Ulrich v. Mercedes-Benz USA, L.L.C.

931 N.E.2d 599, 187 Ohio App. 3d 154
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 3, 2010
DocketNo. 24740
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 931 N.E.2d 599 (Ulrich v. Mercedes-Benz USA, L.L.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ulrich v. Mercedes-Benz USA, L.L.C., 931 N.E.2d 599, 187 Ohio App. 3d 154 (Ohio Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

Whitmore, Judge.

{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant, Mercedes-Benz USA, L.L.C., appeals from the judgment of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas in favor of plaintiffappellee, Thomas Ulrich. This court affirms.

I

2} This case has suffered from a lengthy procedural history. This court summarized this case’s pre-2005 history in Mercedes-Benz’s 2007 appeal as follows:

Appellee, Thomas Ulrich, filed a complaint against [Mercedes-Benz] regarding a Mercedes-Benz automobile, alleging two counts of breach of warranty under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, and one count alleging a violation of Ohio’s lemon law pursuant to R.C. 1345.72. [Mercedes-Benz] answered, generally denying the allegations. [Mercedes-Benz] filed a motion for summary judgment, and [Ulrich] filed a motion for partial summary judgment, solely on the lemon law claim. The trial court granted [Ulrich]’s motion for partial summary judgment, finding the vehicle to be a lemon as a matter of law, and entered judgment in favor of [Ulrich] in the amount of $155,675.53.[1] The trial court further scheduled the remaining two breach of warranty claims for trial. [Ulrich], however, dismissed the remaining two counts without prejudice.

[Mercedes-Benz] appealed from the trial court’s judgment, and [Ulrich] filed a cross-appeal. This Court reversed and remanded the matter to the trial court for further proceedings. Ulrich v. Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC [(“Ulrich I”)], 9th Dist. No. 22224, 2005-Ohio-1461, 2005 WL 711903. Upon remand, the matter was assigned to the magistrate.

The parties agreed to allow the matter to go to a jury trial with the magistrate presiding. At the conclusion of trial, the jury entered a verdict in [159]*159favor of [Ulrich], awarding damages in the amount of $160,000.00. On October 28, 2005, the trial court issued a “Judgment Entry on Jury’s Verdict,” which was signed by both the magistrate and the trial court judge. The judgment entry contains no language as required by Civ.R. 53(E)(2), “indicat[ing] conspicuously that a party shall not assign as error on appeal the court’s adoption of any finding of fact or conclusion of law unless the party timely and specifically objects to that finding or conclusion as required by Civ.R. 53(E)(3).” The record further indicates that the magistrate did not file a magistrate’s decision regarding the jury’s verdict.

In its judgment entry, the trial court stated that judgment on [Ulrichj’s request for attorney fees would be entered after a hearing on that issue.

[Mercedes-Benz] filed a notice of appeal from the trial court’s judgment. This Court dismissed the appeal by journal entry for lack of a final, appealable order. Ulrich v. Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (Jan. 4, 2006), 9th Dist. No. 22970.

[Upon remand,] [t]he magistrate held a hearing on the issue of attorney fees. On June 29, 2006, the magistrate issued a decision in which he awarded attorney fees to [Ulrich] in the amount of $230,370.09. [Mercedes-Benz] filed objections to this decision of the magistrate. [Mercedes-Benz] also filed a motion for a new trial. On August 8, 2006, the magistrate issued a decision, denying the motion for new trial. On August 9, 2006, the magistrate issued a nunc pro tunc order, in which the magistrate ordered that the caption of the August 8, 2006 entry be corrected to read: “ ‘ORDER’ and not MAGISTRATE’S DECISION.”

On August 28, 2006, the magistrate issued a decision on the jury verdict, in which he recommended that the trial court enter judgment in favor of [Ulrich] in the amount of $160,000.00. This decision did not contain any language as required by newly-effective Civ.R. 53(D)(3)(a)(iii), “indieat[ing] conspicuously that a party shall not assign as error on appeal the court’s adoption of any factual finding or legal conclusion, * * * unless the party timely and specifically objects to that factual finding or legal conclusion as required by Civ.R. 53(D)(3)(b).”

