Goodman v. Wenco Management

394 S.E.2d 832, 100 N.C. App. 108, 13 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 106, 1990 N.C. App. LEXIS 902
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedAugust 21, 1990
Docket8915SC1279
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 394 S.E.2d 832 (Goodman v. Wenco Management) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goodman v. Wenco Management, 394 S.E.2d 832, 100 N.C. App. 108, 13 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 106, 1990 N.C. App. LEXIS 902 (N.C. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinions

GREENE, Judge.

Plaintiff appeals the trial court’s grant of summary judgment for Greensboro Meat Supply Company, Inc. (GBMS) and its directed verdict at the end of plaintiff’s evidence for Wenco Management, Wenco’s Foods, Inc., d/b/a Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers (Wendy’s).

In his complaint, the plaintiff alleged that Wendy’s was negligent and breached its implied warranty of merchantability by preparing and serving a hamburger sandwich containing bone. Plaintiff also alleged that GBMS was negligent and breached its implied warranty of merchantability by processing and providing to Wendy’s ground beef used in the sandwich.

At trial, plaintiff’s evidence tended to show that on 28 October 1983, he purchased a double hamburger sandwich with “everything” on it. In addition to the bun and burger, his testimony mentions lettuce, tomato, ketchup and other unspecified “toppings” or “condiments.” About halfway through the sandwich, he bit a hard substance. He spit out a chewed mass of burger, bun and condiments and found a piece of bone therein. Because the “majority of that mass was meat,” the plaintiff concluded the bone had been [111]*111in the meat. However, he admitted that the bone could possibly have been in the bun, toppings or condiments. He stated he could not be “sure” what portion of the sandwich concealed the bone.

The plaintiff stated the bone was “possibly the size of my small fingernail,” but more triangular with a slant off to one side. He took the bone home, measured it and found it between one-sixteenth and one-eighth inch thick. “It was thick on one side and shaved down on the other.” Its length was about one and one-half inches, and the width was one-quarter inch at its widest, from which it narrowed to a point. Plaintiff later lost the bone.

As a result of biting the bone, the plaintiff broke two teeth, and damaged a third which later was extracted. He incurred substantial dental expenses for root canal surgery, temporary and permanent crowns, and tooth extraction.

In support of its motion for summary judgment, GBMS offered the pleadings and the plaintiff’s deposition, which contained essentially the evidence plaintiff offered at trial and described above.

In granting Wendy’s motion for directed verdict, the trial judge entered a written judgment which provided in pertinent part:

The Court first considered the negligence issue. It appears to the Court upon a careful review of the law that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur does not apply. The Plaintiff’s evidence, taken in the light most favorable to him, shows that the ground beef obtained by the Defendant was purchased from a processing plant which was approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and had meat inspectors on site. The Defendant’s standards for ground beef exceeded those of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Defendant’s inspection procedure was effective quality control and more than met the duty of care owed by the Defendant to the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff offered no evidence from which reasonable minds could conclude that the Defendant had failed to meet any duty of care owed to the Plaintiff, and the Court directs verdict in favor of the Defendant on the issue of negligence.
The Court next considered the issue of implied warranty of fitness for purpose and, based upon the case law and the facts in the instant case, concludes that the bone in the hamburger patty was a natural part of the ground beef and not a substance warranted against by an implied warranty of mer[112]*112chantability. The Court hereby directs verdict in favor of the Defendant on this issue as well.

The issues presented are: (I) in an action against Wendy’s, whether a piece of bone in a hamburger sandwich is sufficient evidence to overcome a motion for directed verdict (A) in an action for breach of implied warranty of merchantability and (B) in an action for negligent preparation of the hamburger, sandwich; and (II) in an action against GBMS, whether a piece of bone found in a hamburger sandwich, prepared with hamburger supplied by GBMS, is sufficient to overcome a motion for summary judgment for GBMS (A) in an action for breach of implied warranty of merchantability and (B) in an action for negligent processing of the ground beef.

I

Wendy’s

On appeal from the granting of a motion for directed verdict, the evidence supporting plaintiff’s claim is taken as true and considered in the light most favorable to him, granting him the benefit of every reasonable inference supporting his claim. Adler v. Lumber Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 10 N.C. App. 720, 179 S.E.2d 786, aff’d, 280 N.C. 146, 185 S.E.2d 144 (1971). If the evidence considered in this manner is sufficient to justify a verdict for the plaintiff, the motion must be denied. Arnold v. Sharpe, 296 N.C. 533, 537, 251 S.E.2d 452, 455 (1979).

A

Implied Warranty of Merchantability

The Uniform Commercial Code provides:

Unless excluded or modified (G.S. 25-2-316), a warranty that the goods shall be merchantable is implied in a contract for their sale if the seller is a merchant with respect to goods of that kind. Under this section the serving for value of food or drink to be consumed either on the premises or elsewhere is a sale.

N.C.G.S. § 25-2-314(1) (1986). A merchant is defined as:

... a person who deals- in goods of the kind or otherwise by his occupation holds himself out as having knowledge or [113]*113skill peculiar to the practices or goods involved in the transaction or to whom such knowledge or skill may be attributed by his employment of an agent or broker or other intermediary who by his occupation holds himself out as having such knowledge or skill.

N.C.G.S. § 25-2-104(1) (1986). Goods are defined as:

... all things (including specially manufactured goods) which are movable at the time of identification to the contract for sale other than the money in which the price is to be paid, investment securities . . . and things in action. . . .

N.C.G.S. § 25-2-105(1) (1986).

To be merchantable, goods “must be at least such as . . . are fit for the ordinary purposes for which such goods are used . . .” N.C.G.S. § 25-2-314(2)(c) (1986).

Wendy’s was a merchant within the terms of the statute, and the sale of the hamburger to the plaintiff was a sale of “goods” within the meaning of the statute. None of the exclusions or modifications of § 25-2-316 are applicable. Therefore, there exists a breach of an implied warranty of merchantability if the hamburger was not fit for the ordinary purposes for which it was sold. Generally, a restaurant “makes an implied warranty that the food which it serves is fit for human consumption, even though the restaurant in the exercise of all possible care could not have discovered its unwholesome nature.” R. Anderson, Uniform Commercial Code § 2-314.183 (1983).

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Related

Mexicali Rose v. Superior Court
822 P.2d 1292 (California Supreme Court, 1992)
Goodman v. Wenco Management
394 S.E.2d 832 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1990)

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Bluebook (online)
394 S.E.2d 832, 100 N.C. App. 108, 13 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 106, 1990 N.C. App. LEXIS 902, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goodman-v-wenco-management-ncctapp-1990.