Opinion ID: 687889
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Servicing the MRI machine

Text: 26 At trial, Tomsco asserted the affirmative defense that Fonar had breached the contract by improperly servicing the MRI machine prior to Tomsco's refusal to pay for servicing. We review the magistrate judge's factual finding that Tomsco had not proven by a preponderance of the evidence the affirmative defense of prior breach, see Boston Iron & Metal Co. v. United States, 55 F.2d 126, 127-28 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 286 U.S. 558 (1932) (question of breach is a question of fact), for clear error, see F.R.Civ.P. 52(a). 27 There was scant evidence presented at trial on the issue of Fonar's servicing. Although one of the Tomsco doctors, Dr. Sant Antonio, stated that the MRI machine was down 5 percent of the time, and Tomsco's attorney argued that the performance was therefore unacceptable, no experts on MRI machine operation were presented. In fact, Sant Antonio additionally stated that the doctors were not involved in the operation or maintenance of the MRI machine--they simply sent patients to Bhalla and looked at the MRI images which came back. Although Tomsco was clearly dissatisfied with the results, and thus decided to terminate the contract in April, there was no evidence as to whether the dissatisfaction was caused by poor servicing on the part of Fonar or poor operation on the part of Bhalla. Fonar's servicing technician testified that the machine was up 97 percent of the time, and that that was excellent up time. 28 In light of that evidence, we find that the magistrate judge's finding that Fonar was not proven to have breached the contract was not clearly erroneous.