Opinion ID: 1400724
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The FFG in this Case

Text: The FFG that injured Jaramillo was an open architecture machine manufactured around 1964 by S & S Manufacturing (S & S), a Brooklyn-based company that went bankrupt around 1986. The FFG was sold new to the General Foods Company, which used the machine in a cereal plant in Battle Creek, Michigan from about 1964 until 1971. Weyerhaeuser purchased the machine from General Foods in 1971 for about $36,500, and installed it in its Lynchburg, Virginia box plant. Weyerhaeuser added a vacuum transfer system and installed a solid state drive and motor. In 1984, Weyerhaeuser also conducted a rebuild of the machine, replacing all worn parts. It made no changes to the safety mechanisms installed by S & S in the original manufacture. Weyerhaeuser's total investment in the machine was around $282,000. The machine was still functional in 1986fifteen years after its purchase by Weyerhaeuser and more than twenty years following its manufactureand Weyerhaeuser had it running two shifts per day. Weyerhaeuser nevertheless decided to sell the machine through the IRB to Glenwood, a Yonkers-based company, for about $70,000. The machine was disassembled in Virginia by a Glenwood employee, transported to Yonkers, and reassembled at the Glenwood plant. The parties were unable to locate the invoice from the 1986 sale. The heading of a sample IRB sales invoice from 1986, however, states that equipment is SOLD AS IS, WHERE IS, WITH ALL FAULTS. According to the deposition testimony of former Weyerhaeuser employee Walter Paulson, this meant that potential buyers were invited to inspect IRB products to decide if they wanted to buy them in the condition in which they were displayed. Paulson testified also that most of the time IRB sales were done as-is, where-is, and that the company never warranted anything, guaranteed anything. Accordingly, while there is little direct evidence of the conditions of the sale, the existing evidence indicates that the machine was sold as is, where is and without any express warranties. [1]