Title: Huff v. Hobgood
Citation: 549 So. 2d 951
Docket Number: 07-58675
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: September 27, 1989

549 So. 2d 951 (1989) Donald O. HUFF v. Royce HOBGOOD. No. 07-58675. Supreme Court of Mississippi. September 27, 1989. *952 J. Kevin Watson, Fox Watson &amp; Earwood, Jackson, for appellant. Joseph M. Stinson, Tylertown, for appellee. Before ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and ROBERTSON and PITTMAN, JJ. PITTMAN, Justice, for the Court: Donald Huff filed suit against Royce Hobgood in Walthall County Circuit Court, alleging that Hobgood had breached the warranty of good title when he sold a certain bulldozer to Huff. Hobgood filed a motion to dismiss under Miss.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), which was expanded by the trial judge into a Rule 56 motion for summary judgment, and granted. Huff appeals, assigning as error: Donald Huff purchased a used John Deere 450 Bulldozer from Royce Hobgood on or about December 12, 1978, for $13,500.00. Huff paid Hobgood $6,500.00 in cash and the balance by check. Hobgood gave Huff a bill of sale, which contained the following words: "The said property I guarantee is my own and free of all claims and offsets of any and all kinds." While most of the bill of sale is typed, it contains a handwritten number, # 1216908, which is allegedly the serial number of the bulldozer in question. Hobgood has denied that he ever knew the serial number of the bulldozer, that this particular number was on the bill of sale when he signed it and gave it to Huff, and that he ever authorized anyone to put the number on the bill of sale. In August, 1983, Huff sold the bulldozer to Michael Smith for $10,000.00. Smith used the bulldozer until January, 1986, when Mississippi Highway Patrol officers spotted the bulldozer and determined that it had been stolen from T.L. James Construction co. in Kenner, Louisiana, on March 8, 1973. Highland Insurance Company, which had insured the bulldozer for T.L. James, took possession of it. Smith purchased the bulldozer from Highland for $4,500.00, and then demanded from Huff the aforementioned sum, $2,235.00 for rental equipment, $450.00 for legal fees, and $130.00 for storage costs. On August 19, 1986, Huff filed suit in Walthall County Circuit Court, alleging that Royce Hobgood had breached the warranty of title in selling the bulldozer, and that as a result Huff had suffered damages *953 of $7,315.00, the sum that he had paid Michael Smith, plus attorney's fees. On September 4, 1986, Hobgood filed a Motion to Dismiss under Miss.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), alleging that Huff's suit had been filed after the applicable statute of limitations, found in Miss. Code Ann. § 75-2-725(1972), had run. On October 3, 1986, Hobgood answered, and repeated as his first affirmative defense that Huff's complaint had been filed after the running of the six-year statute of limitations. Huff and Hobgood filed memoranda in support of and in opposition to the Motion to Dismiss. Because matters outside the pleadings were presented to and considered by the trial court, the 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss was treated by the court as a motion for summary judgment under Miss.R.Civ.P. 56. On June 10, 1987, the trial court issued its order dismissing Huff's complaint. It found that the applicable statute of limitations was six years, as found in Miss. Code Ann. § 75-2-725, and that that code section also provided that such a cause of action would accrue when the breach occurred, at the time of the tender of delivery. Thus the cause of action would have accrued in December, 1978, when the bulldozer was tendered, and the six-year statute would have run out in December, 1984. Donald Huff has perfected his appeal to this Court. This Court conducts de novo review of a lower court's grant of summary judgment. Short v. Columbus Rubber and Gasket Co., 535 So. 2d 61, 63 (Miss. 1988). The applicable standard is as follows: Dennis v. Searle, 457 So. 2d 941, 944 (Miss. 1984). The burden of demonstrating that no genuine issue of fact exists is on the moving party. The non-movant should be given the benefit of every reasonable doubt. Short, 535 So. 2d at 63-64. When one contracts for the sale of goods as in this case, the transaction is governed by the U.C.C. as adopted in Miss. Code Ann. §§ 75-2-101 to -725 (1972 &amp; Supp. 1988). Goods are defined in § 75-2-105(1) as follows: This Court has found that the sale of a bulldozer is a sale of goods, and is governed by Article Two of the U.C.C. Taylor v. Ward, 393 So. 2d 1342 (Miss. 1981). Miss. Code Ann. § 75-2-312 provides that a warranty of good title arises automatically from a sale of goods: A warranty of title may also be express, as provided for in Miss. Code Ann. § 75-2-313: The statute of limitations for a breach of a contract for the sale of goods is provided by Miss. Code Ann. § 75-2-725: (emphasis added). Though the words included in the bill of sale by Royce Hobgood may amount to an express warranty of title, they do not enlarge on the warranty of title automatically arising due to § 75-2-312. There is no question that the six-year statute of limitations applies to this transaction. The only question remaining is when did the breach of warranty occur, and the cause of action accrue: when delivery was made to Huff, as Hobgood claims, or when the breach was discovered, as Huffs claims. Actions for breach of contract based on breach of warranty of title are rare. Much more common are actions based on breaches of warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This Court has dealt with § 75-2-725(2) on one other occasion. In Rutland v. Swift Chemical Co., 351 So. 2d 324 (Miss. 1977), Rutland brought suit against Swift Chemical, alleging that certain fertilizer that he had purchased from Swift had been defective in performance. This suit involved the implied warranties of merchantability or itness, and there were no express warranties involved. Rutland argued that because of the nature of fertilizer, any implied warranty of merchantability must relate to future performance of the product, and that no cause of action should have accrued until the farmer had had time to discover whether or not the fertilizer worked properly. This Court rejected this argument: Rutland, 351 So. 2d at 325 (citations omitted). As stated, actions based on breach of warranty of title are rare. The only case found with a fact situation analogous to that in the case at bar is Best Bearings, Inc. v. Challenger Parts Rebuilders, Inc., 10 Ill. App.3d 404, 294 N.E.2d 118 (Ill. App. Ct. 1973). Best Bearings sued because a quantity of ball bearings and other automotive equipment it had purchased turned out to be stolen property. The trial judge dismissed the action because it was not brought within four years as provided for by Illinois' version of the U.C.C. The appellate court affirmed the dismissal of the counts based on breach of warranty, but found that counts based on fraud or misrepresentation were not governed by the four year statute and were not barred by its passage. Best Bearings, 10 Ill. App.3d at 406, 294 N.E.2d at 120. This Court finds that as a matter of law this cause of action accrued in December, 1978, when tender of delivery of the bulldozer was made to Huff, and the six year statute of limitations ran out in December, 1984. It follows that there is no genuine issue of material fact in this case, as this suit was filed in August, 1986, and that the grant of summary judgment under Miss.R. Civ.P. 56 was proper. Finding that no reversible error was committed below, the judgment of the circuit court is affirmed. AFFIRMED. ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., HAWKINS and DAN M. LEE, P.JJ., and PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN, ANDERSON and BLASS, JJ., concur.