Court Opinion

ID: 9619339
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:26:43.638242+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:12:28.285425
License: Public Domain

BACON, Judge,
concurring specially in result.
I concur in the result reached by the majority but for different reasons. Under Oklahoma law any right of action surviving a decedent exists solely by virtue of statutory enactment. Title 12 O.S.1981 § 1053, commonly referred to as Oklahoma’s Wrongful Death Statute, requires “[t]he action must be commenced within two (2) years.” I assume this means within two (2) years from the date of death.
In the present case the action was not brought within two years from the date of death. It is the plaintiff’s position that the defendants fraudulently concealed the facts surrounding the death of her husband. It should therefore follow that even though the statute of limitations has run on a suit against the manufacturer, the other defendants should be liable for the amount of damage plaintiff could have recovered from the manufacturer, but for the statute of limitations having run. That is to say, if defendants did fraudulently conceal the facts from plaintiff; and if manufacturer did not take part in that concealment; and because the statute of limitations ran against manufacturer, then plaintiff should be entitled to recover from defendants as an additional item of damage those damages plaintiff could have recovered from manufacturer but for the other defendants’ fraudulent concealment that allowed the statute of limitations to run on plaintiff’s lawsuit.
I would also like to point out what I feel is a major flaw in our law pertaining to actions for breach of warranty that possibly our supreme court or the legislature may want to consider. That flaw comes about as to items sold which the purchaser itself will never use as intended, but which will only be “used” by purchaser’s patients, clients or customers. This case, in my opinion, is a classic example of what I refer to. The “purchaser” of the heart-lung machine, be it hospital, doctor, clinic, etc., will never be the “consumer” or “user” that would be damaged by a defective machine, but only the unconscious patient will be the party affected. The cases referred to in the main opinion refer to the so-called “vertical” and “horizontal” chain for determining whether a party can maintain an action for breach of warranty. One must be in the “vertical” chain to maintain the action.
*1125I submit that we need a “diagonal” chain as an exception. The diagonal chain would be an exception wherein the item purchased is one referred to above that virtually no person in the vertical chain would ever be the user/consumer of. Such items normally would be part of service related occupations or professions where the purchaser buys the item to use on persons other than the purchaser. I would therefore suggest the “diagonal” exception to the cases permitting only “purchasers” in the vertical chain to maintain an action for breach of warranty. Until such exception is recognized or legislated a “warranty” on such items is virtually meaningless. The purchaser (and those in the vertical chain) will never be the ultimate user/consumer of the item. Because the “user/consumer” is not in the vertical chain no action for breach of warranty could be maintained by any person — thus any warranty is meaningless.