Westover Products, Inc. v. Gateway Roofing Co., Inc.

380 S.E.2d 369, 94 N.C. App. 63, 1989 N.C. App. LEXIS 448
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJune 6, 1989
Docket8818SC881
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 380 S.E.2d 369 (Westover Products, Inc. v. Gateway Roofing Co., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Westover Products, Inc. v. Gateway Roofing Co., Inc., 380 S.E.2d 369, 94 N.C. App. 63, 1989 N.C. App. LEXIS 448 (N.C. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

ARNOLD, Judge.

Appellants argue that the trial court committed reversible error in granting Carlisle’s motion for summary judgment because genuine issues of material fact exist between the parties. More particularly, they first contend genuine issues of material fact exist as to Kidde’s allegations of negligence by Carlisle.

*67 Summary judgment shall be rendered if “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that any party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” N.C.G.S. § 1A-1, Rule 56(c); see Johnson v. Insurance Co., 300 N.C. 247, 266 S.E. 2d 610 (1980). Once a party moving for summary judgment has made and supported his motion, the burden shifts to the non-movant to introduce evidence of specific facts showing there is a genuine issue for trial. Ward v. Durham Life Ins. Co., 90 N.C. App. 286, 368 S.E. 2d 391 (1988). The non-movant does not have to establish that he would prevail on the issue involved, he only has to show that the issue exists. Id.

Kidde and Gateway claim that Carlisle owes duties to both arising out of Carlisle’s design of the M.A.R.S. system (which duties they claim encompass the mechanics of fastening the membrane to the building as well as the layout and installation methods in application).

Actionable negligence presupposes the existence of a legal relationship between parties by which the injured party is owed a duty by the other, and such duty must be imposed by law .... The law imposes upon every person who enters upon an active course of conduct the positive duty to exercise ordinary care to protect others from harm. A duty of care may arisé out of a contractual relationship, the theory being that accompanying every contract is a common-law duty to perform with ordinary care the thing agreed to be done, and that a negligent performance constitutes a tort as well as a breach of contract.

Olympic Products v. Roof Systems, Inc., 88 N.C. App. 315, 322, 363 S.E. 2d 367, 371, disc. rev. denied, 321 N.C. 744, 366 S.E. 2d 862 (1988) (quotations and citations omitted).

Privity of contract is not required in order to recover against a person who negligently performs services for another and thus injures a third party. There is a duty to protect third parties where a reasonable person would recognize that if he does not use ordinary care and skill in his own conduct, he will cause damages or injury to the person or property of the other. See Davidson & Jones, Inc. v. County of New Hanover, 41 N.C. App. 661, 255 S.E. 2d 580, disc. rev. denied, 298 N.C. 295, 259 S.E. 2d 911 (1979).

*68 In the case sub judice Carlisle owed a duty of care to Gateway through privity of contract. Carlisle owed a duty to Kidde because a reasonable person would have understood that if Carlisle did not use reasonable care in its conduct, it would cause injury to Kidde. See id.

Carlisle was granted summary judgment based upon the pleadings, affidavits and depositions which it claims show that it neither provided defective materials and design, nor was it negligent in providing instruction, training, and supervision of installation procedures by Gateway. James A. Moser, president of Gateway, however, stated through affidavit that the M.A.R.S. system was defective in design, and the methods used by Carlisle preclude the installation of a M.A.R.S. system roof in a workmanlike and watertight manner.

“If different material conclusions can be drawn from the evidence, then summary judgment should be denied.” Herbert v. Browning-Ferris Industries, 90 N.C. App. 339, 341, 368 S.E. 2d 416, 417 (1988). We hold that different material conclusions could be drawn from the evidence presented through affidavits by Gateway and Kidde. Moser, even though an agent of Gateway, had been in the roofing business for twenty years and stated that the M.A.R.S. system was defective. It is for a jury to determine whom to believe, Gateway and Kidde or Carlisle. Summary judgment is therefore inappropriate on the negligence claims against Carlisle.

Appellants next argue that genuine issues of material fact exist as to Kidde’s allegations of breach of implied warranties. Carlisle maintains, inter alia, that it tendered an express warranty to Kidde which was rejected, and this rejection defeats any implied warranty claim.

N.C.G.S. § 25-2-314 provides in part:

(1) Unless excluded or modified (G.S. 25-2-316), a warranty that the goods shall be merchantable is implied in a contract for their sale if the seller is a merchant with respect to goods of that kind .... (2) Goods to be merchantable must be at least such as (a) pass without objection in the trade under the contract description ....

N.C.G.S. § 25-2-316 reads in pertinent part:

(2) Subject to subsection (3), to exclude or modify the implied warranty of merchantability or any part of it the *69 language must mention merchantability and in case of a writing must be conspicuous, and to exclude or modify any implied warranty of fitness the exclusion must be by a writing and conspicuous. Language to exclude all implied warranties of fitness is sufficient if it states, for example, that “There are no warranties which extend beyond the description on the face hereof.”
(3) Notwithstanding subsection (2)
(a) unless the circumstances indicate otherwise, all implied warranties are excluded by expressions like “as is,” “with all faults” or other language which in common understanding calls the buyer’s attention to the exclusion of warranties and makes plain that there is no implied warranty; and
(b) when the buyer before entering into the contract has examined the goods or the sample or model as fully as he desired or has refused to examine the goods there is no implied warranty with regard to defects which an examination ought in the circumstances to have revealed to him; and
(c) an implied warranty can also be excluded or modified by course of dealing or course of performance or usage of trade.

Carlisle’s offer and Kidde’s rejection of a five-year express warranty of the roof installed for Kidde do not fall within the exclusion provisions of N.C.G.S. § 25-2-316. A five-year warranty would have far exceeded the protection offered by U.C.C. § 2-314, but the offer and rejection of it do not automatically waive the implied warranty. We conclude that there was an implied warranty of merchantability when Carlisle contracted with Gateway to provide a roofing system for Kidde. We also conclude that because of the affidavit of Moser, Gateway’s president, there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Carlisle breached the implied warranty. See Herbert, 90 N.C. App. 339, 368 S.E. 2d 416; see also Ward, 90 N.C. App. 286, 368 S.E. 2d 391.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
380 S.E.2d 369, 94 N.C. App. 63, 1989 N.C. App. LEXIS 448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/westover-products-inc-v-gateway-roofing-co-inc-ncctapp-1989.