Buford v. General Motors Corp.

• Decision Date: 30 December 1994
• Docket Number: No. 526PA93,526PA93
• Citation: 451 S.E.2d 293,339 N.C. 396
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: John L. BUFORD and Betty Tate Buford v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION.

Page 293

451 S.E.2d 293

339 N.C. 396

John L. BUFORD and Betty Tate Buford v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION.

No. 526PA93.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Dec. 30, 1994.

Moore and Brown by B. Ervin Brown, II, David B. Puryear, Jr., and R.J. Lingle, Winston-Salem, for plaintiff-appellants.

Petree Stockton, L.L.P. by Richard J. Keshian and Julia C. Archer, Winston-Salem, for defendant-appellee.

WHICHARD, Justice.

This case arises out of plaintiffs' purchase of a 1989 Chevrolet Suburban and requires us to interpret North Carolina's New Motor Vehicles Warranties Act (hereinafter the "Lemon Law"), N.C.G.S. §§ 20-351 through -351.10 (1993), for the first time. Plaintiffs bought their vehicle from Parks Chevrolet, Inc., an authorized dealer of General Motors automobiles, on 24 February 1989. They paid $23,066.00, $16,000.00 of which they financed. They were current on their finance payments of $357.59 per month. The General Motors warranty applicable to the Suburban covers the entire vehicle for up to three years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first. Warranted repairs are free during the first year or up to 12,000 miles. After that point the consumer pays a $100 deductible fee per repair until the warranty expires. Plaintiffs put 12,000 miles on their vehicle within three months of their purchase. Plaintiff-husband uses it to haul heavy machinery to job sites from which he removes hazardous wastes such as lead and asbestos.

Plaintiff-husband testified that he first noticed problems with his new vehicle as he drove it home from Parks Chevrolet the day he bought it. He found the vehicle difficult to start and heard the doors and windows rattling. The first time it rained, he noticed that the tailgate leaked. Additionally, the defroster blew air in the wrong direction, and the windshield wipers sprayed water onto the hood instead of the windshield.

Plaintiffs returned their vehicle to Parks Chevrolet for its first repairs on 2 March 1989, one week after their purchase. Over the course of the next three years, plaintiffs returned the vehicle to Parks Chevrolet--or, after they moved to Pennsylvania, to Day Chevrolet in Pittsburgh--for repairs on at least thirty-one different occasions. Because of the numerous repair attempts, plaintiffs' Suburban was out of commission for more than forty days during the first year of ownership.

The primary problems plaintiffs reported included continuous shaking and vibration of the doors, windows, and body panels, excessive brake wear, wind passing through the doors and windows, and dashboard vents blowing air the wrong way. The vents and windshield washers had been repaired by the time of trial, while the fit of the doors and windows had not been corrected to plaintiffs' satisfaction despite several attempts. At the time of trial, plaintiffs had replaced the brakes five times in the 88,000 miles they had driven the vehicle. Plaintiffs also experienced problems with items not covered under the General Motors warranty, such as the spoiler on the hood and the wiring on the running board, both of which Parks Chevrolet installed.

After approaching Parks Chevrolet's service manager about the problems, plaintiff-husband met with the owner, Richard C. Parks, in March or April 1989. Plaintiff-husband testified that Parks offered him four options: live with the problems; trade in the vehicle and take the loss; go to arbitration; or go to court. He also testified that Parks told him that "quality is lacking in those Suburbans." Plaintiff-husband declined to utilize General Motors' arbitration system after learning from Parks and the Better Business Bureau in Pittsburgh that consumers receive little satisfaction from that procedure. He further testified that Parks did not offer to replace the Suburban or to refund plaintiffs' money.

Plaintiffs contacted an attorney, J. Bruce Mulligan, who wrote to Parks Chevrolet on 10 November 1989, restating plaintiffs' complaints and stating that the vehicle fell within the Lemon Law. The letter noted three specific defects that both Parks Chevrolet and Day Chevrolet had been unable to repair:

(1) the heating and air conditioning controls and vent system; (2) the fitting of the doors, particularly the driver's door and numerous vibrations in the body, which is ill-fitting; (3) a continuous grinding noise in the rear end which has resulted in two complete brake replacements in less than 30,000 miles for the vehicle.

Neither this letter nor Mulligan's phone calls to Chevrolet's Customer Assistance Division and General Motors Corporation generated a response. On 20 February 1990 Mulligan wrote to both the Customer Assistance Division and General Motors stating plaintiffs' intent to file suit under the Lemon Law if the matter was not resolved.

