Vincent v. Hyundai Corp.

633 So. 2d 240, 1993 WL 504601
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 24, 1993
Docket92 CA 1987
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 633 So. 2d 240 (Vincent v. Hyundai Corp.) 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
Vincent v. Hyundai Corp., 633 So. 2d 240, 1993 WL 504601 (La. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

633 So.2d 240 (1993)

Idella R. VINCENT
v.
HYUNDAI CORPORATION, Hyundai Motor America and Levis Hyundai.

No. 92 CA 1987.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

November 24, 1993.
Writ Denied February 11, 1994.

*241 Joseph D. Lewis, Oliver W. Williams, Baton Rouge, for plaintiff-appellant Idella R. Vincent.

William A. Morvant, Baton Rouge, Robert W. Maxwell, New Orleans, for defendant-appellee *242 Levis Hyundai, Inc., and Hyundai Motor America.

Before FOIL, PITCHER and PARRO, JJ.

PITCHER, Judge.

Idella R. Vincent (plaintiff) instituted this suit against defendants, Hyundai Corporation, Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai), and Levis Hyundai, Inc. (Levis), seeking to rescind the sale of an automobile she purchased from Levis and to recover damages and attorney's fees.[1] After trial by jury, the trial court entered judgment on the jury verdict granting plaintiff a $1,500.00 reduction in the purchase price but denying rescission of the sale. From this judgment, plaintiff appeals. We affirm.

FACTS

On April 4, 1989, plaintiff purchased a new 1989 Hyundai Sonata automobile from Levis in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the total sum of $13,723.94. Plaintiff paid $2,000.00 toward the purchase price and financed the remaining balance. Plaintiff also spent an additional $800.00 to add a new stereo system and tinted windows to the vehicle.

One week later, plaintiff returned with the vehicle to the dealership after observing that the brakes were "bleeding" (an oily substance was coming from the front wheels). Levis diagnosed the substance as normal "brake dust," which could easily be wiped off. Within the next nine months, plaintiff returned to Levis with the vehicle on at least nine separate occasions for repair problems associated with, but not limited to, the air conditioner, heater, electrical system, starter and oil leaks. Approximately two years after the sale, plaintiff ceased driving the vehicle because the clutch would not shift into gear and eventually became completely inoperable. On August 1, 1990, plaintiff filed the instant action to rescind the sale.

In the petition, plaintiff alleged that she returned the vehicle to Levis on numerous occasions for repairs and that she was entitled to relief under the state's lemon and/or redhibition laws because the vehicle was not fit for its intended use as evidenced by the number of repairs, some of which were either not corrected or attempted four or more times within the first year of purchase. Plaintiff requested damages in the amount of $7,896.48, which included her down payment of $2,000.00, sixteen (16) installment payments made in the amount of $318.53 each and the $800.00 she spent on the enhancements. Plaintiff further requested that defendants, for the return of the vehicle to them, assume the remaining installment notes due. Additionally, plaintiff demanded legal interest from the date of judicial demand until paid, all costs and attorney's fees.

Levis denied liability and, in the position of third party plaintiff, filed a third party demand against Hyundai for indemnification for all or part of the principal demand asserted by plaintiff. Levis later voluntarily dismissed without prejudice its third-party demand against Hyundai.

Hyundai also denied liability and alleged that plaintiff's purported damages were caused entirely by her own negligence and/or that of a third person for whom it had no legal responsibility. Hyundai further alleged that the vehicle was free from any vice or defect on the date of delivery and that any alleged defect arising after purchase was of an easily repairable nature that neither affected the vehicle's suitability for use nor diminished its value. Further answering the petition, Hyundai averred, in the alternative, that if the trial court determined that a redhibitory vice or defect did exist in the vehicle, then such vice or defect had been repaired, and plaintiff waived her right to bring the instant action when she allowed repairs to the vehicle and continued to use it extensively. Hyundai further, alternatively, averred that if the court determined that the vehicle had any redhibitory vices or defects, then it was entitled to a credit for depreciation and use of the vehicle and specifically pled the affirmative defenses of set-off, offset and/or compensation for said use and depreciation.

*243 The matter was tried before a jury on June 17 and 18, 1992. The jury found that the vehicle was defective at the time of sale and although the defective condition did not warrant rescission of the sale, the evidence was sufficient to support a judgment in quanti minoris for a reduction in the purchase price in the amount of $1,500.00. The trial court entered judgment on the jury verdict and awarded plaintiff legal interest from the date of judicial demand and all costs. Plaintiff appealed and submitted the following assignment of error for review:

The jury erred in denying appellant relief under the Redhibition and Lemon Law.

In her sole assignment of error, plaintiff urges this court to find that the jury erred in concluding that she did not have a cause of action within the ambit of the state's redhibition and "lemon" laws. Defendants, to the contrary, assert that the instant case is a "classic example of the `credibility cards' falling where they may" and that a review of the record supports the jury's factual findings.

We will review this assignment of error by first determining whether the jury erred in concluding that plaintiff did not have a cause of action in redhibition.

REDHIBITION

Plaintiff asserts that she is entitled to rescind the sale of the vehicle because it immediately manifested several defects after the sale which rendered it absolutely useless, or its use so inconvenient and imperfect that she would not have purchased it had she known of the defects.

In a contract of sale, the seller is bound by an implied warranty that the thing sold is free of hidden defects and is reasonably fit for its intended use. LSA-C.C. arts. 2475, 2476, 2520. If the seller breaches the warranty, the buyer may have a cause of action in redhibition.

Redhibition is the avoidance of a sale on account of some vice or defect in the 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. LSA-C.C. art. 2520. In order to maintain an action in redhibition, the plaintiff must prove that (1) the seller sold the thing to him and that it is either absolutely useless for its intended purpose or its use so inconvenient or imperfect that had he known of the defect he would never have purchased it; (2) the thing contained a non-apparent redhibitory defect at the time of sale; and (3) the seller was given an opportunity to repair the defect. Coffey v. Cournoyer Oldsmobile-Cadillac-GMC, Inc., 484 So.2d 798, 800-801 (La.App. 1st Cir.1986); Purvis v. Statewide Trailer Sales, Inc., 339 So.2d 403, 407 (La. App. 1st Cir.1976). The buyer may prove the existence of a redhibitory defect before the sale by direct or circumstantial evidence giving rise to a reasonable inference that the defect existed at the time of the sale. LSA-C.C. arts. 2520, 2521, 2530; Cox v. Lanier Business Products, Inc., 423 So.2d 690, 693 (La.App. 1st Cir.1982), writ denied, 429 So.2d 129 (La.1983); Don Smart & Associates— Century 21 v. Lanier Business Products, 551 So.2d 665, 669 (La.App. 1st Cir.1989).

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633 So. 2d 240, 1993 WL 504601, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vincent-v-hyundai-corp-lactapp-1993.