Opinion ID: 3046280
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: The court purposely ignores several relevant and controlling statutory issues because the parties fail, in its view, to engage in formal discussion and disputation of the matters. But, causes of action based upon implied warranty, and affirmative defenses to them, were directly joined in the district court and should be fully dealt with in this appeal. Indeed, appellate courts often of necessity resolve issues on the basis of the record alone, even without argument and briefing by the parties, where, as here, injustice might otherwise result. Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106, 120-21 (1976); see also Nat'l Metalcrafters v. McNeil, 784 F.2d 817, 825 (7th Cir. 1986); Pro Svc. Auto., L.L.C. v. Lenan Corp., 469 F.3d 1210, 1213 (8th Cir. 2006). Unless otherwise properly modified or excluded, the Minnesota Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), as an incident of public policy, requires implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose to flow as a matter of law to a purchaser of goods, even outside the four corners of a written sales agreement. In Minnesota, these warranties run from both the manufacturer, here Blue Bird, and the immediate seller, here Shorewood. Minn. Stat. Ann. §§ 336.2-314; 2-315. Nelson v. Int'l Harvester Corp., 394 N.W.2d 578, 581 (Minn. Ct. App. 1986), overruled on other grounds by Lloyd F. Smith Co., Inc. v. Den-Tal-Ez, Inc., 491 N.W.2d 11 (Minn. 1992).13 13 While the warranties at issue provide that Georgia law governs their terms, the court says the parties agreed to apply Minnesota law, purportedly because the parties assumed that there were no differences in the law of the two states. This assumption is incorrect. Georgia, unlike Minnesota, requires direct privity between a manufacturer and a purchaser in order for an implied warranty to be binding. McQueen v. Minolta Business Solutions, Inc., 620 S.E.2d 391, 393-94 (Ga. Ct. App. 2005). The immediate contract of sale in this case was between the manufacturer's dealer, Shorewood, and buyer Oren even though some of the warranties extended to -21-