardless of who was characterized as the appellant in the opinion.
To clarify the coding conventions, consider the following hypothetical case in which the US Justice Department sues a labor union to strike down a racially discriminatory seniority system and the corporation (siding with the position of its union) simultaneously sues the government to get an injunction to block enforcement of the relevant civil rights law. From a district court decision that consolidated the two suits and declared the seniority system illegal but refused to impose financial penalties on the union, the corporation appeals and the government and union file cross appeals from the decision in the suit brought by the government. Assume the case was listed in the Federal Reporter as follows:
United States of America,
Plaintiff, Appellant
v
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendant, Appellee.
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendants, Cross-appellants
v
United States of America.
Widgets, Inc. & Susan Kuersten Sheehan, President & Chairman
of the Board
Plaintiff, Appellants,
v
United States of America,
Defendant, Appellee.
This case should be coded as follows:Appellant = United States, Respondents = International Brotherhood of Widget Workers Widgets, Inc., Total number of appellants = 1, Number of appellants that fall into the category "the federal government, its agencies, and officials" = 1, Total number of respondents = 3, Number of respondents that fall into the category "private business and its executives" = 2, Number of respondents that fall into the category "groups and associations" = 1.
Your task is to identify the state of the first listed state or local government agency that is an appellant.