Jandreau v. Sheesley Plumbing & Heating Co.

324 N.W.2d 266, 34 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 785, 1982 S.D. LEXIS 385
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 1, 1982
Docket13552
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 324 N.W.2d 266 (Jandreau v. Sheesley Plumbing & Heating Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jandreau v. Sheesley Plumbing & Heating Co., 324 N.W.2d 266, 34 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 785, 1982 S.D. LEXIS 385 (S.D. 1982).

Opinion

WOLLMAN, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal by Fay and Roberta Jandreau, husband and wife, from orders granting summary judgment in favor of appellees, Sheesley Plumbing and Heating and Federal Irrigation, Inc. 1 (For convenience, we will refer to appellants as “Jan-dreau” inasmuch as it was Mr. Jandreau who was the principal actor in the events giving rise to the litigation that resulted in this appeal.) We affirm.

On November 12, 1976, Jandreau signed an order form and sales contract for the purchase of irrigation equipment from Federal Irrigation, an authorized dealer for Yalmont products. On February 12, 1977, Jandreau signed a second order form and sales contract that set forth the total purchase price for the equipment, accessories, and installation.

Both sales agreements contain a provision barring any action for breach of contract brought more than one year after the cause of action accrues. The installation of equipment was completed by Sheesley and the system put into operation by Jandreau in June 1977. This action was commenced in March 1980. Appellee Sheesley made no contract with Jandreau, nor did it have any contact with Jandreau until after the contract with Federal was made.

The first issue is whether Jandreau’s action against Federal is barred by the one-year limitation contained in the contract. Jandreau argues that the purchase of an irrigation system is a contract for services and not for the sale of goods, rendering inapplicable the provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code, SDCL Title 57A.

Whether a contract is one of sale depends upon whether the contract contemplates a sale of goods. The pertinent definitions are contained in SDCL 57A-2-106(l) and 57A-2-105(1).

SDCL 57A — 2-106(1) states:

*268 (1) In this chapter unless the context otherwise requires “contract” and “agreement” are limited to those relating to the present or future sale of goods. “Contract for sale” includes both a present sale of goods and a contract to sell goods at a future time. A “sale” consists in the passing of title from the seller to the buyer for a price (§ 57A-2-401). A “present sale” means a sale which is accomplished by the making of the contract.

SDCL 57A-2-105(l) states:

(1) “Goods” means 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 (chapter 57A-8) and things in action. “Goods” also includes the unborn young of animals and growing crops and other identified things attached to realty as described in the sections on goods to be severed from realty (§ 57A-2-107).

The correct result of the application of these definitions is not always self-evident. “Goods” are defined broadly, but special inquiry must be made when goods and services are sold together. When the sale of both goods and services is necessary to meet the contract objectives, then inquiry must be made into the relative importance of the separate elements of the contract. We conclude that the test applied in Bonebrake v. Cox, 499 F.2d 951 (8th Cir. 1974), should be applied when making the determination whether a contract is in fact one for the sale of goods rather than the providing of services.

Bonebrake involved a contract for the sale and installation of used bowling equipment. One of the issues before that court was whether the contract came under Article 2 of the UCC. Bonebrake enunciated the following test to be applied in mixed goods and service contracts:

The test for inclusion or exclusion is not whether they are mixed, but, granting that they are mixed, whether their predominant factor, their thrust, their purpose, reasonably stated, is the rendition of service, with goods incidentally involved (e.g., contract with artist for painting) or is a transaction of sale, with labor incidentally involved (e.g., installation of a water heater in a bathroom) ....

499 F.2d at 960 (footnotes omitted).

Regarding the definition of “goods” contained in Article 2, § 105(1) of the UCC the court said:

[T]his section is divided into two parts, the first affirmative, defining the scope and reach of Article 2, the second negative, excluding certain transactions. To come within the affirmative section, the articles (the “things”) must be movable, and the movability must occur at the time of identification to the contract. The applicability of the Code to the April contract is clear from and within its four corners. The “things” sold are all items of tangible property, normally in the flow of commerce, portable at the time of the contract. They are not the less “goods” within the definition of the act because service may play a role in their ultimate use. The Code contains no such exception. “Services,” . . . “always play an important role in the use of goods, whether it is the service of transforming the raw materials into some usable product or the service of distributing the usable product to a point where it can easily be obtained by the consumer. The [SDCL 57A-2-105(l) ] definition should not be used to deny Code application simply because an added service is required to inject or apply the product.” In short, the fact that the contract “involved substantial amounts of labor” does not remove it from inclusion under the Code ....

499 F.2d at 958-59 (citations and footnotes omitted). After applying these principles, the court concluded that rendering service as part of a contract for sale did not remove the contract from the coverage of the UCC.

The Bonebrake analysis has been adopted or applied by numerous courts. See, e.g., Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel v. Brookhaven *269 Manor Wat., 532 F.2d 572 (7th Cir. 1976); Ranger Const. Co. v. Dixie Floor Co., Inc., 433 F.Supp. 442 (D.S.C. 1977); Cleveland Lumber Company v. Proctor & Schwartz, Inc., 397 F.Supp. 1088 (N.D. Ga. 1975); Meyers v. Henderson Construction Co., 147 N.J.Super. 77, 370 A.2d 547 (1977); Air Heaters, Inc. v. Johnson Elec., Inc., 258 N.W.2d 649 (N.D. 1977); Burton v. Artery Company, Inc., 279 Md.

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324 N.W.2d 266, 34 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 785, 1982 S.D. LEXIS 385, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jandreau-v-sheesley-plumbing-heating-co-sd-1982.