Duane T. Burns, Kevin L. Henault v. Winnebago Industries, Inc.

492 F. App'x 44
Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided October 11, 2012·No. 12-10949·Unpublished·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Duane T. Burns and Kevin L. Henault (“Plaintiffs”) appeal the district court’s denial of their amended motion to amend their complaint, as well as the court’s subsequent grant of summary judgment to Winnebago Industries, Inc. (“Winnebago”), on Plaintiffs’ breach-of-warranty claims.

Plaintiffs purchased a Winnebago RV that subsequently developed serious defects. 1 Plaintiffs claim that the seller was unable to fully repair the defects. On May 21, 2010, Plaintiffs brought suit in Florida state court against Winnebago for breach of warranty under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and the Florida Uniform Commercial Code.

*46 Winnebago removed the case to federal court, but it was remanded to state court on August 11, 2010, due to insufficient evidence that the amount in controversy had been met. The state court set trial for June 2011.

In October or November 2010, Plaintiffs discovered a new defect on their RV: rust and corrosion on the chassis. However, at that time, Plaintiffs did not seek to amend the complaint to add this additional defect to their breach-of-warranty claim.

On February 10, 2011, Plaintiffs’ expert informed them that Winnebago had knowledge of another RV with a rusty chassis. Again, Plaintiffs did not seek to amend their complaint at that time.

On February 22, 2011, the case was removed again to federal court, after evidence came to light during discovery showing that the amount in controversy was now satisfied.

On May 6, 2011, Plaintiffs filed their first motion to amend the complaint. They sought to add the rust as an additional defect under the pre-existing breach-of-warranty claim, to add Freight-liner (the manufacturer of the chassis) as a new defendant, and to add several new claims alleging deceptive trade practices and misrepresentation. The district court denied the motion because Plaintiffs had unduly delayed in seeking the amendments. Plaintiffs filed a more-detailed motion on May 16, 2011, but the district court still concluded that Plaintiffs had unduly delayed.

The district court then continued with Plaintiffs’ original warranty claims. The court concluded that the warranty terms required that Plaintiffs notify Winnebago in writing about the defects and then to contact Winnebago if the dealer did not satisfactorily repair the RV. Plaintiffs conceded that they had not done either of these. Accordingly, the district court granted summary judgment to Winnebago on all of Plaintiffs’ claims.

I. MOTION TO AMEND

We review the denial of a motion to amend a complaint for an abuse of discretion. Fla. Evergreen Foliage v. E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co., 470 F.3d 1036, 1040 (11th Cir.2006). After the time for allowing amendments as a matter of course has passed, amendments are permissible only with the opposing party’s written consent or the court’s leave, which the court “should freely give ... when justice so requires.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(a)(2). A district court may deny such leave where (1) there has been undue delay, bad faith, dilatory motive, or repeated failure to cure deficiencies by amendments previously allowed; (2) allowing amendment would cause undue prejudice to the opposing party; or (3) amendment would be futile. Burger King Corp. v. Weaver, 169 F.3d 1310, 1319 (11th Cir.1999).

The district court concluded that Plaintiffs had unduly delayed adding (1) the rust problem as an additional defect, (2) Freightliner as a defendant, and (3) claims for deceptive practices and misrepresentation.

The Plaintiffs had possession of the RV for three years before they filed suit, and these amendments were not requested until almost a year after the case began. While the mere passage of time is not enough to deny a motion to amend, see Loggerhead Turtle v. Cnty. Council of Volusia Cnty., Fla., 148 F.3d 1231, 1256-57 (11th Cir.1998), there is sufficient evidence here of undue delay to support the district court’s decision to deny these amendments.

Upon discovering the rust problems, Plaintiffs easily could have amended the *47 complaint to include the rust as an additional defect under their pre-existing breach-of-warranty claim. Plaintiffs had been aware of the rust issue since October or November 2010, when the case was in state court with a trial set for June 2011. However, they did not seek to amend their complaint until almost seven months later, after the case had been removed again to federal court.

By the time Plaintiffs allege that they had uncovered evidence that Winnebago knew of another rusty chassis, the state court trial date was less than four months away. But Plaintiffs still failed to amend their complaint. Instead, they waited two more months before beginning any further research on this issue, then waited another month before actually seeking to amend the complaint.

By the time Plaintiffs filed their motion to amend, discovery between the parties had begun more than six months earlier (while in state court), Plaintiffs’ depositions had already been taken, and the case had been pending long enough that it had twice been removed to federal court.

Considering all of these facts, we do not find an abuse of discretion in the district court’s decision to deny Plaintiffs’ motion to amend or their amended motion to amend. 2 See Hargett v. Valley Fed. Sav. Bank, 60 F.3d 754, 761 (11th Cir.1995) (“Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(a) provides the district court with extensive discretion to decide whether to grant leave to amend after the time for amendment as a matter of course has passed.”).

II. BREACH OF WARRANTY

Under the limited warranty, Plaintiffs were required to give notice of defects both to the seller and to Winnebago itself. 3 There is no dispute that Plaintiffs failed to give written notice to Winnebago, nor that they failed to contact Winnebago when the dealer was unable to satisfactorily make the repairs.

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Duane T. Burns, Kevin L. Henault v. Winnebago Industries, Inc., 492 F. App'x 44 (11th Cir. 2012).

492 F. App'x 44 (Duane T. Burns, Kevin L. Henault v. Winnebago Industries, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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