On September 6, 2006, [Mercedes-Benz] filed a notice of appeal. On October 20, 2006, this Court dismissed the appeal by journal entry for lack of jurisdiction. Ulrich v. Mercedes-Benz USA, LL[C] (Oct. 20, 2006), 9th Dist. No. 23401.

On December 1, 2006, the trial court issued a judgment order, ruling on [Mercedes-Benz]’s objections to the magistrate’s decision regarding the award of attorney fees to [Ulrich]. The trial court overruled [Mercedes-Benz’s] objections, noted that [Mercedes-Benz] had not objected to the judgment awarding compensatory damages to [Ulrich], and entered judgment in favor of [160]*160[Ulrich] in the amount of $160,000.00 for compensatory damages and $230,370.09 for attorney fees.

(Footnote omitted.) Ulrich v. Mercedes-Benz USA, L.L.C. [(“Ulrich II”)], 9th Dist. No. 23550, 2007-Ohio-5034, 2007 WL 2781200, at ¶ 2-10.

{¶ 3} On September 26, 2007, this court reversed Ulrich’s judgment for $160,000 in compensatory damages and $230,370.09 in attorney fees and remanded the matter because the magistrate and trial court did not prepare their decisions in accordance with Civ.R. 53 and allow Mercedes-Benz time to file objections to the magistrate’s decision. Id. at ¶ 16. Upon remand, the magistrate issued a decision recommending that the trial court award Ulrich $160,000 in compensatory damages, $230,370.09 in attorney fees, and costs. On December 26, 2007, Mercedes-Benz filed objections to the magistrate’s decision. The trial court adopted the magistrate’s decision, and Mercedes-Benz appealed. This court dismissed the appeal for lack of a final, appealable order. Ulrich v. Mercedes-Benz USA, L.L.C. (Jan. 6, 2009), 9th Dist. No. 24548.

{¶ 4} After this court’s dismissal, the trial court entered judgment independently of the magistrate, again awarding Ulrich $160,000 in damages, $230,370.09 in attorney fees, and costs. On March 13, 2009, Mercedes-Benz filed a motion for a new trial. The court denied the motion on April 1, 2009. Mercedes-Benz now appeals from the trial court’s judgment and raises four assignments of error for our review.

II

Assignment of Error Number One

The trial court erred in denying [Mercedes-Benz’s] motion for directed verdict and in entering the jury’s verdict in appellee’s favor, because appellee presented no objective evidence that his vehicle contained any defect constituting a nonconformity as required by O.R.C. §§ 1345.71 and 1345.72.

{¶ 5} In its first assignment of error, Mercedes-Benz argues that the trial court erred by denying its motion for directed verdict. Specifically, Mercedes-Benz argues that Ulrich failed to set forth objective evidence of a nonconformity that caused substantial impairment to his vehicle and that Mercedes-Benz was unwilling or unable to fix. We disagree.

{¶ 6} Generally, this court reviews a trial court’s action with respect to a magistrate’s decision for an abuse of discretion. Fields v. Cloyd, 9th Dist. No. 24150, 2008-Ohio-5232, 2008 WL 4493144, at ¶ 9. “In so doing, we consider the trial court’s action with reference to the nature of the underlying matter.” [161]*161Tabatabai v. Tabatabai, 9th Dist. No. 08CA0049-M, 2009-Ohio-3139, 2009 WL 1844353, at ¶ 18. Civ.R. 50(A)(4) provides as follows:

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

Related

Fagen v. Jaguar Land Rover N. Am., L.L.C.
2023 Ohio 4324 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2023)
Norton v. Dominion Energy Servs., Inc.
2021 Ohio 1278 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2021)
Woodside Mgt. Co. v. Bruex
2020 Ohio 4039 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)
Williams v. Sharon Woods Collision Center, Inc.
2018 Ohio 2733 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2018)
Tesar Indus. Contractors v. Republic Steel
2018 Ohio 2089 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2018)
State v. Franks
2017 Ohio 7045 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2017)
Ulrich v. Mercedes-Benz, USA, L.L.C.
2012 Ohio 1623 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
931 N.E.2d 599, 187 Ohio App. 3d 154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ulrich-v-mercedes-benz-usa-llc-ohioctapp-2010.