Opinion ID: 1656547
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Did GM breach an express warranty or fail to conform to express factual representations upon which the Forbeses justifiably relied?

Text: ¶ 6. The essence of the Forbeses' argument is that GM sold its product with the express warranty that the air bag would deploy in the event of a front-end collision when the impact was hard enough. The Forbeses claim that the amount of force sustained by their car in this accident was certainly hard enough according to their experts' testimony, and that therefore the express warranty was breached. The express warranty referred to is a portion of the owner's manual for their automobile which states that if a front-end collision is hard enough, the `air bag' inflates in a fraction of a second. ¶ 7. The Court of Appeals centered their discussion around three sentences in the owner's manual upon which the Forbeses supposedly solely relied in purchasing their car, which reads as follows. The `air bag' part of the SIR [Supplemental Inflatable Restraint] system is in the middle of the steering wheel. The SIR system is only for crashes where the front area of your vehicle hits something. If the collision is hard enough, the `air bag' inflates in a fraction of a second. The Court of Appeals analysis focused a great deal on how hard hard enough actually is and discussed the evidence presented at trial. The Court of Appeals further noted that the Forbeses cited no authority for any assertion in their original briefs outside of the standard of review and the definition of a directed verdict. Normally, the failure to cite any authority in support of an assignment of error prevents us from considering a claim on appeal. R.C. Petroleum, Inc. v. Hernandez, 555 So.2d 1017, 1023 (Miss.1990). However, as discussed below, because this case is largely fact-driven, we continue a detailed analysis. ¶ 8. The Court of Appeals also focused on another fact supposedly creating an express warranty which was breached  the salesman's words. As the Court of Appeals stated, because the salesman who sold Mr. Forbes the Delta 88 stressed the importance of an air bag and explained that the car was equipped with one, the Forbeses claim to have been given a factual representation on which they relied. As both the trial court and the Court of Appeals correctly pointed out, the salesman was a representative of Mike Smith Motors or Mack Grubbs Motors, not GM. However, GM is the only remaining party to this case, and no representative from GM actually made any statement to the Forbeses regarding the air bag in their car, outside of the owner's manual. In any case, the Forbeses never once claimed in their brief or in their petition that the oral statement made by the salesman was the express warranty upon which they relied. They instead focus wholly on the owner's manual, as we will as well. ¶ 9. The Court of Appeals also pointed out that the Forbeses do not deny that they never read the alleged warranty in the owner's manual and that they thus fail to show sufficient reliance on the owner's manual. The Court of Appeals relied on Palmer v. Volkswagen of America, Inc., 904 So.2d 1077, 1084 (Miss.2005), where we stated, [t]he presence or absence of anything in an unread owner's manual simply cannot proximately cause a plaintiff's damages. In Palmer we noted that, with regard to proximate cause, a plaintiff who has not read an owner's manual at all cannot claim to have been misled by it. Id. However, Palmer is not applicable to the issue before us. In Palmer, we were confronted with the issue of a failure to warn being the proximate cause; however, the issue today is a failure to perform in accordance with a factual representation, in the words of the Court of Appeals, or rather a failure to conform to a factual representation upon which the claimant justifiably relied. In any case, that the Forbeses never read their owner's manual is not fatal to their case. It is still possible to rely on assertions therein without having actually read them. It would be quite unusual for a consumer to read an owner's manual before buying a car. Even more unusual would be for a consumer to insist upon reading the manual before buying the automobile and requiring that an understanding of the manual be a condition precedent to purchasing the car. The fact remains that Mr. Forbes did make his purchase conditional on one factor, the presence of a functional driver's side air bag. Forbes inquired about the presence of an air bag from the salesman and ensured that the vehicle he was purchasing was equipped with one as a specific feature. More importantly, he paid a higher price to have an air bag included. While the salesman himself may not substantively assert facts making GM liable, here he was doing nothing more that conveying the express warranty to Forbes. The salesman was merely relaying a fact GM represented in their owner's manual, that the car he was buying had a working air bag. Relying on that fact, Mr. Forbes decided to purchase this particular car. To meet the first part of the statutory claim, the Forbeses must show that the product either breached an express warranty or failed to conform to other express factual representations upon which he justifiably relied in electing to use the product. Miss. Code Ann. § 11-1-63(a)(i)(4) (emphasis added). In this case, there is both an express warranty, the promise of a functional driver's side air bag, and justifiable reliance, the fact that, but for the promise of the air bag, Forbes would not have purchased the vehicle. The statutory requirements are thus met. ¶ 10. The worthy dissenting opinion in today's case quotes a portion of Foster v. Copiah County Co-op., AAL., 246 Miss. 218, 231, 148 So.2d 