Kurt Witkowski and Vito Lanzone v. Mack Trucks, Inc., a Pennsylvania Corporation and Norman Schwartz

712 F.2d 1352, 36 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1598, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 24667
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 22, 1983
Docket82-5151
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 712 F.2d 1352 (Kurt Witkowski and Vito Lanzone v. Mack Trucks, Inc., a Pennsylvania Corporation and Norman Schwartz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kurt Witkowski and Vito Lanzone v. Mack Trucks, Inc., a Pennsylvania Corporation and Norman Schwartz, 712 F.2d 1352, 36 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1598, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 24667 (11th Cir. 1983).

Opinions

RONEY, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs purchased from the defendants a truck-tractor which hauls over-the-road trailers. They brought a three-count action alleging an odometer violation of the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act, 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 1981 et seq., a breach of express and implied warranties, and willful fraud for failure to disclose at the time of purchase that the vehicle had been driven in excess of 92,000 miles while each of the two odometers showed a mileage of slightly less than 50,000 miles. Finding neither evidence of intent to defraud nor the existence of express or implied warranties, the dis[1353]*1353trict court granted judgment to the defendants. The findings of the district court not being clearly erroneous, we affirm.

The crux of the argument is that the defendants had actual knowledge of a discrepancy between the odometers and the title certificate which they should have revealed to the purchasers. The facts are somewhat convoluted and involved, but the details are necessary to an understanding of the issues and decision in this case.

Plaintiffs Kurt Witkowski and Vito Lanzone went to Hillside, New Jersey, searching for a particular truck-tractor. Hillside Mack’s sales personnel showed them several vehicles with mileages ranging from a low of about 48,000 to a high of 200,000 miles. All the tractors cost about the same. They decided to buy the tractor with a little over 48,000 odometer miles. The cab odometer and the hub odometer attached to a front axle showed approximately 48,000 miles, a different figure than the mileage shown on the title certificate. The title certificates conveying the tractor from Hubler Rentals, Inc., a leasing company which owned the tractor initially, to Mack Financial Corp., which received the vehicle for a security interest, from Mack Financial Corp. to Mack Trucks, and from Mack Trucks to Witkowski showed the truck as having 92,-104 miles on it. Witkowski testified that although he signed the back of the title certificate, where a space for mileage was left blank, he never saw the front of the certificate showing the 92,104 mile figure until his attorney showed it to him the following year. Witkowski stated that defendant Schwartz, the salesman who accompanied him to a New Jersey tag office, gave him the certificate face down to sign and then immediately gave it to someone in the tag office to secure a temporary tag. Schwartz testified that he gave Witkowski the title certificate after the temporary tag was issued.

That discrepancy is the crux of this lawsuit. It was never satisfactorily explained at trial. The parties agreed that the hub odometer could not be tampered with, although the entire unit could be removed and replaced. The plaintiffs introduced no evidence that the cab odometer had been subjected to tampering.

While taking the truck from New Jersey back to Florida and subsequently, the plaintiff experienced a variety of mechanical problems with it. The truck finally broke down, Witkowski was unable to make monthly payments, and Mack Financial eventually repossessed the truck. Witkowski filed suit against Mack Trucks and Norman Schwartz.

The Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act required the Secretary of Transportation to prescribe rules requiring the transferor of a motor vehicle to disclose to the transferee in writing either the cumulative mileage registered on the odometer, or that the actual mileage is unknown if the odometer reading is known to the transferor to be different from the number of miles the vehicle has actually traveled. 15 U.S.C.A. § 1988(a). The regulations in effect at the time of this transfer required a transferor to furnish a written statement containing the following information: (1) the odometer reading at the time of the transfer; (2) the date of the transfer; (3) the name and current address of the transferor and transferee; (4) the identity of the vehicle, including its make, model, and body type, its vehicle identification number, and its last plate number. 49 C.F.R. § 580.4(a) (1976). The transferor was required to include a statement that the actual mileage was unknown if the transferor knew that the odometer readings differed from the number of miles the vehicle had actually traveled, and that the difference was greater than that caused by odometer calibration error. 49 C.F.R. § 580.4(c) (1976).

A transferee can sue for violation of the Act and recover either $1,500 statutory damages or treble actual damages, whichever is greater. 15 U.S.C.A. § 1989(a)(1). To establish a violation of the Act, a plaintiff must prove that a transferor failed to disclose in writing any of the information set out in the foregoing regulations. A violation of the Act or the rules promulgated thereunder does not automatically lead [1354]*1354to civil liability, however, for § 1989 requires a defendant to have violated the Act with an intent to defraud before liability can be imposed. Nieto v. Pence, 578 F.2d 640, 642 (5th Cir.1978).

Although defendant argues the Act does not apply to this transaction, citing a regulation found at 49 C.F.R. § 580.5(a)(1) (1976), which exempts transfers of vehicles having a gross weight of more than 16,000 pounds from the odometer disclosure requirements set forth in 49 C.F.R. § 580.4 (1976), one court has held the exemption invalid. See Lair v. Lewis Service Center, 428 F.Supp. 778, 781 (D.Neb.1977). As did the district court, we assume without deciding that the Act applies.

The failure to prove an intent to defraud defeated plaintiff’s action in the district court. After a full trial, the district court found that although plaintiffs had established a discrepancy between the mileage actually showing on the odometers and that recorded on the title certificate by the previous owner, there was no evidence to suggest the discrepancy arose from Mack’s intent to defraud. This finding is not clearly erroneous. It appears that the defendant probably violated the Act and regulations by failing to disclose in writing, prior to the transfer of ownership, the discrepancy between the mileage figure recorded on the title certificate and that showing on the odometers. This district court, however, noted that plaintiffs had produced no evidence from which the court could conclude that the odometers, rather than the title certificates, did not show the correct reading. There was no evidence that anyone had tampered with the cab odometer or that it was malfunctioning while the defendant had possession. The concededly tamper-proof hub odometer confirmed its mileage reading.

The plaintiffs seek to buttress their claim by emphasizing that there was no evidence showing the hub odometer was actually on the truck when it arrived at Hillside Mack. Such failure of proof works to the plaintiffs’ detriment, not the defendants’, because plaintiffs bear the burden of proof. Given the plaintiffs’ stipulation that the hub odometer could not be tampered with, they would have to come forward with some evidence tending to show that defendants added a hub odometer to the truck that showed the same mileage as the cab odometer.

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712 F.2d 1352, 36 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1598, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 24667, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kurt-witkowski-and-vito-lanzone-v-mack-trucks-inc-a-pennsylvania-ca11-1983.