Curtiss-Wright Corp. v. Rodney Hunt Co.

1 F. Supp. 3d 277, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20351, 2014 WL 651980
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedFebruary 18, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 13-2799 (SDW)(MCA)
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 1 F. Supp. 3d 277 (Curtiss-Wright Corp. v. Rodney Hunt Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Curtiss-Wright Corp. v. Rodney Hunt Co., 1 F. Supp. 3d 277, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20351, 2014 WL 651980 (D.N.J. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

WIGENTON, District Judge.

Before the Court is Defendant Rodney Hunt Company, Inc.’s (“Defendant”) Motion to Dismiss the Amended Complaint pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). This Court has jurisdiction over this action pur[281]*281suant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332. Venue is proper in this District pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b). This Court, having considered the parties’ submissions, decides this matter without oral argument pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 78. For the reasons discussed below, Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss is denied, in part, with respect to the breach of contract claim, and granted, in part, "with respect to the claims for consumer fraud, negligence, fraud, and fraudulent concealment.

FACTUAL HISTORY

Parties

Curtiss-Wright Corporation (“Plaintiff’) is a New Jersey company that designs and manufactures technologies used in “defense, power generation, oil and gas, commercial aerospace, and general industrial markets.” (Am. Compl. ¶ 4; PI. Opp. 16.) EMD is a division within Plaintiff located in Pennsylvania and is involved in designing and manufacturing complex electromechanical equipment. (Am. Compl. ¶ 5; Def. Br. 19.) In 1994, EMD was owned by Westinghouse Corporation (“Westinghouse”). (Am. Compl. ¶ 8.)

Defendant is a Massachusetts corporation involved in the water power and control industries. (Id. ¶ 1.)

Factual Allegations

In 1994, EMD entered into a contract with Defendant to purchase a Rotovalve Cone Valve (the “valve”) to be delivered on or before February 10, 1995. (Id. ¶ 8.) The valve was to be installed in EMD’s K-Loop testing facility which was used for the production testing of coolant pumps. (Id. ¶ 10.) EMD’s K-Loop testing facility and its component parts “were required to be free of any detrimental materials, including lead” because such materials would require rigorous cleaning and could damage the steel and steel alloys. (Id. ¶¶ 11-12.) Plaintiff alleges that at the time of contracting, Defendant knew or should have known that the K-Loop facility and valve could not contain lead. (Id. ¶ 13.) Additionally, the manufacturing plans for the valve did not contain any lead parts or materials. (Id. ¶ 14.)

Plaintiff alleges that Defendant intentionally included a lead ring or disc within the valve while it was being manufactured. (Id. ¶ 15.) Plaintiff further alleges that “there is no plausible way that [Defendant] would not have been aware that it was installing a lead component into the [valve].” (Id. ¶ 16.) Because the lead ring or disc was enclosed inside the interior casing of the valve, Plaintiff claims that EMD had no way of knowing that there was lead contained in the valve. (Id. ¶ 17.)

Defendant delivered the valve to Plaintiff in February 1995. (Id. ¶ 18.) For years, the K-Loop and valve operated without any problems. (Id. ¶ 19.) On December 2, 2008, EMD installed a coolant pump into the K-Loop facility for production testing. (Id. ¶ 21.) On January 6, 2009, the pump’s motor unit was disassembled and EMD personnel discovered three pieces of foreign material in the pump’s thermal barrier. (Id. ¶¶ 22-23.) The foreign materials were analyzed and found to contain lead. (Id. ¶ 24.)

On or about March 27, 2009, the K-Loop and valve failed. (Id. ¶ 31.) While disassembling the valve, multiple pieces of foreign material appearing to be a ring or disc were found in the valve. (Id. ¶ 32.) The foreign elements in the valve were identified to be lead, tin, antimony, and copper. (Id. ¶ 33.) In or around May 2009, Defendant’s representatives indicated to Plaintiff that there was no reason for lead to be in the valve sold to EMD, but that other valves manufactured at the time of sale contained lead. (Id. ¶ 34.)

[282]*282PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On March 25, 2013, Plaintiff filed its Complaint in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Morris County Law Division alleging breach of contract and negligence. On May 1, 2013, the case was removed to this Court based on diversity of citizenship. Defendant moved to dismiss the Complaint on May 22, 2013. On June 10, 2013, Plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint adding allegations and new causes of action for fraudulent concealment, common law fraud, and a violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (“CFA”) and Defendant withdrew his initial Motion to Dismiss. On July 12, 2013, in response to the Amended Complaint, Defendant filed a Motion to Dismiss.

LEGAL STANDARD

Motion to Dismiss Pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6)

The adequacy of pleadings is governed by Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2), which requires that a complaint allege “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” This Rule “requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action.... Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (internal citations omitted); see also Phillips v. Cnty. of Allegheny, 515 F.3d 224, 231 (3d Cir.2008) (stating that Rule 8 “ ‘requires’ a ‘showing’ rather than a blanket assertion of an entitlement to relief ” (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555 n. 3, 127 S.Ct. 1955)).

In considering a Motion to Dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), the Court must “ ‘accept all factual allegations as true, construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, and determine whether, under any reasonable reading of the complaint, the plaintiff may be entitled to relief.’ ” Phillips, 515 F.3d at 231 (quoting Pinker v. Roche Holdings Ltd., 292 F.3d 361, 374 n. 7 (3d Cir.2002)). However, “the tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions. Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere eonclu-sory statements, do not suffice.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955). If the “well-pleaded facts do not permit the court to infer more than the mere possibility of misconduct,” the complaint should be dismissed for failing to show “ ‘that the pleader is entitled to relief ” as required by Rule 8(a)(2). Id.

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1 F. Supp. 3d 277, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20351, 2014 WL 651980, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/curtiss-wright-corp-v-rodney-hunt-co-njd-2014.