MICHAEL FISCHETTI AND THERESA D. FISCHETTI, APPELLANTS,
v.
AMERICAN ISUZU MOTORS, INC., APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 2005-12-07
No. 4D04-4430
GUNTHER and FARMER, JJ., concur.
918 So. 2d 974 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2005) Positive Treatment
Cited by 5 cases

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Synopsis

The Florida District Court of Appeal reversed in part a summary judgment granted to a vehicle manufacturer, finding that consumers' claims under the express warranty and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act should not have been dismissed. However, the court affirmed the summary judgment on the "Lemon Law" claim because the consumers failed to timely pursue a second arbitration as required by statute.


Holding

1. The consumers' claims under the express warranty and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act should have survived summary judgment because the manufacturer's own warranty extended coverage to remote purchasers, negating the need for privity. 2. The trial court correctly granted summary judgment on the "Lemon Law" claim because the consumers failed to timely file for a second arbitration as mandated by statute.


Headnotes

[1] A consumer's conditional acceptance of a replacement vehicle becomes ineffective if the condition of timely replacement fails.

[2] A consumer must timely request a second arbitration before the Florida New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board to pursue replacement or refund remedies under the Lemon Law af…

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Key Quotes

“The manufacturer can hardly be heard to resurrect a common law requirement of privity when it has itself voluntarily provided a warranty that runs in favor of remote purchasers of its product.”

Establishes the court's reasoning for allowing warranty claims to proceed despite potential privity issues.

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Facts & Procedural History

Consumers arbitrated a "Lemon Law" claim with the vehicle manufacturer through a BBB Autoline program, winning a decision for a replacement vehicle. T…

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Opinion of the Court
TAYLOR, J.

TAYLOR, J.

The consumers appeal a summary judgment in favor of the manufacturer of a new motor vehicle on their claims under the Lemon Law, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (MMWA), and the common and other laws. They argue that the record does not support the summary judgment resolving all claims in favor of the manufacturer. We agree and reverse, in part.

Initially, we note that the consumers’ claim for a replacement or refund under section 681.104 of the Lemon Law was first submitted to arbitration under the manufacturer’s established procedure by “BBB Autoline,” a program administered by the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

See § 681.109(1), Fla. Stat. (2005) (“If a manufacturer has a certified procedure, a claim arising within [24 months after delivery of the new motor vehicle] must be filed with the certified procedure.... ”).

The BBB arbitration ended with a decision in favor of the consumers. The arbitrator determined that the vehicle was defective and required its replacement within 45 days. The consumers filed a written acceptance of the decision, conditioned on the manufacturer’s compliance within 45 days of the decision. As the record shows, the manufacturer failed to timely comply with this condition.1

We reject the manufacturer’s argument that the consumers’ agreement to accept a replacement constituted a waiver of any damages claims. Their acceptance was explicitly conditioned on replacement within 45 days of the arbitration decision. Any waiver of other relief in the conditional acceptance of a replacement became ineffective when the condition failed to realize.

The record shows that the consumers failed to make a timely request for a second arbitration before the Florida New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board after successfully arbitrating before the manufacturer’s program of arbitration by the BBB. See § 681.109(2), Fla. Stat. (2005) (“If a consumer is not satisfied with the decision [of a certified procedure] or the manufacturer’s compliance therewith, the consumer must apply to the division to have the dispute submitted to the board for arbitration.”) We agree with the manufacturer, that if the consumers wanted to further pursue their replacement or refund remedies under the Lemon Law, the consumers were required to file a petition for a second arbitration before the board within 30 days after the final action by the BBB. § 681.109(2),(4) (“The consumer must request arbitration before the board ... within 30 days after the final action of a certified procedure.... ”).

Although the consumers reasonably argue that requiring two separate arbitrations on the same claim is unnecessarily duplicative, that is precisely what the statute requires. The consumers having failed to timely request the second arbitration before the Florida New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, the trial court correctly entered summary judgment on the Lemon Law claim.2 However, we reject the manufacturer’s argument that privity between the consumer and the manufacturer is required for all claims of money damages under its express warranty. The warranty itself states in clear terms that:

“Except as otherwise indicated, the Isuzu New Vehicle Limited Warranty extends to the original retail purchaser/lessee and all subsequent ownersAes-sees of the vehicle, when registered and normally operated in the United States (excluding its territories and possessions), during the warranty period.”

The manufacturer can hardly be heard to resurrect a common law requirement of privity when it has itself voluntarily provided a warranty that runs in favor of remote purchasers of its product. Because the express warranty plainly extends to the original and remote purchasers, we need not decide other arguments raised by the consumers against the privity requirement. We thus conclude that the consumers’ express warranty and MMWA claims, which are premised on the express warranty, should have survived summary judgment. We reverse and remand this cause for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Affirmed in part; reversed in part.

GUNTHER and FARMER, JJ., concur. .

We reject the manufacturer's argument that a transcript of the hearing on the motion for summary judgment is necessary to decide the issues in this appeal. Documents supplied by the manufacturer show that it did not make any effort during die 45 days following the BBB decision to supply the replacement vehicle and that, when the manufacturer finally did take action, it failed to make a sufficient tender of a replacement.

2. While the consumers have requested damages and attorney's fees under the Lemon Law, they have not shown any exceptional circumstances which might warrant those remedies. See King v. King Motor Co. of Ft. Lauderdale, 780 So. 2d 937, 941 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001). Rather, this case is clearly a garden-variety refund/replacement case. It had to proceed along the arbitration track. We thus have no occasion to decide whether arbitra tion is a pre-requisite to the sort of exceptional damages and attorney’s fee claims which the King court described,


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Citator

Cited By

  • Rentas v. Daimlerchrysler Corp., 936 So. 2d 747 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006)
    …and other Florida appellate courts have expressly enforced written warranties in suits brought under the MMWA against manufacturers where privity did not exist between the manufacturer and the vehicle owner. See Fischetti v. Am. Isuzu Motors, Inc., 918 So. 2d 974 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005); Cerasani v. Am. Honda Motor Co., 916 So. 2d 843 (Fla. 2d DCA 2005), review granted, 925 So. 2d 1029 (Fla.2006); Mesa, 904 So. 2d 450. In Fis-chetti, this court rejected a manufacturer’s privity argument when it provided a warran…
  • Badawi v. Brunswick Corp. (M.D. Fla. 2022)
    …vity is generally required, the complaint in this case alleges that Sea Ray provided a written warranty that by its express terms extended to Plaintiff here as the “original retail owner.” As the court noted in Fischetti v. Am. Isuzu Motors, Inc., 918 So. 2d 974, 976 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005), “[t]he manufacturer can hardly be heard to resurrect a common law requirement of privity when it has itself voluntarily provided a warranty that runs in favor of remote purchasers of its product.” The Fischetti court accor…
  • …chain of privity. “The manufacturer can hardly be heard to resurrect a common law requirement of privity when it has itself voluntarily provided a warranty that runs in favor of remote purchasers of its product.” Fischetti v. Am. Isuzu Motors, Inc., 918 So. 2d 974, 976 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005). Further, here, the Plaintiff has plausibly alleged that she can meet the “relaxed” privity standard that some courts have deemed appropriate. Cf Atl. Specialty Ins. Co. v. Mercier Marine Enter., LLC, No. 2:18-CV-93-FTM-29…

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