702, 707 (1963), where this Court held, [i]f a statement was unknown to the buyer at the time the sale was completed, it is obvious that there can be ... [no] detrimental reliance.... However, Foster was clearly handed down well before Miss.Code Ann. § 11-1-63 was in effect and thus that opinion was not interpreting today's statute. The full sentence containing the holding from that case reads as follows: [i]f a statement was unknown to the buyer at the time the sale was completed, it is obvious that there can be neither consideration from the standpoint of the law of contracts nor detrimental reliance from the standpoint of the law of torts. Id. However, simply stated, Foster is not dispositive in favor of GM here. The fact that the Foster court was not dealing with a question involving today's statute is not the only reason this is true. First, the claim in Foster was one rooted in the law of sales, not torts. Second, Foster only emphasizes if the statement was unknown at the time of sale, not unread. The dissent places emphasis on this as well, stating, there can be no reliance on a statement the plaintiff knows nothing about. That the car had a driver's side air bag was indeed known to Forbes at the time of sale and was one upon which he relied in electing to use the product. See, Miss.Code Ann. § 11-1-63(a)(i)(4). ¶ 11. Additionally, today's dissent relies on another federal case to bolster its argument that no express warranty existed upon which Forbes relied, Austin v. Will-Burt Co., 232 F.Supp.2d 682, 687 (N.D.Miss.2002), aff'd, 361 F.3d 862 (5th Cir.2004). In that case, a telecasting company did fail to prove it relied on the manufacturer's statements when purchasing an aluminum telescoping mast, but it did not purchase that mast from the manufacturer, but rather a third party, the original purchaser, and did so ten years after the original sale. Because of this, the Austin court found no express warranty existed between the manufacturer and the plaintiffs in that case, thus Austin is distinguishable. In any case, Austin quoted Albritton v. Coleman Co., 813 F.Supp. 450, 455 (S.D.Miss.1992) to hold that, [a]n express warranty is any affirmation of fact or promise which concerns the product and becomes part of the basis for the purchase of such a product. Fault does not need to be shown to establish a breach. The plaintiff need only show that the product did not live up to its warranty. Austin, 232 F.Supp.2d at 687 (internal citations omitted). This accurately describes the situation before us today. An express warranty, which is any affirmation of fact, exists in today's case and undoubtedly became a part of the basis for Forbes's purchase of the car in the first place. Therefore, in order for Forbes to overcome a motion for a directed verdict, we must determine whether Forbes has shown that the product did not live up to its warranty. ¶ 12. In order to do this, we turn to the problem of deciding how hard an impact must be to meet the standard of hard enough. The question of whether the warranty was breached depends on what amount of force is hard enough to trigger an air bag and whether the car sustained that amount of force. The dissenting opinion from the Court of Appeals opines that because the car had extensive amounts of damage, the collision must have been hard enough. Forbes, 929 So.2d at 970 (Irving, J., dissenting). To the extent that the evidence presented was sufficient to allow the issue to go to the jury, we agree. The plaintiffs' case relied in part on the testimony of Major John Tolar of the Columbia Police Dept. who stated that, in his opinion, it was unusual for an air bag not to inflate where damage to both cars was extensive, and Danny Alexander, the passenger of the other car in the accident, who testified to his injuries and damage to that car. Another expert at trial was Jim Pachmyer, the mechanic who removed and repaired the Delta 88. Pachmyer testified about the extent of the damage and the nature and cost of the needed repairs, which was approximately $5,800. Pachmyer also testified that many of the items on the front of the car, designed to shatter on impact, were destroyed, including the grill assembly, header panel system, front cover, front bumper, front bumper impact absorber, and the whole front bumper assembly, with its various reinforcement bars and braces. The headlight assembly was also destroyed, and the hood and hood panel between the fenders had to be replaced. Additionally, Pachmyer testified that the metal radiator support, spanning the front of the car and on which the air bag collision sensors were mounted, was driven back four to six inches from the collision. The trial court concluded that this testimony was insufficient to show breach of duty much less proximate cause of the plaintiffs' injuries. The trial judge specifically cited the plaintiffs' failure to present a qualified expert to opine that the air bag system in the car was somehow deficient. However, today's case involves a breach of warranty claim, not a defective product claim. ¶ 13. The Court of Appeals as well would have required an expert in the technical aspects of air bags to determine if the collision was hard enough. But see, e.g., General Motors Corp. v. Pegues, 738 So.2d 746, 751-53 (Miss.Ct.App.1998) (trial court did not abuse discretion in allowing local mechanic to offer expert testimony for the plaintiff in products liability case as to the cause and nature of the accident). See also Hollingsworth v. Bovaird Supply Co., 465 So.2d 311, 314 (Miss.1985); Ford Motor Co. v. Dees, 223 So.2d 638, 641 (Miss. 1969); Ford Motor Co. v. Cockrell, 211 So.2d 833, 838 (Miss.1968). In today's case, the dissenting opinion from the Court of Appeals made inquiry as to the existence of