Court Opinion

ID: 9568291
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:02:16.943189+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:24:33.817793
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur in the majority opinion most reluctantly. "There ought to be a law” that would protect the ultimate consumer against the manufacturer of products where same are defective. But alack and alas! In the State of Georgia, unless there is privity between the parties (which in terms of the law means unless the ultimate consumer actually bought the products from the manufacturer) there is no liability under an express warranty or under an implied warranty. To make it very plain, if John Jones purchases goods from a hardware store, and the goods are completely worthless, he cannot go back on the manufacturer, simply because he did not purchase directly from the manufacturer. If some middleman sells the product to the purchaser, as is almost always the case, then the purchaser may as well forget express warranty or implied warranty by the manufacturer, because of a lack of privity. Judge Pannell makes this quite clear in the case of Evershine Products, Inc. v. Schmitt, 130 Ga. App. 34, 35, 36 (202 SE2d 228), but points out that warranty to a purchaser includes the members of his household or family and guests in his *754home. Code Ann. § 109A-2—318.
Code Ann. § 105-106, at first blush, appears to give rise to a cause of action, but in Evershine Judge Pannell, at page 37, shows that such a suit is not based on negligence of the manufacturer, but because the manufactured product is not merchantable, and that as this would be a suit under an implied warranty, it is barred.
In Chafin v. Atlanta Coca Cola Bottling Co., 127 Ga. App. 619, at 620 (194 SE2d 513), Judge Bell comments on the fact that the ultimate buyer cannot sue the manufacturer directly on implied warranty, unless the purchase was made directly by the purchaser from the manufacturer.
Thus, the party who finally comes into possession of inferior products, unless he purchased directly from the manufacturer, is without a remedy.