Wagner Equipment Co. v. Wood

938 F. Supp. 2d 1203, 2013 WL 1491894, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52701
District Court, D. New Mexico·Decided February 26, 2013·No. Civ. No. 11-466 MV/GBW·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

MARTHA VÁZQUEZ, District Judge.

THIS MATTER comes before the Court on Plaintiffs Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. 101]. The Court, having considered the motion, briefs, relevant law, and being otherwise fully informed, finds that the Motion is well-taken and will be granted.

[1206]*1206 BACKGROUND

Defendant PAMF Excavation, LLC' (“PAMF”) is a Washington limited liability company in the business of harvesting trees. Doc. 102 at 3. Its managing member- is Defendant Jason Wood (“Wood”). Id. In October 2010 and January 2011, Defendants entered into contracts with a New Mexico lumber mill company, Western Wood Products, Inc. (“WWP”), pursuant to which Defendants agreed to harvest wood in New Mexico for WWP’s mill. Id. In order to purchase the equipment necessary to perform their contract with WWP, Defendants contacted Plaintiff Wagner Equipment Company (“Wagner”). Id. Based on Defendants’ stated needs, Nick Montoya, an employee of Wagner, located a used Caterpillar Model 501 Harvester (“Harvester”) in South Carolina. Id. at 3-4. .

Wagner obtained a copy of a condition report about the Harvester, and sent it to Wood. Id. at 4. With its moving brief, Plaintiff submitted to the Court a copy of a condition report, and indicated that this report was “substantially identical” to the one provided to Wood prior to Defendants’ purchase of the Harvester. Id. at 4. Although Defendants admit that Plaintiff sent Wood a condition report about the Harvester, Defendants deny that the report submitted lay Plaintiff is the report that was sent to Defendants. Doc. 120 at 3. Defendants did not submit to the Court the condition report that they claim to have received.

On October 19, 2010, PAMF purchased the Harvester from Wagner, pursuant to a Sales Contract Security Agreement and Financing Statement (“Sales Contract”). Doc. 102-5. Wood executed the contract for PAMF. Doc. 102 at 4. Defendants did not inspect the Harvester prior to the purchase. Id. ■ On the first page of the Sales Contract, there is a box checked next to the words, “NO WARRANTY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ‘AS IS, WHERE IS.’ ” Doc. 102-5 at 7. The second page of the Sales- Contract similarly provides:

USED GOODS WHETHER OR NOT SUBJECT TO MANUFACTURER’S WARRANTY, UNLESS A SEPARATE WRITTEN INSTRUMENT SHOWING THE TERMS OF ANY WARRANTY OR SERVICE CONTRACT IS FURNISHED BY SELLER TO BUYER, USED GOODS ARE SOLD “AS IS” WITH NO EXPRESS WARRANTY OR GUARANTEE, SELLER HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Id. at 8.

Once the Harvester was delivered, Defendants detected problems with it. Id. at 5. Specifically, Defendants were unhappy with its output, and felt that it was not in the condition that had been represented to them. Id. After communications in which Wood expressed his dissatisfaction with Wagner, and Wagner’s lack of success in addressing Wood’s concerns, Wood, individually and on behalf of PAMF, entered into a Settlement Agreement and Release (“Settlement Agreement”), effective as of March 9, 2011, with Wagner, Cat Financial Services, Inc., and Cat Inc. Doc. 120-5.

The Settlement Agreement recites that: PAMF experienced problems with the operation of the Harvester, which it contends caused PAMF to suffer certain economic damages; PAMF'made certain demands on Wagner for the alleged damages (“PAMF Demands”); and PAMF presented to Wagner for payment a demand that PAMF had received from WWP (“WWP Demand”). Id. at 1. Further, the Settlement Agreement recites that the parties had various discussions and negotiations [1207]*1207regarding resolution of the issues surrounding the Harvester and the demands made by PAMF on Wagner, and “have agreed upon terms and conditions of settlement of all such issues.” Id. Pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, Wagner noted its previous payments of certain sums and completion of certain repairs, and agreed to make payments of $8,122.71 to certain of PAMF’s creditors, and a payment of $3,400 to PAMF. Id. at 2. In addition, Wagner agreed to “make its best efforts to address those issues described in the attached Exhibit D, to the reasonable satisfaction of PAMF.” Id. In consideration of Wagner’s promises to pay these sums and make these repairs, PAMF and “all of its owners, officers, members, directors, employees, agents, successors, assigns, and anyone claiming by, under or through them” agreed to “voluntarily and knowingly release, acquit and forever discharge each of Wagner, CAT and CAT Financial and all of their respective officers, shareholders, directors, employees, agents, successors and assigns, fully' and completely from all claims, demands, actions, causes of action, damages, remedies, costs, attorneys’ fees and expenses that PAMF and anyone claiming by, under-or through them ever had, now has or may in the future have which arise out of “(i) the Harvester; (ii) the PAMF Demands; or (iii) the WWP Demand.” Id. at 2-3.

Thereafter, Wagner made the two payments to which it had agreed in the Settlement Agreement. To date, Defendants have not returned either of those payments. Doc. 120 at 11.

Wagner also performed certain repairs on the Harvester. Doc. 102 at 8. On April 6, 2011, Wood sent an email message to Wagner stating that “[d]ue to the. unsatisfactory condition” of the Harvester as it had been returned to Defendants from Wagner after work was performed, “financial harm” was being caused to PAMF “that nullifies the settlement agreement.” Doc. 102-1 at 12. Wood further wrote that the Harvester would “not be put into operation [until] all problems are fixed to satisfaction of a PAMF [ ] representative.” Id. Wood subsequently refused to allow Wagner to retrieve the Harvester to take it to its shop for repairs, or to come to Defendants’ job site to repair the Harvester. Id. at 9.

On April 22, 2011, Wood sent an email message to Wagner, stating: “Check your market share in king county wa for last month[;] you lost 12 pieces to john deer[e] thanks’to me[;] this month is going to be ev[e]n worse, nc machine might be calling soon[;] I took it into my hands to tell them why.” Doc. 102-10. Later that same day, Wood forwarded to Wagner an email message, noting in the re: line: “Just the start long weekend ahead.” Doc. 49-1 at 4. The forwarded email message had been sent tonews@kob.com, and stated:

My name [is] Jason [W]ood and I own a logging company in [C]imarron [N]ew Mexico and Wagner cat ... equipment dealer has caused me to lose a 4 million dollar contract and going to have to file for bankruptc[y.] I have all evidence documented how they caused it and was wondering if you would do a story on it to prevent other contractors from going through same nightmare.

Id.

Two days later, on April 24, 2011, Wood sent an email to several recipients, including Wagner, describing in negative terms his experience with Wagner and Caterpillar. At the conclusion of the email message, Wood wrote:

The whole reason for this email to let Cat dealers know that I sent over 115 emails ’ Saturday morning to news stations, newspapers, equipment magazines and other sources that cater to equipment buyers. This in turn will open buy[1208]*1208ers’ eyes and prevent them from buying Cat products.

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Wagner Equipment Co. v. Wood, 938 F. Supp. 2d 1203, 2013 WL 1491894, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52701 (D.N.M. 2013).

938 F. Supp. 2d 1203 (Wagner Equipment Co. v. Wood) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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