Chavarria v. Fleetwood Retail Corp.

2006 NMSC 046, 143 P.3d 717, 140 N.M. 478
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 6, 2006
DocketNo. 29,246
StatusPublished
Cited by66 cases

This text of 2006 NMSC 046 (Chavarria v. Fleetwood Retail Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chavarria v. Fleetwood Retail Corp., 2006 NMSC 046, 143 P.3d 717, 140 N.M. 478 (N.M. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

CHÁVEZ, Justice.

{1} In this case, it is undisputed that employees of Fleetwood Mobile Homes committed fraud during the sale of a mobile home to Roddie Chavarria and Norma Castaneda (Plaintiffs). It is also undisputed on appeal that Fleetwood failed to deliver the customized mobile home it promised and set up the home it did deliver in an unworkmanlike manner. The district court judge, sitting without a jury, found in favor of Plaintiffs and awarded compensatory and punitive damages plus attorney fees. On appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed a portion of the compensatory damages award, concluding that certain elements of damages were duplicated, and reversed the punitive damages award, concluding that Fleetwood was not liable for the fraudulent conduct of its employees. Chavarria v. Fleetwood Retail Corp., 2005-NMCA-082, 137 N.M. 783, 115 P.3d 799. We granted certiorari and reverse the Court of Appeals regarding the compensatory and punitive damages claims. We affirm that portion of the Court of Appeals’ opinion reinstating Defendant’s counterclaim.

I. FACTS

{2} Plaintiffs lived in a 1,120-square-foot trailer with their four children in Las Cruces. Mr. Chavarria, who attended school up to the 9th grade, worked as a custodian at New Mexico State University, and Ms. Castaneda worked as a presser at Alameda Laundry and Cleaners. Plaintiffs noticed a marquee at Fleetwood advertising no payments for ninety days. Plaintiffs found the ninety-day grace period attractive because it would allow them to pay off other debts, which in turn would enable them to purchase a new mobile home with a higher monthly mortgage payment. When Plaintiffs went to Fleetwood to investigate the purchase of a mobile home, sales agent Devon Pike assured Plaintiffs that the ninety-day grace period would apply to them. Bob Lancaster, the general manager of the Fleetwood office in Las Cruces assisted Pike in selling a mobile home to Plaintiffs.

{3} Plaintiffs selected a 1,568-square-foot, four-bedroom home so that their two teenage sons would not have to share a room. Fleet-wood submitted Plaintiffs’ credit application to GreenPoint Credit, and GreenPoint approved the financing for the four-bedroom home. Pike called Plaintiffs and informed them that they had been approved to purchase the four-bedroom home. A few days later, however, Pike called Plaintiffs to tell them “that the bank had gone back on the four-bedroom deal” and urged them to try and qualify for a less expensive, three-bedroom home. After Plaintiffs had settled on a three-bedroom home, Pike told Plaintiffs that GreenPoint had changed its mind and was once again willing to approve them for the four-bedroom home. Plaintiffs selected a four-bedroom home and thought it was set for delivery. Yet, about one week later, Pike made a fourth call to Plaintiffs, informing them that GreenPoint had once again changed its mind and decided to reject Plaintiffs’ financing application for the four-bedroom home. In truth, GreenPoint never denied Plaintiffs’ loan application for a four-bedroom home.

{4} Plaintiffs ultimately agreed to purchase a 1,232-square-foot, three-bedroom home, paying virtually the same amount for it that they would have paid for the four-bedroom home they previously selected. Plaintiffs ordered the home without double sinks or a garden tub in the master bathroom and without a new dishwasher or refrigerator, features Plaintiffs did not deem necessary. In addition, Plaintiffs requested three custom features: bigger closets in the kids’ rooms, commercial-grade carpet throughout the trailer, and a window in the master bathroom. Pike assured Plaintiffs they would receive a “custom ordered trailer.”

{5} Unbeknownst to Plaintiffs, Pike and Lancaster falsified Plaintiffs’ income to GreenPoint, altering their credit applications to show that Ms. Castaneda earned an additional eight hundred dollars a month from a side job at another dry cleaning business. Pike and Lancaster set up a fake, or “dummy,” telephone number so that GreenPoint could call and “verify” the false income, and fabricated a pay stub from Ms. Castaneda’s fictitious employer. In addition, Pike and Lancaster forged Plaintiffs’ signatures on credit and loan application documents.

{6} Pike and Lancaster agreed to let Plaintiffs use their old trailer as a trade-in to satisfy GreenPoint’s ten percent down payment requirement on the deal, and assigned it a retail NADA value of $11,349. Green-Point relied on this value “as an accurate evaluation of collateral.” After deducting what Plaintiffs still owed on the trailer, Fleetwood gave Plaintiffs a cash value of $8,409.20 to use as a down payment on their new home. Pike and Lancaster also certified to GreenPoint that they were building a garage and decks on Plaintiffs’ property costing $7,500 and $2,000, respectively. Plaintiffs were assured they would not be charged extra for the garage and decks. Yet, Pike and Lancaster submitted fictitious invoices to GreenPoint showing that the garage and decks had been installed, and GreenPoint released $9,500 of Plaintiffs’ money to Fleet-wood. Once GreenPoint became aware that the garage and decks had not been installed, they directed Fleetwood to rectify the situation, and also requested that Fleetwood repurchase the loan. No garage or decks were ever installed, and in fact “it was physically impossible to put a garage on the property.” Instead, without Plaintiffs’ permission, Fleet-wood erected a fence on Plaintiffs’ property worth approximately $1,000.

{7} Fleetwood also failed to deliver a custom home. The home it delivered did not have the custom features Plaintiffs’ ordered, although Fleetwood removed the “fancier” items as Plaintiffs requested. In addition, the setup of the home was substandard. A general contractor and certified home inspector testified that the setup would not pass a Housing and Urban Development inspection for numerous reasons. Fleetwood installed the home on a temporary foundation instead of on a required permanent foundation. The home was not aligned properly, leaving a one-to-three-ineh gap between the two halves of Plaintiffs’ mobile home. The resulting crack in the roof near Plaintiffs’ kitchen and hall bathroom allowed light, dirt, and insects into the home. The misalignment also resulted in increased utility bills and an onslaught of dust, mosquitos, moths, and roaches. In addition, duct work on the roof was covered with tape instead of a lid and screws, a torn rubber grommet allowed moisture to enter the house, and many shingles were missing. Numerous interior and exterior walls were uneven and loose, and quarter-inch screws were sticking out of some walls. Windows and doors throughout the home were difficult to open and close. Inside, the floors were uneven in several places, and ceiling panels, trim, and molding throughout the home were loose and uneven. The walls were covered with soot, and the carpet was filthy. Plaintiffs could hear leaks in the walls and saw water on the floors.

{8} Plaintiffs called Pike and Lancaster several times regarding the problems with their home. Because “Lancaster was not adequately taking care of their service issues,” Fleetwood’s zone district manager William Kasprzyk visited the site and made a list of the problems.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2006 NMSC 046, 143 P.3d 717, 140 N.M. 478, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chavarria-v-fleetwood-retail-corp-nm-2006.