Frigiquip Corp. v. Parker-Hannifin Corp.

75 F.R.D. 605
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Oklahoma
DecidedMay 23, 1977
DocketNo. CIV-73-583-D
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 75 F.R.D. 605 (Frigiquip Corp. v. Parker-Hannifin Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Frigiquip Corp. v. Parker-Hannifin Corp., 75 F.R.D. 605 (W.D. Okla. 1977).

Opinion

ORDER

DAUGHERTY, Chief Judge.

The Plaintiff and Defendant herein have each filed Objections to the Report of the Special Master filed herein. Plaintiff has filed an Application to the Court for Action on said Report and Objections thereto. After conducting a hearing on said Report and the Objections thereto, the Court enters the following rulings on the Special Report filed herein by the Special Master and the Objections of Plaintiff and Defendant thereto.

PLAINTIFF’S OBJECTIONS

Plaintiff’s first Objection is that it should recover damages for future repairs, that is, repair costs it will incur on claims to [608]*608be made to the Plaintiff in the future on the basis of a defective receiver-dryer and the Special Master has failed to allow such recovery. The Special Master found from the evidence that the great volume of claims based on a defective receiver-dryer was made in 1972 and 1973, such claims dwindled in 1974 and only minimal claims were made in 1975. In these circumstances the Special Master concluded that there was no reasonable probability of any future claims in any significant amount being made to the Plaintiff based on defective receiver-dryers furnished by Defendant. As it is not believed that this finding and conclusion is clearly erroneous but is supported by the evidence and the law, this Objection should be overruled and the Special Master’s Report should be adopted in this regard.

Plaintiff’s second Objection is that it should recover damages for the diminution in value of Plaintiff’s business because of having received defective receiver-dryers from the Defendant and the Special Master has failed to allow such recovery. The Special Master found and concluded that the evidence did not support the contention that the value of Plaintiff’s business was diminished by its experience with Defendant’s defective receiver-dryers. In this regard the Special Master makes note that Plaintiff continued to do business with Winnebago and only lost a subsequent contract with Winnebago because Plaintiff’s bid did not contain a satisfactory price. As it is not believed that this finding and conclusion is clearly erroneous but is supported by the evidence and the law, this Objection should be overruled and the Special Master’s Report should be adopted in this regard.

DEFENDANT'S OBJECTIONS

Defendant’s first Objection is that the Report is clearly erroneous in allowing Plaintiff damages of $3.10 each for all (4,391) the receiver-dryers furnished Plaintiff by Defendant. It appears that this number of receiver-dryers was furnished Plaintiff by Defendant and that Plaintiff placed all of these in units which it marketed. However, the evidence discloses that there were only 870 defective receiver-dryers returned to the Plaintiff. The Special Master further found that considering the time period involved as above discussed the Plaintiff has now received all of the claims based on defective receiver-dryers that it would reasonably be expected to receive. The Court has adopted this finding of the Special Master. It therefore appears that the Report of the Special Master is clearly erroneous in allowing Plaintiff damages for receiver-dryers obtained from Defendant and which Plaintiff has used and sold in its units and on which no claim for defectiveness has been made to Plaintiff or is reasonably expected to be made to Plaintiff in the future. If this finding should be permitted to stand the Plaintiff would receive a windfall for the cost to it of a significant number of receiver-dryers furnished by Defendant. Plaintiff would be permitted to obtain this significant number of receiver-dryers from Defendant which Plaintiff thereafter sold for a price but for which Plaintiff would pay nothing to Defendant. It is believed this results in an improper award of damages. Accordingly, this portion of the Report of the Special Master should be modified to the extent that Plaintiff should not recover damages from Defendant in the sum of $13,612.10 for 4,391 receiver-dryers at $3.10 per receiver-dryer and this portion of the Report should be eliminated. In this regard the Report of the Special Master should be further modified to eliminate the deduction of $2,697.00 (870 receiver-dryers at $3.10 each) from the figure of $33,967.91 as set out in Page 4 of said Report. With these modifications Plaintiff should then recover judgment against the Defendant under the Report of the Special Master in the total amount of $46,012.05.

Defendant’s Objection Number 2 is deemed to be without merit and should be overruled. The Special Master did not place the burden of proof on Defendant. The Special Master found that the Plaintiff had met its burden of proof. It is not [609]*609improper for the Special Master to simply observe that there was no evidence to the contrary.

Defendant’s Objection Number 3 is that Plaintiff should recover no damages from it for any claims paid by Plaintiff on defective receiver-dryers which were paid by Plaintiff outside of Plaintiff’s warranty to owners of its units. This Objection is believed to be without merit and should be overruled. The warranty Defendant alludes to was an agreement between Plaintiff and the owners of its units and not between Plaintiff and Defendant. If Plaintiff should desire to pay claims on defective receiver-dryers in its units and ignore the limits of its warranty with the owners of the units the Defendant has no standing to complain and this should not preclude Plaintiff from recovering its losses. Moreover, the defective receiver-dryers furnished by Defendant constituted a breach of implied warranty of fitness between Defendant and Plaintiff and it is on this basis that Defendant should respond in damages to Plaintiff for its actual losses and damages resulting from such breach. The Court adopts the findings and conclusions of the Special Master in this respect.

Defendant’s Objections Number 4, 5, 6 and 8 will be treated together as they appear to be related. The Special Master reports that each claim made to Plaintiff and for which Plaintiff seeks recovery from Defendant was the subject of testimony from Plaintiff’s expert witness as to causation for the claim being attributable to a defective receiver-dryer. This witness was cross-examined by Defendant. The Court is not able to say that the findings and conclusions of the Special Master regarding these claims are clearly erroneous. To the contrary the same appear to be supported by the evidence and the law. There is no requirement that the claims approved by the Special Master should be segregated by year, contain any certain format and be attached to the defective receiver-dryer involved. These Objections are deemed to be without merit and should be overruled. As the approval of the Special Master to claims presented herein by the Plaintiff upon which recovery is sought against the Defendant is supported by substantial evidence and is not clearly erroneous the Court adopts the findings and conclusions of the Special Master in this regard and Defendant’s Objections Number 4, 5, 6 and 8 should be overruled.

Defendant’s Objection Number 7 is deemed to be without merit and should be overruled for the same reasons set out above regarding Defendant’s Objection Number 2. The Special Master found that the Plaintiff established by evidence that there were no excessive component part failures in the units involved other than those caused by defective receiver-dryers obtained from the Defendant. It is not improper for the Special Master to observe that there was no evidence to the contrary.

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Bluebook (online)
75 F.R.D. 605, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frigiquip-corp-v-parker-hannifin-corp-okwd-1977.