Moses v. Ed's Manufactured Housing, Inc.

470 So. 2d 935, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 8852
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 15, 1985
DocketNo. 84-397
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 470 So. 2d 935 (Moses v. Ed's Manufactured Housing, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moses v. Ed's Manufactured Housing, Inc., 470 So. 2d 935, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 8852 (La. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

FORET, Judge.

The plaintiff, Jesse Moses, filed this red-hibition suit against Ed’s Manufactured Housing, Inc. (Ed’s), and Eagle Housing, Inc. for the return of the price that he paid for a mobile home purchased from Ed’s and manufactured by Eagle. The trial court awarded judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendants, ordering the return of his purchase price of $23,649.00, together with $1,500.00 in attorney’s fees, and gave judgment for Ed’s on its third party demand against Eagle for indemnification for all sums for which it was legally liable and, additionally, awarded Ed’s $1,500.00 in attorney's fees against Eagle. Eagle has perfected this appeal, and the plaintiff has answered the appeal seeking an increase in the attorney’s fees awarded. We affirm the judgment of the trial court and award the plaintiff an additional $750.00 in attorney’s fees for this appeal.

Plaintiff purchased the- mobile home in question from Ed’s on November 10, 1981, for $23,649.00, which he paid in cash. The home had been delivered to Ed’s by Eagle on or about the 1st of November. When Ed’s performed a pre-service inspection pri- or to delivering the home to plaintiff, it discovered numerous leaks in the kitchen, baths, and under the home. Ed’s comment on its service report was, “Hell it leak [sic] all over.” Ed’s performed repairs to those leaks which it discovered and delivered the home to plaintiff. The plaintiff began having problems with the home immediately after delivery as evidenced by service work orders submitted by Ed’s. The plaintiff reported that the electric furnace didn’t work, windows didn’t work properly, items were broken or torn, the carpet began un-ravelling, a shower head was broken, and mirrors were cracked. Some of these things were repaired and others were not.

By the first part of February, the plaintiff had many more problems to report to Ed’s. He complained of water leaks in one of the bathrooms, cold air coming in through the wall receptacles, door facings, windows, and stereo mounting in the wall, wind coming in between the ducts and floor vents which were cut too large, problems with the roof, dishwasher, roof leaks, the vinyl floor in the kitchen had metal shavings coming through it and rumbling of the roof. Again Ed’s repaired what it could and notified Eagle that repairs were needed. On March 27, 1982, Ed’s sent a letter to Eagle listing the many problems and noting Eagle’s unsuccessful attempts to remedy the problems.

In May, Ed’s, with Eagle’s knowledge, requested that the State Fire Marshal perform an inspection of plaintiff’s home in order that there be an unbiased third par[937]*937ty’s opinion and assessment of plaintiffs problems and complaints. The Fire Marshal did inspect the home and made a detailed list of the problems and plaintiffs complaints. The lists of problems noted by plaintiff, Ed’s, and the Fire Marshal have been lengthy and none of them remedied by Eagle to the plaintiff’s and Ed’s satisfaction. The Fire Marshal, in a January, 1983 report, noticed the extensive leaking in the roof which had caused unsightly stains on the ceiling tiles and had caused the area carpets, as well as the particle board underneath, to become wet.

In September of 1982, the plaintiff, himself, wrote to Eagle requesting that they take care of the repairs that they were supposed to have made but still had not. The plaintiff at that point was very discouraged about the problems that he was having and suggested that if the problems could not be corrected and the home be made as it was intended, then he would have to ask for his money back. Plaintiff contacted an attorney in or around January, when Eagle failed to rectify the situation, and this suit was filed. Prior to the trial on the merits, plaintiff experienced a severe plumbing leak in the kitchen which caused extensive damage to the kitchen cabinets and floors, though the full extent of the damage could not be ascertained without removal of the kitchen fixtures.

The defendant-appellant, Eagle, has assigned seventeen errors to the judgment of the trial court finding the defects complained of to be redhibitory. We do not think that the trial court was clearly wrong in its factual findings regarding the nature and severity of the roof and plumbing leaks and their redhibitory nature. The trial court found that the defects existed at the time of the sale, and that they were not readily apparent:

“The principles of law applicable to redhibitory actions generally and applicable to the case before us specifically were summarized in Rey v. Cuccia, 298 So.2d 840 (La.1974):
“In Louisiana sales, the seller is bound by an implied warranty that the thing sold is free of hidden defects and is reasonably fit for the product’s intended use. Civil Code Articles 2475, 2476, 2520; Media Production Consultants, Inc. v. Mercedes-Benz of North America, Inc., 262 La. 80, 262 So.2d 377 (1972). The seller, of course, can limit this warranty by declaring to the buyer the hidden defects at the time of the sale, Article 2522, or can otherwise limit his obligations as seller, providing he do so clearly and unambiguously, Article 2474.
“A redhibitory defect entitling the buyer to annul the sale is some defect in the manufacture or design of a thing sold ‘which renders it either absolutely useless, or its use so inconvenient and imperfect, that it must be supposed that the buyer would not have purchased it, had he known of the vice.’ Article 2520. Upon proof of such a defect, the buyer is entitled to annul the sale and recover the purchase price, rather than being limited to recovering the cost of curing any such substantial defects. Prince v. Paretti Pontiac Company, Inc., 281 So.2d 112 (La.1973).
“The buyer must prove that the defect existed before the sale was made to him. Article 2530. However, if he proves that the product produced is not reasonably fit for its intended use, it is sufficient that he prove that the object is thus defective, without his being required to prove the exact or underlying cause for its malfunction. J.B. Beaird Co. v. Burris Bros., 216 La. 655, 44 So.2d 693 (1949); Crawford v. Abbott Automobile Co., Ltd., 157 La. 59, 101 So. 871 (1924); Stumpf v. Metairie Motor Sales, Inc., 212 So.2d 705 (La.App. 4th Cir.1968); Fisher v. City Sales and Service, 128 So.2d 790 (La.App. 3d Cir.1961).
“The buyer may prove the existence of redhibitory defects at the time of the sale not only by direct evidence of eyewitnesses, but also by circumstantial evidence giving rise to the reasonable inference that the defect existed at the time of the sale. Fisher v. City Sales and Service, 128 So.2d 790 (La.App. 3d Cir.1961); Mattes v. Heintz, 69 So.2d 924 [938]*938(La.App.Orl.1954); Standard Motor Car Co. v. St. Amant, 18 La.App. 298, 134 So. 279 (La.App. 1st Cir.1931). As stated in Jordan v. Travelers Insurance Co., 257 La. 995, 245 So.2d 151, 155; ‘ * * * proof by direct or circumstantial evidence is sufficient to constitute a preponderance when, taking the evidence as a whole, such proof shows the fact or causation sought to be proved is more probable than not.’
“If the defect appears within three days following the sale, it is presumed to have existed before the sale. Article 2537.

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Bluebook (online)
470 So. 2d 935, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 8852, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moses-v-eds-manufactured-housing-inc-lactapp-1985.