Opinion ID: 2000981
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The breach of warranty claim

Text: The front-end loader that is the focus of the present controversy was manufactured and first sold by defendant Clark in 1960. The manufacturer's liability is thus determined by the law of Maine as it existed in 1960. See LaRue v. National Union Electric Corp., 571 F.2d 51, 55 (1st Cir. 1978) (dictum construing Maine law); McNally v. Nicholson Mfg. Co., supra, at 927. At that time in Maine, the requirement of privity barred a breach of warranty suit against a defendant with whom the plaintiff had not contracted. Pelletier v. Dupont, 124 Me. 269, 276, 128 A. 186, 189 (1925); see also Sams v. Ezy-Way Foodliner Co., 157 Me. 10, 17-18, 170 A.2d 160, 165 (1961). Beginning in 1963, a series of legislative enactments first limited the requirement of horizontal privity by permitting suit against a seller of defective goods by a household or family member or a guest of the purchaser, P.L. 1963, ch. 362, § 1, enacting 11 M.R.S.A. § 2-318 (1964); then abrogated the requirement of vertical privity by allowing a plaintiff to reach a remote seller, supplier, or manufacturer of defective goods, P.L. 1969, ch. 327, § 1, repealing and replacing 11 M.R.S.A. § 2-318; and finally abrogated the defense of lack of privity as to all breach of warranty and negligence suits, P.L. 1969, ch. 327, § 2, enacting 14 M.R.S.A. § 161. The legislature in each instance expressly declared its intention that these enactments should not be given retrospective effect. See P.L. 1963, ch. 362, § 41; P.L. 1969, ch. 327, § 3. Plaintiff's claims are thus not aided by those changes in Maine's law regarding privity, all of which took place after the initial sales transaction by defendant Clark. The trial justice correctly found plaintiff's breach of warranty claims against defendant Clark to be barred by lack of privity between the parties.