authority which requires expert testimony in order to establish the degree of the impact in this case. Forbes, 929 So.2d at 972 (Irving, J., dissenting). The majority of the Court of Appeals relied on a case from a federal district court in which the trial court dismissed a claim after finding no expert evidence that plaintiff's air bag failed to deploy because of some defect. St. Clair v. General Motors Corp., 10 F.Supp.2d 523 (M.D.N.C.1998). That court held that plaintiffs must offer `legal evidence tending to establish beyond a mere speculation or conjecture every essential element' of their claims. Id. at 532 (internal citations omitted). We distinguish St. Clair by pointing out that the claim in that case was negligent design and manufacture, unlike the claim in this case of a failure to conform to a factual representation upon which the claimant justifiably relied. It is true that we have frequently relied on expert testimony in deciding fault in products liability cases. See Williams v. Bennett, 921 So.2d 1269 (Miss.2006); Daniels v. GNB, Inc., 629 So.2d 595 (Miss.1993); Dunson v. S.A. Allen, Inc., 355 So.2d 77 (Miss.1978). However, in today's case, we are not to determine fault. No legal authority exists to require expert testimony in this case, and we do not want to encourage such a rule. An expert beyond what the Forbeses presented should also not be required to point out to the jury that Mr. Forbes thought he was buying a car with an air bag that would inflate in an accident such as this and that the collision was sufficiently hard to deploy the air bag consistent with his expectations. Both the trial court and the Court of Appeals explained that several GM engineers were present in the courtroom, and that the plaintiffs' attorney could have called these GM experts as adverse witnesses if he had wanted. There is no doubt that providing more expert testimony in this case would not have been an insurmountable hurdle, but we certainly cannot fault the attorney for choosing not to call witnesses who were present, not to help his case, but instead to bolster the case of his opponent, who was employing them for that purpose. The jury should have been presented with the question of whether the impact was hard enough to have deployed the air bag and thus fulfilled a promise on which Mr. Forbes relied when buying his car. ¶ 14. Here, Forbes need only show that the product did not live up to its warranty. Albritton, 813 F.Supp. at 455. This means in part showing that the impact was hard enough, something Forbes may attempt to do without further expert testimony than that already offered. The dissenting opinion does not take issue with the conclusion that expert testimony is not needed to establish that the product did not perform as warranted. Forbes can do so without the need of expert testimony in this case because [f]ault does not need to be shown to establish a breach. Id. We do not intend for today's holding to become a strict rule that no expert testimony is ever needed in any products liability case involving an automobile's air bag. The nature of these fact-driven actions is such that we must approach them on a case-by-case basis. We are also not determining fault, but simply deciding if the question should be presented to a jury, which we do viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the Forbeses, and giving them the benefit of all favorable inferences that may be reasonably drawn from the evidence. See Cousar, 855 So.2d at 998. For the sake of emphasis, we repeat that, in order for this case to proceed, the facts and evidence must only be such that reasonable jurors could have arrived at a different verdict. We find that possibility to be very likely. ¶ 15. We cannot find that more was needed for the trial court to allow this case to proceed into GM's case-in-chief. GM provided the express warranty in the owner's manual included with the car it manufactured. That warranty issued by GM contained the ambiguous language hard enough as the impact threshold for an air bag to inflate. This case presents a classic jury question, whether the car in the collision here sustained a hard enough impact to deploy the air bag. Having provided testimony from at least one credible witness with regard to the impact of the collision, the Forbeses have at least presented sufficient evidence to create a jury issue. Had the trial court given the case to the jury, the jurors certainly would have more at their disposal to decide beyond speculation and conjecture the issue of whether the product failed to perform as warranted. The Forbeses established a prima facie case, and there were no proper grounds for the grant of a directed verdict. The dissent in the Court of Appeals presents a hypothetical situation not at issue, a 70 mile-per-hour headlong collision into a brick wall, to ask when expert testimony is not needed to establish that an air bag should have deployed. Forbes v. Gen. Motors Corp., 929 So.2d at 975 (Irving, J., dissenting). Naturally, only the jury presented with such a case can answer that question, but again this hypothetical goes to an analysis of a defective product claim, and not one of a breached express warranty, as here. In the latter situation, we would not hold that an expert be required for the jury to reach its decision. Likewise, we do not find today that an expert beyond those who testified was required in this case for the jury to have been given the opportunity to make its decision. A directed verdict exists so a defendant may challenge a case unsupported by sufficient evidence. Miss. R. Civ. P. 50(a). The trial court improperly granted GM's motion for a directed verdict, as here the evidence was at least sufficient to require GM to go forward with their case-in-chief.