Court Opinion

ID: 9844372
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:01:50.718853+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:33.789295
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Justice
(dissenting).
I disagree with that portion of the majority opinion that holds that the lessor is not a “merchant.” I cannot agree that the appellant who purchased and thereafter leased large numbers of car wash systems was not “a person who deals in goods of the kind.” Although the appellant here did not build or manufacture such equipment, neither do most retailers. The sole distinction in this case is that appellant, being a lessor rather than a vendor, retained title to the equipment. The majority’s purported change in rule permitting a lessor, in some circumstances, to be held to an implied warranty of merchantability is in reality no change at all. If a person must “sell” and divest himself of title to become a “merchant” and thus subject himself to implied warranty liability a lessor can never be subjected to such liability on implied warranty.
SCOGGIN, District Judge (retired), concurs in dissent.