M. O. Anderson, A. B. C. Packard, Inc. v. General Motors Corp.

161 F. Supp. 668, 1 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 812, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2413
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Washington
DecidedJanuary 7, 1958
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 161 F. Supp. 668 (M. O. Anderson, A. B. C. Packard, Inc. v. General Motors Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
M. O. Anderson, A. B. C. Packard, Inc. v. General Motors Corp., 161 F. Supp. 668, 1 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 812, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2413 (W.D. Wash. 1958).

Opinion

RYAN, District Judge.

Plaintiff, A. B. C. Packard, Inc., has moved under Rule 59, F.R.C.P., 28 U.S.C.A., and Local Rule 48, to set aside the verdict of the jury returned on August 28, 1957 and the judgment entered thereon on August 29,1957 and to grant a new trial. The trial commenced on August 1, 1957 and continued through August 28, 1957 when the jury returned a special verdict and a general verdict for the defendant.

This suit followed the termination on June 30, 1953 of a Buick automobile distributor dealer relationship covering specific areas and counties in Washington and Alaska which had existed since -1936, first between the individual plaintiff, M. 0. Anderson, and thereafter corporations organized by him, and the defendant General Motors Corporation, operating through its Buick Motor Division. The distributor dealer contracts had been made annually since March 30, 1942 to the date of termination with Anderson Buick Company, a Washington corporation, the present corporate name of which is A. B. C. Packard, Inc. M. O. Anderson, throughout the entire period since 1936, had been the directing and managing head of this business. General Motors, on June 30, 1953, took over the distribution of its Buick automobiles in the northwest, including the area previously covered by the Anderson contracts, and has since operated there on a factory zone basis of direct distribution to dealers. The Anderson corporation was offered and refused to accept a retail dealership.

Suit was filed in July, 1955. Jurisdiction is predicated upon diversity in citizenship. The original complaint alleged four separate counts. When the suit was. called for trial, an amended complaint, alleged three counts. Construed liberally, the first count alleged a claim for breach of contract based on an estoppel claimed to have arisen out of alleged oral representations and promises; the-second count alleged a claim, sounding in tort, for fraud based on the same alleged oral representations and promises; and; the third count attempted to plead a. claim for alleged misappropriation by defendant of plaintiff’s business good will-issue was joined by answer which was, in effect, a general denial of the fraud; alleged, of the alleged oral misrepresentations and promises, and of consequent damage, and there were pleaded five affirmative defenses, namely, failure to-síate a claim upon which relief can be granted, the statute of frauds, the statute of limitations, laches and waiver.

Permission was granted the plaintiff to serve, during the trial, a further amended complaint which alleged only two claims, sounding in fraud. It was so-served and answer made thereto.

[670]*670Plaintiff, in a trial memorandum, stated it was its contention that:

“The theories supporting recovery-are: first, fraud arising out of the breach of a duty to disclose a plan to terminate plaintiff’s business, as well as fraud in the more familiar sense of actionable misrepresentation and promise made with no intention to perform, and secondly, promissory and equitable estoppel, operating against the defendant, to terminate plaintiff’s business.”

And this, plaintiff followed with a further statement that plaintiff's claims were not dependent

“ * * * upon the suggestion, that General Motors did not have the legal right to change its distribution pattern * * * it is not deemed actionable and this case is not grounded upon the termination alone. It is recognized that General Motors may distribute its products as it sees fit so long as its policies do not conflict with the public interest.”

Plaintiff’s counsel, in his opening statement to the jury, elaborating on the nature of plaintiff’s claims, stated:

“Now, this is an action by Anderson claiming a wrongful termination of the distributor-dealership relationship that existed from June 1, 1936 to June 30, 1953. The action is predicated upon a charge of wrongful termination, and the wrongful termination consists of termination after making of misrepresentations concerning the permanency of the distributorship, misrepresentations upon which Anderson relied, and when June 30,1953 came around and the distributorship was terminated, Anderson was damaged very substantially” (S.M.71).

The Court, in its charge and in language to which no objection was made ■or exception taken, advised the jury that -plaintiff, A. B. C. Packard, Incorporated

“seeks a verdict for damages which it alleges it sustained and suffered by reason of the wrongful and fraudulent acts of the defendant, General Motors, acting through its officers, agents and employees.”

and that

“In brief, the frauds which the plaintiff alleges consist of a nondisclosure of a policy of General Motors as to the continuance of a distributorship franchise, and a false and fraudulent representation concerning the defendant’s then existing intention and policy as to the continuance of a distributorship franchise which the plaintiff had for the marketing of the Buick automobiles, parts and accessories” (S. M. 2622).

The jury was also charged that

“General Motors denies that it unlawfully damaged or wrongfully and fraudulently injured the plaintiff in any manner” (S.M. 2622).

The suit, with the service of the amended complaint during trial, became one in which two claims founded in fraud and not in contract were asserted. The trial was had on this theory of plaintiff’s claims and they were so submitted to the jury. Without objection or exception, the Court charged:

“that General Motors was under no contractual obligation to continue the Distributor or Dealer Franchise which it had granted the Anderson Buick Company beyond June 30, 1953, the date on which it ended” (S.M. 2636).

and further that

“Recovery, if any is to be had by the plaintiff, therefore, must be predicated not upon the breach of a contractual obligation but solely for a wrong or a violation of a legal right which did not arise from a contract — that is in plain language from a fraud and deceit.” (S.M. 2636).

Specifically, and again without objection or exception, the jury were instructed that

[671]*671“Plaintiff has based its claim broadly upon two contentions — one, an affirmative misrepresentation of the then existing General Motors corporate policy with reference to the continuance of the Distributorship method of operation; and second, that there was a failure to disclose a policy of General Motors with reference to a discontinuance of distributorships which General Motors was required to disclose because of the relationship which existed between Anderson Buick Company and General Motors” (S.M. 2673).

The affirmative misrepresentations alleged in the final complaint were orally made and were never reduced to a writing. They were two in number. The first, it was claimed, was made in a telephone conversation around the middle of July, 1947 by Jerome B. Nash, then the Buick Division, Regional Manager of the Pacific Coast area to Anderson. The details of this conversation were given by Anderson (S.M. 545) and by Nash (S.M. 2085). An analysis of the testimony as to this conversation was given to the jury in the charge (S.M. 2639). There was a sharp conflict in this testimony.

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Bluebook (online)
161 F. Supp. 668, 1 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 812, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2413, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/m-o-anderson-a-b-c-packard-inc-v-general-motors-corp-wawd-1958.