On 1 March 1990 John Lyles, the Division Manager at the Charlotte branch of Chevrolet Motor Division, replied to Mulligan, informing him that personnel in the Pittsburgh branch would handle the matter because plaintiffs lived in Pennsylvania at that time. Additionally, Lyles called plaintiff-husband around 9 March 1990. He offered, on behalf of Chevrolet Motor Division, to have plaintiffs' Suburban inspected at Day Chevrolet by a General Motors representative. He also offered the use of a rental car free of charge during the inspection. He testified that plaintiff-husband refused to allow any inspection and hung up on him. Mulligan eventually wrote to George Evanich, the Division Manager at the Pittsburgh branch of Chevrolet Motor Division, and reported that plaintiff-wife had made an appointment in April to have the Suburban inspected.

On 23 April 1990 Art Matlack, a Chevrolet Technical Analysis Expert, inspected plaintiffs' Suburban. At that time plaintiffs had driven the vehicle about 50,000 miles. Matlack performed minor repairs and adjustments, such as replacing bearings, aligning the hood, and adjusting mirrors. Some conditions plaintiffs complained of--for example, wind entering the vehicle around the door frame on the driver's side--did not occur during his testing and inspection. He completed all repairs at no charge to plaintiffs. Evanich sent the results of the inspection to Mulligan on 3 May 1990, and explained in his letter that "the vehicle returned to [plaintiff-husband] on April 27, 1990, was in the opinion of Chevrolet Motor Division free of all defects which would affect the operation, safety, or merchantability of this vehicle." General Motors did not offer to replace the vehicle or refund plaintiffs' money.

Plaintiffs filed suit in Superior Court, Forsyth County, on 13 March 1991, alleging that General Motors had unreasonably refused to comply with the Lemon Law by failing to either refund their purchase price or replace the defective vehicle as required under the Act, and was therefore liable to plaintiffs for monetary damages. One month after the filing, Lyles himself performed a second inspection of the plaintiffs' Suburban. He tried to examine all seventeen problems listed by plaintiffs through discovery. However, plaintiff-husband cut Lyles' inspection short, indicating that he could wait no longer for Lyles to finish.

As of the date of Lyles' inspection, only two of the primary problems alleged by plaintiffs remained--the fit and finish of the body and premature brake wear. Plaintiffs concede that defendant had repaired the heating and ventilation system to their satisfaction. Lyles examined the three aspects of the vehicle's fit and finish that plaintiffs complained of: a misaligned hood; rattling windows; and an ill-fitting door on the driver's side. He found that a spoiler on the hood, not installed by General Motors, affected the hood's alignment, making it difficult to close and causing some vibration. That condition, however, did not fall within the coverage of the General Motors warranty because the company neither manufactured nor installed the spoiler.

During his test drive, Lyles listened for a rattling noise from the windows on the driver's side. He heard no such noise, but did testify that he was unclear about the nature of the alleged noise because plaintiff-husband refused to communicate about his complaints. Finally, Lyles examined the vehicle's body in search of defects in the alignment of the door on the driver's side. After taking photographs from several different angles, he performed two standard tests during his test drive to determine the point at which air might enter the vehicle. First, he lit a cigarette and traced the door frame. When doors are misaligned or otherwise ill-fitting, cigarette smoke will be drawn out of a vehicle while the smoker is driving. Next he put his hand around the frame in an effort to feel air entering the passenger cabin. Lyles discovered no air coming in around the door frame as a result of either test. He concluded from his inspection that any problems with the Suburban's fit and finish were minor imperfections to be expected on vehicles. He testified that eight out of ten 1989 Suburbans would have similar imperfections. He found no defects that could substantially impair the value of plaintiffs' vehicle.

As to brake wear, Lyles testified that the General Motors warranty does not cover that condition because it depends on the owners' care and use of the vehicle. He further testified that hauling heavy loads causes brakes to wear out more quickly than normal because a vehicle's stopping distance and the pressure needed on the brakes increase with the weight of the vehicle. Given the use plaintiff-husband made of his Suburban, Lyles did not seem surprised that the brakes wore out fairly quickly.

The case was tried to a jury during the 30 March 1992 session of Superior Court, Forsyth County. At the close of all the evidence, defendant moved for, and the trial court granted, a directed verdict in favor of defendant on the issue of whether it had unreasonably refused to comply with the Lemon Law. The court submitted two issues...