Dutchmen Manufacturing, Inc. v. Texas Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division

383 S.W.3d 217, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 7086, 2012 WL 3600895
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 17, 2012
Docket03-11-00116-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 383 S.W.3d 217 (Dutchmen Manufacturing, Inc. v. Texas Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dutchmen Manufacturing, Inc. v. Texas Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division, 383 S.W.3d 217, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 7086, 2012 WL 3600895 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

OPINION

DIANE M. HENSON, Justice.

Dutchmen Manufacturing, Inc. (Dutchmen) appeals the district court’s judgment affirming the final order of the Texas Department of Transportation’s Motor Vehicle Division (the Division). The Division ordered Dutchmen to repurchase a travel trailer from its owner, John Kennemer, who sought relief under sections 2301.601-.613 of the occupations code.1 See general[219]*219ly Tex. Occ.Code Ann. §§ 2301.601-.613 (West 2012) (commonly called the “lemon law”). Dutchmen argues that the district court erred by affirming the Division’s final order because substantial evidence did not support the Division’s findings and conclusions that: (1) Dutchmen was provided proper notice of the alleged defects and a reasonable opportunity to repair the trailer, and (2) the trailer’s value was substantially impaired. We will affirm the district court’s judgment because we find no error in the Division’s final order.

BACKGROUND

Kennemer bought a 2008 Dutchmen travel trailer on February 4, 2008 from Crestview RV Center in Buda, Texas.2 He paid $33,702.70 for the trailer. Kennemer, a resident of Franklin, Texas, purchased the trailer to use during the week while he was working in San Antonio, Texas. The trailer was delivered to San Antonio in March, and Kennemer began using it in mid-March 2008. Approximately a week later, the trailer began having plumbing problems that caused water to leak into the trailer. Kennemer described it as “water flooding out from underneath the walls” into various rooms in the trailer.

Kennemer notified Crestview in Buda by telephone, and the service manager, Jeff Bosse, referred him to the Crestview dealer in San Antonio. Crestview in San Antonio referred Kennemer to a dealer it used for warranty work, Good Time RV. Good Time sent a service technician out on March 26, 2008, and the technician documented a number of problems with the trailer, including the water leaks inside the trailer when using the sani-flush system for the black-water holding tanks. The technician also requested a plumbing schematic from Dutchmen. The Good Time service technician emailed Kennemer on March 28 to inform him that he was still waiting for the plumbing schematic and to provide Kennemer with the estimate that the technician had sent to Crestview in Buda. On April 4, Kennemer forwarded the email and attachments from the Good Time technician to Bosse (the Crestview service manager). On the same day, Ken-nemer emailed Ed Shepherd at Dutchmen to follow up on a telephone conversation about the sani-flush system leaking water into the trailer and informed Shepherd that Good Time’s service technician had been in contact with the factory to attempt to get a schematic for the plumbing system. On April 5, Kennemer sent pictures of various valves and hoses that are part of the sani-flush system to Bosse at Crest-view, the Good Time service technician, and Shepherd at Dutchmen. On April 9, Kennemer sent Shepherd two additional pictures of hoses and valves.

On Monday, May 5, Good Time’s service department emailed Kennemer to inform him that Good Time was waiting for Dutchmen to send the valves before scheduling an appointment to make the repairs. Kennemer emailed Shepherd that same day to ask when the parts would be shipped and to inform him that no repairs had yet been made on the trailer. On Thursday, May 8, Good Time’s service department emailed Kennemer to inform him that Shepherd had left a message that the parts had shipped.

On Monday, May 12, Kennemer emailed Shepherd at Dutchmen, Bosse at Crest-view, the Good Time technician, and the Good Time service department. Kennemer informed them that he needed to have [220]*220his unit fixed soon, reminded them that he first had Good Time out for a service call over six weeks earlier on March 26, and explained that he was willing to take the unit back to Crestview to have it repaired, but would need compensation for travel and living expenses until it was repaired or replaced. He also expressed that he was reaching a point of not wanting the unit any longer because he was beginning to feel that he was being taken advantage of and that the problem would never be fixed. He stated that his attorney had informed him that under the lemon law he had to give Dutchmen the opportunity to fix the problem before he could either have his money returned or another unit.

Next, on June 17, 2008, Kennemer sent a notice letter to Dutchmen and Crestview summarizing the history of his problems with the trailer and the efforts made by him and the Good Time technician to obtain the necessary schematic for the plumbing system.3 He itemized the other problems, too, noting that they had “substantially impaired the use and value of [his] trailer” and created serious safety problems. He requested that Dutchmen correct the problem within 30 days of receiving the letter and stated his intent to deliver the trailer to the service center at Crestview in a couple of weeks and asked that Dutchmen contact him to arrange a mutually convenient time for an inspection and repair of his vehicle. He also stated his expectation that Dutchmen would repurchase the trailer if it and the dealer could not correct the problems.

Kennemer delivered the trailer to Crest-view in Buda on June 28, 2008. Crestview performed work on the trailer. Kennemer testified that he went back several times to try to get the problems resolved, but when he “would go pick the trailer up, there would be other problems.” No one from Dutchmen contacted Kennemer about the repairs while Crestview had the trailer.

Kennemer filed a lemon-law complaint with the Division on October 21, 2008. Shortly after he filed his complaint, Crest-view sent him a letter informing him that he had to pick up his trailer or Crestview would begin charging him for storage. On January 14, 2009, Kennemer met with Mike Chamberlain, Dutchmen’s national field representative, who had been assigned to investigate Kennemer’s complaint after Dutchmen received the lemon-law complaint in October 2008. Chamberlain inspected the trailer and offered to make a variety of repairs. Kennemer orally refused Chamberlain’s offer and also refused a second written offer made later through Dutchmen’s counsel.

In April 2009, Kennemer and Dutchmen participated in a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ). The ALJ heard testimony from Kennemer and from Chamberlain. As part of the hearing process, the ALJ and Dutchmen’s counsel inspected the trailer.

After the hearing, the ALJ found that Dutchmen had offered to repair the problems after receiving notification of them and Kennemer refused to allow Dutchmen to make the repairs. Consequently, the ALJ concluded that Kennemer was not eligible to have the trailer repurchased under the lemon law, and instead Dutchmen should be ordered to repair the trailer. See Tex. Occ.Code Ann. § 2301.606(c)(2) (West 2012) (establishing that Division may only refund or replace vehicle if manufacturer, converter, or distributor has been given opportunity to [221]*221cure alleged defect); 43 Tex. Admin. Code § 8.208(8) (2008) (Tex.

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383 S.W.3d 217, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 7086, 2012 WL 3600895, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dutchmen-manufacturing-inc-v-texas-department-of-transportation-motor-texapp-2012.