Court Opinion

ID: 9711307
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:28:55.836172+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:03.657905
License: Public Domain

GARRARD, Presiding Judge,
concurring in part and concurring in result in part.
I concur with the majority except in its determination that Travel Craft’s draftsmanship precludes it from asserting. that there existed an implied warranty of merchantability.
I agree that Travel Craft cannot claim there was unexpected and unbargained language of disclaimer.
Even so, the language of our statute is clear and succinct. IC 26-1-2-316(2) expressly mandates that in order to exclude or modify the implied warranty of merchantability, a disclaimer must mention “merchantability.”1 Our decisions have strictly enforced this requirement. See, e.g., Agrarian Grain Co., Inc. v. Meeker (1988), Ind.App., 526 N.E.2d 1189.
Furthermore, with the language of the statute available to them, it is as easy to speculate that the parties intended to keep that implied warranty alive as it is to speculate that they intended to exclude it.
Under the circumstances I would conclude that the desirability of certainty in the law, together with the clearly expressed mandate of the legislature, outweigh the equitable value of imposing responsibility on the draftsman. I would thus conclude that an implied warranty of merchantability existed.
Having so said, I nevertheless concur in the result reached because the error in excluding merchantability was harmless.
The claim arose within the three-year period of the express warranty so there can be no material contention that an implied warranty would have covered a longer period.
*243In all other respects the implied warranty of merchantability was subsumed by the express warranty against substantial defects in materials or workmanship under normal use. All the implied warranty requires is that the goods be of average grade, quality and value and fit for the ordinary (normal) purposes for which such goods are used. Woodruff v. Clark Co. Farm Bureau Co-Op Ass’n. (1972), 153 Ind.App. 31, 286 N.E.2d 188.
Thus, the critical facts recorded by the majority in considering the express warranty are equally dispositive of the claim for implied warranty of merchantability.

. There are expressed exceptions, as where the article is sold “as is." IC 26-1-2-316(3). They have no application here.