Gordon Wood v. Winnebago Industries, Inc.

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 3, 2024
Docket22-16805
StatusUnpublished

This text of Gordon Wood v. Winnebago Industries, Inc. (Gordon Wood v. Winnebago Industries, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gordon Wood v. Winnebago Industries, Inc., (9th Cir. 2024).

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS JUN 3 2024 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

GORDON WOOD, No. 22-16805

Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 2:18-cv-01710-JCM-BNW v.

WINNEBAGO INDUSTRIES, INC., MEMORANDUM*

Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada James C. Mahan, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted November 8, 2023 Phoenix, Arizona

Before: HAWKINS and COLLINS, Circuit Judges, and S. MURPHY,** District Judge. Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge COLLINS.

Appellant-Plaintiff Gordon Wood appeals the adverse summary judgment

orders on each of his claims in a warranty dispute. We have jurisdiction under 29

U.S.C. § 1291, and for the reasons below, we affirm.

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. ** The Honorable Stephen Joseph Murphy III, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, sitting by designation. On April 22, 2017, Plaintiff-Appellant Gordon Wood purchased a Winnebago

recreational vehicle (“RV”) that came with a three-year, 100,000-mile limited

manufacturer’s warranty (“Warranty”). The Warranty outlined several steps

customers needed to take before they could claim that Winnebago breached its

Warranty obligations. First, customers needed to “present the [RV] to an authorized

Winnebago service facility during normal business hours” and provide that facility

with “a written list of items to be inspected or repaired.” Second, if a customer felt

the repairs failed or were “otherwise inadequate,” they needed to “contact

Winnebago Owner Relations in writing and advise them of the failure or

inadequacy, including a list of the defects.” Third, they needed to “provide

Winnebago an opportunity to repair the motorhome prior to claiming a breach of this

warranty.”

During the summer and fall of 2017, Wood discovered that his new RV had

twenty noticeable defects. So, pursuant to the Warranty’s instructions, he scheduled

a service appointment with Camping World, an authorized Winnebago dealership,

dropping off the RV for repairs on October 31, 2017, and providing Camping World

employees with a list of the RV’s defects.

When, after three months, Camping World had not completed the repairs,

Wood sent a letter to Winnebago Owner Relations, including a list of the RV’s

defects. The letter stated Wood’s belief that Camping World’s repairs were taking

2 too long: he noted that he could not check in until three weeks after he booked the

service appointment and was told that repairs could not be completed until Camping

World received certain parts, which were scheduled for delivery on January 30,

2018. To Wood, “[f]our months to get some factory warranty work done that should

have been done in the PDI” was unacceptable. Thus, he ended his letter by providing

a phone number for Camping World’s Service Advisor and asking Winnebago to

“[p]lease help me out.”

On March 31, 2018, Wood (through counsel) sent a second letter to

Winnebago Owner Relations, outlining the RV’s alleged defects and explaining that

Camping World’s repairs were taking too long. This letter raised new allegations

that Winnebago “breached its express and/or implied warranties to Gordon Wood”

by failing to manufacture the RV correctly and for failing to ensure that Camping

World’s repairs were promptly completed, which was an “essential purpose” of the

Warranty.1 According to the letter, Winnebago’s conduct and Camping World’s

deficient service substantially impaired the RV’s use, value, and safety and

ultimately amounted to twenty-five violations of state and federal laws. The letter

went on to detail various economic and non-economic damages caused by

Winnebago and Camping World’s alleged conduct and demanded that Winnebago

1 Importantly, the second letter couched Wood’s grievances in the Warranty’s precise language by noting that Camping World’s attempted repairs “failed or [were] otherwise inadequate.”

3 repurchase the RV. Winnebago admits that it received these letters and that it never

responded to Wood or his counsel.

Camping World completed the repairs on July 10, 2018. A few weeks later,

Wood concluded that Camping World failed to fix the original twenty defects and

noticed several new ones. Having “lost faith” in Camping World’s ability to fix the

RV, Wood parked it on one of his properties, where it has been located at all relevant

times.

Wood filed suit on July 30, 2018, claiming expressed and implied breaches of

the Warranty, violations of the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act (“MMWA”), and

violations of the Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act (“NDTPA”), which were

based on representations Winnebago made about the quality of its vehicles in several

brochures. Wood now appeals from the grant of summary judgment in favor of

Winnebago on all of Wood’s claims in two orders issued on March 23, 2020, and

November 20, 2020.2

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo. Lopez v. Smith, 203 F.3d

1122, 1131 (9th Cir. 2000) (en banc). “Viewing the evidence in the light most

favorable to the nonmoving party, we must determine whether there are any genuine

issues of material fact.” Rodriguez v. Bowhead Transp. Co., 270 F.3d 1283, 1286

2 The parties stipulated to dismiss a claim for breach of the implied warranty of habitability without prejudice.

4 (9th Cir. 2001). When the nonmoving party has the burden of proof at trial, the

moving party only needs to point out “that there is an absence of evidence to support

the nonmoving party’s case.” See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325

(1986). “Once the moving party carries its initial burden, the adverse party ‘may not

rest upon the mere allegations or denials of the adverse party’s pleading,’ but must

provide affidavits or other sources of evidence that ‘set forth specific facts showing

that there is a genuine issue for trial.’” Devereaux v. Abbey, 263 F.3d 1070, 1076

(9th Cir. 2001) (quoting Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323–34.). We first consider Wood’s

breach of express and implied warranty claims; specifically, whether Wood’s non-

compliance with several pre-conditions to litigation bars his claims as a matter of

law. Nevada law controls this Court’s interpretation of the Warranty. See Klaxon

Co. v. Stentor Elec. Mfg. Co., 313 U.S. 487, 496 (1941) (rules for determining the

measure of damages in a breach of contract claim are substantive and therefore

determined by the place of performance). In Nevada, contractual terms that limit

the availability of litigation are permissible. Chiquita Mining Co. v. Fairbanks,

Morse & Co., 60 Nev. 142 (1940) (“The rights and liabilities of the plaintiff and

defendant depend upon the terms of the contract.”). Like all contracts, agreements

that impose pre-conditions to litigation must be given their “usual and ordinary

signification.” MB Am., Inc. v. Alaska Pac. Leasing, 132 Nev.

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