Castagna v. Newmar Corp.

340 F. Supp. 3d 728
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Indiana
DecidedSeptember 11, 2018
DocketCase No. 3:15-CV-249 JD
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 340 F. Supp. 3d 728 (Castagna v. Newmar Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Castagna v. Newmar Corp., 340 F. Supp. 3d 728 (N.D. Ind. 2018).

Opinion

JON E. DEGUILIO, Judge *731Daniel Castagna bought a recreational vehicle manufactured by Newmar Corporation. Though the vehicle came with a written warranty, Mr. Castagna had a hard time finding appointments to repair the many problems he encountered, and the vehicle spent multiple months out of service for repairs in just the first year. Finally, just over a year after he purchased the vehicle, it experienced a fire involving the power inverter, causing smoke and fire damage. Mr. Castagna alleges that the vehicle is now unusable. He thus sued Newmar, alleging breaches of express and implied warranties and a claim under Indiana's Deceptive Consumer Sales Act. In turn, Newmar asserted a claim against Magnum Energy, Inc., which manufactured the inverter, seeking indemnification for any damages it may owe to Mr. Castagna if the inverter is found to have caused the fire.

Newmar has now filed a partial motion for summary judgment, and Magnum moved for summary judgment on the indemnification claim. They each seek judgment as to any claim arising out of the fire, arguing that there is no evidence that the inverter caused the fire and that the fire occurred after the implied warranty expired. Newmar also seeks summary judgment on Mr. Castagna's claim under the Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, and on some of remedies he seeks. For the following reasons, the Court denies the motions as to the implied warranty. However, the Court grants Newmar's motion as to the Deceptive Consumer Sales Act claim. The Court also grants Newmar's motion as to Mr. Castagna's request for rescission, but denies it as to his request for consequential damages.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Daniel Castagna grew up working in his father's RV dealership, and now owns an online marketing company. In 2013, he and his wife decided that they wanted to buy an RV, so Mr. Castagna began exploring the options available from different manufacturers. He called Newmar's national sales manager, whom he spoke to on six or seven occasions. According to Mr. Castagna, that individual told him that Newmar "had an extremely high quality product," that "they stood behind the product," and that their service was "a step above." Mr. Castagna ultimately decided to purchase a 2014 Mountain Aire model manufactured by Newmar. He purchased the vehicle on July 3, 2013, from North Trail RV, for a total price of $393,255.37.

The vehicle came with a twelve-month limited warranty from Newmar. Under the warranty, Newmar agreed to repair any manufacturing defects that arose within twelve months of the date of purchase. To obtain service, the warranty required a buyer to contact the original dealer or Newmar's customer service department in order to schedule an appointment at a service center. However, the warranty stated that Newmar will not be responsible for any incidental or consequential damages, such as for loss of use of the vehicle, loss of time, or travel expenses. The warranty also stated that the implied warranty of merchantability was limited to a period of twelve months from the date of purchase. Mr. Castagna was aware when he purchased the vehicle that it came with a warranty, and he signed a warranty registration form at the time of the purchase. However, he denies having received the warranty itself or being aware of the limitations at the time of his purchase.

*732Mr. Castagna alleges that he began experiencing problems with the vehicle immediately after the purchase. In fact, it was in the shop for the first time the very next day. Mr. Castagna states that the vehicle was in the shop for a laundry list of repairs at least thirteen times over the first year, spanning 145 days (though a portion of that time appears to have been due to a collision in which the vehicle was involved). Over that time, Mr. Castagna drove the vehicle from Florida, then up to Indiana, then to southern California and the southeast, and then to northern California. There, the vehicle was parked for some time at a home at which Mr. Castagna's son was staying in Covelo, California.

On August 5, 2014, as Mr. Castagna's son was returning home from dinner, he saw smoke coming out of the vehicle. He and his friend disconnected the vehicle from shore power and looked inside the vehicle and in its basement compartments to see if they could find a fire, but did not find one. However, the basement compartments had suffered smoke and fire damage. Sometime later, the vehicle was towed away from the site. In order to tow the vehicle, the tow truck driver had to repair the vehicle's air lines in order to release its brakes. To do so, he had to clear out debris from inside the basement compartments, but those contents were not preserved.

Over the ensuing months, the vehicle was inspected on a number of occasions by representatives of Mr. Castagna, Newmar, and an insurance company. In the course of those inspections, they determined that the fire involved the vehicle's power inverter, which was manufactured by Magnum Energy. An inverter is a device that converts direct current from batteries into alternating current for use in appliances in the vehicle like microwaves. If the vehicle is plugged into external power, the inverter can also convert alternating current to direct current to charge the vehicle's batteries.

The parties have each retained experts to determine the fire's cause. The experts appear to agree that the inverter suffered a failure, but disagree as to the cause. Magnum's expert opined that a fire of unknown origin began in the vehicle's basement. He believes that the fire then caused a fault in electrical lines outside of the inverter, sending 120-volt alternating current into the 12-volt direct current lines, which then traveled to the inverter and caused it to fail. He concluded that the inverter performed as intended, and was a victim of the fire, not its cause. Newmar's expert reached a similar conclusion.

Mr. Castagna retained three experts who each disagree with those conclusions.1 They did not locate any source of electrical activity outside of the inverter that could have caused the fault in the inverter. They also opined that the damage in the basement compartments indicated that the fire began at the inverter and then spread outward. Due to the fire damage to the inverter and the unexplained loss of certain components after the fire, they could not identify what caused the fault within the inverter. However, they opined that the failure was consistent with an electrical discharge within one of the inverter's components. The failure within the inverter would have been forceful enough to expel heated gases and flames into the vehicle. They believe that this caused other materials in the vehicle's basement compartments to catch fire, before the fire self-extinguished due to a lack of fuel and oxygen.

*733Mr. Castagna alleges that the fire and the vehicle's other defects have rendered it unusable. He thus filed this action against Newmar asserting claims for breach of express and implied warranties. He raises each of those theories under state law and the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. He also asserts a claim under Indiana's Deceptive Consumer Sales Act. Newmar then asserted a claim for indemnification against Magnum, to the extent it may be held liable to Mr. Castagna due to a fault with the inverter.2 Discovery has now closed, and both defendants have filed motions for summary judgment.

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340 F. Supp. 3d 728, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castagna-v-newmar-corp-innd-2018.