Beck v. Trane Co.

8 Ohio App. Unrep. 1
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 19, 1990
DocketCase No. C-890610
StatusPublished

This text of 8 Ohio App. Unrep. 1 (Beck v. Trane Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beck v. Trane Co., 8 Ohio App. Unrep. 1 (Ohio Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

This dispute arose from the sale of a Trane heating and air-conditioning system to the appellants, John and Susan Beck. The unit, which was purchased at a price of $8,950.00,1 was installed on May 11, 1981, and thereafter presented the appellants with a series of documented performance problems. The appellants filed suit on August 19,1988, alleging breach of both express and implied warranties, as well as a violation of the Consumer Sales Practices Act.

The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the appellee/cross-appellant, the Trane Company, the manufacturer of the unit, as to the implied-warranty claim and the Consumer Sales Practices Act claim; however, the trial court denied Trane's motion for summary judgment on the appellants' express-warranty claim. Furthermore, the trial court stated in its judgment that it found "no just cause to delay the appeal or enforcement of this Entry."

I.

Although the parties have treated this case as one involving a final appealable order, and have briefed the issues accordingly, we are constrained to address the Supreme Court's decision in Chef Italiano v. Kent State University (1989), 44 Ohio St. 3d 86, 541 N.E.2d 64, as it affects this court's jurisdiction to render a decision on those issues. The lead opinion in Chef Italiano, written by Justice Douglas, would require that we dismiss this appeal on the basis that finality has not attached under R.C. 2505.02 since less than all of the appellants' claims were dismissed by summary judgment, and there remained one viable claim (for breach of express warranty) on which the appellants could have obtained judgment from Trane.

Justice Douglas's lead opinion in Chef Italiano failed to command a majority of the Court, garnering only one concurrence, while the other justices either concurred separately, either in the syllabus and judgment or in the judgment only, or dissented. Moreover, Justice Douglas's lead opinion is in conflict with the Ohio Supreme Court's decision in Alexander v. Buckeye Pipe Line Co. (1977), 49 Ohio St. 2d 158, 359 N.E.2d 702, which has yet to be overruled.2 Furthermore, the interpretation Justice Douglas in Chef Italiano gave to the meaning of the term "action," as it is used in R.C. 2505.02, is in conflict with the court's conclusion that [2]*2the words "claim for relief," as used in Civ. R. 54(B), are synonymous with "cause of action." See Noble v. Colwell (1989), 44 Ohio St. 3d 92, 540 N.E.2d 1381. For these reasons, and because we believe that a decision on the merits of appellants' issues will eliminate the possibility of a duplicative trial and thus serve the interests of justice and judicial economy which underlie Civ. R. 54(B)3 we conclude that the matter sub judice is properly before us on the basis of a final appeal-able order certified under Civ. R. 54(B).

II.

The appellants in their first assignment of error assert that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment on their breach-of-implied-warranty claim. The issue presented for our review under this assignment is whether R.C. 1302.98 effectively barred the appellants' implied:warranty claim based upon the running of the statute of limitations. We hold that it did.

R.C. 1302.97 provides that an action for breach of any contract for the sale of goods must be commenced within four years after the cause of action has accrued. In an action for breach of an express or implied warranty, a cause of action accrues when the breach occurs, which is normally when tender of delivery is made. R.C. 1302.98(B). The only exception is when the warranty "explicitly extends to future performance of the goods, and discovery of the breach must await the time of such performance," in which case the cause of action does not accrue until the breach either was, or should have been, discovered. Id.

The general rule is that implied warranties, by their nature, cannot "explicitly" extend to future performance: See Standard Alliance Industries v. Black (C.A. 6, 1978), 587 F.2d 813; Annotation (1979), 93 A.L.R. 3d 690, 692-696 (citing cases). We conclude, therefore, that, pursuant to R.C. 1302.98(B), the appellants' cause of action for breach of an implied warranty of fitness accrued on May 11, 1981, the date on which the Trane system was installed.

Moreover, we can find no authority in Ohio for the application of the doctrine of equitable estoppel urged by the appellants. This doctrine would toll the statute of limitations while an innocent purchaser relies upon the seller's promises to repair. See Standard Alliance, supra at 822. While we are not adverse to the doctrine in principle, we find the wording of R.C. 1302.98(d) effectively precludes us from adopting it here.4

Based upon the foregoing analysis, we conclude that the statute of limitations on the appellants' claim for breach of an implied warranty of fitness began running on May 11,1981. Consequently, the statute barred the appellants' action based on breach of an implied warranty since they did not file their complaint until August 19, 1988. The appellants' first assignment of error is, therefore, overruled.

III.

The appellants in their second assignment of error assert that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment on Count III of their complaint. In their complaint under Count III, the appellants specifically alleged that the sale of the Trane system was a "consumer transaction" as that term is defined under R.C. 1345.01, and that Trane violated the Consumer Sales Practices Act by falsely representing that the system had performance characteristics which it did not have. See R.C. 1345.02. The appellants also alleged that the sale of the system was a home solicitation sale as that term is defined under R.C. 1345.21, and that Trane violated the Home Solicitation Sale Act by failing to supply a notice of cancellation as required by R.C. 1345.22.

The issue presented for our review under this assignment is whether the sale of the Trane heating and air-conditioning system is covered by the general provisions of the Consumer Sales Practices Act as well as the particular provisions of the Home Solicitation Sale Act.

R.C. 1345.02, which prohibits unfair or deceptive consumer sales practice^ applies to sales falling under the statutory definition of a "consumer transaction." A "consumer transaction," as defined in R.C. 1345.01, includes the sale of goods to an individual "for purposes that are primarily personal, family, or household ***." The Home Solicitation Sale Act, which is a separate part of R.C. Chapter 1345, applies to the home solicitation of "consumer goods," which are defined in R.C. 1345.21(A) as goods "purchased primarily for personal, family, or household purposes ***."

In support of its contention that the heating and air-conditioning system in the case sub judice does not fit within either of these definitions, Trane cites Tamur's Inc. v. Hiltner (1977), 55 Ohio App. 2d 90, 379 N.E.2d 231, and Nagle Heating & Air Conditioning v. Suter (June 27,

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Bluebook (online)
8 Ohio App. Unrep. 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beck-v-trane-co-ohioctapp-1990.