Land Power Equipment, LLC v. Amato

23 Misc. 3d 1047
CourtSuffolk County District Court
DecidedMarch 3, 2009
StatusPublished

This text of 23 Misc. 3d 1047 (Land Power Equipment, LLC v. Amato) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Suffolk County District Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Land Power Equipment, LLC v. Amato, 23 Misc. 3d 1047 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

C. Stephen Hackeling, J.

The plaintiff, Land Power Equipment, LLC, commenced this action seeking to recover $5,539.88 for mechanic services [1048]*1048rendered to the defendant’s (Roman Business Corp.) Daewoo skid steer loader. The defendant interposed an answer containing an affirmative defense that the plaintiff ‘s violation of section 398-d of the Vehicle and Traffic Law nullifies any contractual obligation between the parties. The defendant also advances a negligent/sham repair affirmative defense.

Undisputed Facts

The relevant undisputed facts presented to the court are that the parties had an existing long-standing customer relationship when the defendant brought its 2003 Daewoo skid steer loader machine in for a repair check of a hydraulic leak and motor knocking on September 19, 2005. The defendant picked up the machine on September 24, 2005, conditioned upon the tender of a $5,539.88 check, and stopped payment upon its check the day after tendering same.

Disputed Facts

The defendant contends that all it asked for was a repair estimate, that the repairs were performed without being given an estimate and were without its authorization, and alternatively that said repairs were a “sham” as no repairs were performed. The plaintiff asserts that several of its employees gave an oral estimate via the telephone that an engine rebuild would cost between $4,500 and $5,000, and that Marc Amato, an employee of the defendant, approved same and verbally authorized the repair.

Discussion

Prior to addressing the defendant’s Vehicle and Traffic Law § 398-d defense, the court must adjudicate the parties’ disparate factual assertions. The defendant’s alternative contentions that no employee authorized a repair and that no repair occurred are not credible when confronted by the plaintiffs three witnesses who testified that an oral estimate was given and that an authorization to repair was received. The plaintiffs witness who testified that he actually gave the final $4,500-$5,000 estimate is no longer plaintiff’s employee (as such is disinterested in the lawsuit’s outcome) and could point to his handwritten notation of the defendant’s phone number and person with whom he spoke. This, when coupled with the fact that the defendant actually tendered a check for $5,539.88 without protest, compels the court to adopt the plaintiffs version of events as credible. It [1049]*1049appears from the different handwriting on the defendant’s check (exhibit 2) that the defendant’s owner, Gregory Amato, signed a blank instrument and let his son fill in the dollar amount upon picking up the equipment. The court rejects the defendant’s claim that the repair was a sham as the record is devoid of any expert testimony or disinterested nonconelusory proof regarding same. The record also contains no evidence of a prior negligent repair.

Vehicle and Traffic Law § 398-d

In the case at bar, the plaintiff acknowledges its status as a motor vehicle repair shop (hereafter MVRS) and the requirement that it comply with Vehicle and Traffic Law § 398-d. The defendant’s Vehicle and Traffic Law § 398-d defense is problematic, as this statute provides the following in pertinent part:

“1. All work done by a motor vehicle repair shop shall be recorded on an invoice and shall describe all service work done and parts supplied. If any used parts are supplied, the invoice shall clearly state that fact. If any component system installed is composed of new and used parts, such invoice shall clearly state that fact. . . [T]he invoice shall clearly state whether such parts were manufactured as original equipment parts for the vehicle, or were manufactured as non-original replacement parts or are used parts. One copy of the invoice shall be given to the customer . . . [E]very customer and his representative . . . shall have a right to inspect the repaired motor vehicle. Such right of inspection shall also include the right to inspect all replaced parts and components thereof, except warranty or exchange parts . . . The motor vehicle repair shop shall make available to the customer, upon timely written demand, or for such work authorized over the telephone, shall keep until the customer’s motor vehicle is retrieved, all replaced parts, components or equipment excepting any parts, components or equipment normally sold on an exchange basis or subject to a warranty.
“2. Upon the request of any customer, a motor vehicle repair shop shall make an estimate in writing of the parts and labor necessary for a specific job and shall not charge for work done or parts supplied in excess of the estimate without the consent of such customer . . . [T]he estimate shall clearly state [1050]*1050whether such parts were manufactured as original equipment parts for the vehicle, or were manufactured as non-original replacement parts are used parts.” (Emphasis added.)

Having determined that the plaintiff gave an oral estimate and the defendant authorized same without requesting a written estimate, the court need not address the issues of plaintiffs compliance with Vehicle and Traffic Law § 398-d (2), and limits inquiry to the requirements of section 398-d (1). It is clear from a review of the plaintiffs invoice that it does not contain all of the items described in Vehicle and Traffic Law § 398-d (1). Exhibit 1 does little more than quote an overall “engine re-build job” of $5,100 plus $439.88 of sales tax. The required repair detail involving specific services and parts is absent. The court is cognizant that the appropriate detail is contained in exhibit 2, but these documents were not tendered to the defendant.

After the establishment of a section 398-d (1) violation, the question is the consequence thereof. Case law on the issue is limited. The only other relevant reported case which addressed a similar MVRS issue under the predecessor statute held that a violation of Regulations of the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles (15 NYCRR) § 82.5 (b) (which requires the invoice to indicate thereon the date, time and manner of authorization, and by whom such authorization was given) did not prevent enforcement of an oral contract for repair services.

“Since the statute itself does not prohibit an oral contract for repairs; nor does it require an oral work order to contain the ingredients of regulation 82.5 (b), it cannot be said that a failure to indicate on the invoice the date, time and manner of authorization and by whom such authorization was given, is an act either malum in se or malum prohibitum. Therefore, if the court finds that there was an oral contract, it would be enforceable in spite of the requirements spelled out in regulation 82.5 (b).” (Hammerstein v Potamkin Cadillac Corp., 97 Misc 2d 786, 788 [Civ Ct, Queens County 1979].)

In Hammerstein, the court found that the only consequence of the dealer’s violation of regulation 82.5 (b) was the creation of a “permissive presumption” that no oral authorization for repairs was given to the dealer, effectively shifting the burden of proving same onto the dealer. (Hammerstein v Potamkin Cadillac Corp. at 788.)

This court concurs with the Hammerstein court’s logic that a violation of the MVRS invoice/estimate disclosure provisions [1051]

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Related

Miller v. . Schloss
113 N.E. 337 (New York Court of Appeals, 1916)
Watts v. Thomas Carter & Sons, Inc.
207 A.D. 656 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1924)
Longariello v. Getty Petroleum Corp.
207 A.D.2d 870 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1994)
Hammerstein v. Potamkin Cadillac Corp.
97 Misc. 2d 786 (Civil Court of the City of New York, 1979)
General Motors Acceptance Corp. v. Chase Collision, Inc.
140 Misc. 2d 1083 (New York Supreme Court, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
23 Misc. 3d 1047, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/land-power-equipment-llc-v-amato-nydistctsuffolk-2009.