Robert v. Fleetwood Motorhomes of California, Inc.

194 P.3d 38, 40 Kan. App. 2d 573, 2008 Kan. App. LEXIS 158
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedOctober 17, 2008
DocketNo. 98,325
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 194 P.3d 38 (Robert v. Fleetwood Motorhomes of California, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robert v. Fleetwood Motorhomes of California, Inc., 194 P.3d 38, 40 Kan. App. 2d 573, 2008 Kan. App. LEXIS 158 (kanctapp 2008).

Opinion

Hill, J.:

Because a crack formed in the side wall of their new motor home, Robert and Kathleen Knowles sued Fleetwood Motorhomes of California, Inc. But, because the Knowles had previously sued Fleetwood about that motor home, the district court by summary judgment swept away the Knowles’ lawsuit by broadly ruling the doctrine of res judicata barred their warranty and consumer claims. This doctrine is sometimes called claim preclusion, a precept based on the need for final judgments, especially after a party has had an opportunity to litigate a matter in a prior action in a court of competent jurisdiction. We hold the doctrine of claim preclusion does not apply in this case because Fleetwood’s actions in the prior lawsuit, preventing litigation of these claims arising from the crack in the side wall, amount to a waiver of the defense of res judicata. We reverse and remand for trial.

[574]*574We discuss the details of the first lawsuit.

On January 17, 2003, Robert and Kathleen Knowles bought a 2003 Fleetwood “Bounder” motor home for $88,363.63. The Knowles experienced many problems with their Bounder; the most serious problem was a persistent leak in the bedroom slide-out area. The manufacturer s warranty for the Bounder expired on July 17, 2004, and its structural warranty expired on January 17, 2006.

Because these problems had not been repaired to their satisfaction under the warranty, the Knowles filed a lawsuit in May 2004 against Fleetwood. They made a claim of breach of warranty and a claim for deceptive acts and practices under the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, K.S.A. 50-623 et. seq.

The side-wall crack appeared after the Knowles filed their first lawsuit.

In July or August 2004, the Knowles noticed that a crack had developed in the Bounder s side wall. Knowledge of this problem came up first in the Knowles’ September 2004 depositions. Robert Knowles thought tire crack “looked like a stress crack” from the leak’s water damages. But, the Knowles did not seek to amend their petition to include the cost of repairs for the crack. Instead, the Knowles raised this issue during settlement negotiations, in the pretrial order, and at the jury trial.

• Settlement Talks

During settlement negotiations, the parties reached a tentative agreement about the side-wall crack in November 2004. Fleetwood agreed to transport the Bounder to its Indiana plant for repairs, while the parties continued to negotiate the Knowles’ other requests, such as attorney fees. Fleetwood later said it could not bring back the Bounder until January 2005. The Knowles agreed to the new date.

In January 2005, however, Fleetwood changed its position and did not bring back the Bounder. Instead, Fleetwood flew its dispute resolution coordinator to the Bounder’s location for inspection. Fleetwood decided the crack could be repaired by any body shop that does fiberglass repairs. This was unacceptable to the [575]*575Knowles because their expert had thought the proper repairs required replacement of the entire side wall, not just a patch on the outside.

• Pretrial Order

The Knowles made this claim in the pretrial order:

“The leak into the plaintiffs Bounder caused the wood paneling, which is part of the side wall of the Bounder, to deteriorate, thereby decreasing the strength of the side •wall.'This resulted in a crack developing in the exterior side wall of the Bounder at the front comer of the bedroom slide-out.” (Emphasis added.)

In response, Fleetwood filed a motion in limine asking the district court to exclude evidence about the side-wall crack. Fleet-wood argued tire Knowles failed to assert properly the damages claim for the crack because they had made no request to Fleetwood for repairs of the crack under their warranty:

“For purposes here today, Your Honor, we’re entitled under all the warranty laws, we’re entitled to have the opportunity to repair or fix anything they contend is a workmanship defect or something to that nature. And none of this was ever presented to the dealer or to Fleetwood for any purposeful repair or replacement in any way.
“So this particular item, which is one of some other items, is nothing that was ever presented to us, nothing that we’ve ever been given an opportunity to repair and correct, if it was in fact something that we did or caused. I don’t see how it gets to part of the lawsuit that they’re complaining that we failed to meet some warranty requirement or we failed, we did something deceptively or performed some unconscionable act, if you will, when we’ve never had any opportunity to work on it.”

The court ruled it would allow evidence of the crack but only because of water infiltration.

• Jury Trial

Later, at the jury trial, the court elaborated on its ruling on the motion in limine.

“Fixing the crack is irrelevant because you never asked for it to be fixed in the past.” (Emphasis added.)

Because of this ruling, the Knowles did not further question their expert about die crack or the costs to repair the crack. During [576]*576cross-examination, however, Fleetwood challenged the expert’s value assessment of the Bounder, which led to further discussion of the district court’s ruling.

“[Fleetwood:] Isn’t it true that you are considering some repair issue concerning the crack to get that twenty to $25,000 number. Is that a fact?
“[Knowles’ expert:] Yes. That would be.
“[Fleetwood:] So, I would move to strike his previous answer, Your Honor, on the basis of the Court’s previous rulings about the issue of the crack because he has contemplated that and considered that in his testimony.”

The district court sustained Fleetwood’s objection.

In this lawsuit, the parties agreed in the claims of uncontroverted facts that the district court’s ruling was:

“14. The judge in the previous litigation ruled in a motion in limine that the plaintiffs could not discuss the existence of the crack at trial because they had never presented the crack to Fleetwood to be repaired. The judge did rule that the plaintiffs could mention the crack as an element of damages but could not ask for damages for the crack itself.” (Emphasis added.)

We find this ruling contradictory and confusing.

After the district court excluded the cost to repair the side-wall crack, the Knowles’ expert assessed the value of the Bounder with the remaining problems at $68,000, rather than his prior assessment of $60,000. Based on this evidence, the juiy returned a verdict in favor for the Knowles only for their breach of warranty claim. For that claim, the jury awarded damages of $20,363.63. The Knowles did not appeal this decision.

We turn to the second lawsuit.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In the Matter of Pretz
Court of Appeals of Kansas, 2023
Smith v. Perez
Court of Appeals of Kansas, 2022
M.L.G. v. M.M.H.
Court of Appeals of Kansas, 2016
In re Marriage of Duckworth
Court of Appeals of Kansas, 2015
Venters v. Sellers
261 P.3d 538 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2011)
Unruh v. PURINA MILLS, LLC
221 P.3d 1130 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2009)
Miller v. Dean
289 S.W.3d 620 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2009)
Knowles v. FLEETWOOD MOTORHOMES OF CAL.
194 P.3d 38 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
194 P.3d 38, 40 Kan. App. 2d 573, 2008 Kan. App. LEXIS 158, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robert-v-fleetwood-motorhomes-of-california-inc-kanctapp-2008.