Phelan ex rel. Estate of Phelan v. Daimler Chrysler
| Decision Date | 28 June 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 3:02CV1219 (JBA).,3:02CV1219 (JBA). |
| Citation | 323 F.Supp.2d 335 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut |
| Parties | Angela PHELAN, Administratrix of the ESTATE OF Christopher PHELAN, Class Member, and Individually, plaintiff, v. DAIMLER CHRYSLER CORPORATION, defendant. |
James H. Halpin, Jr., Jonathan A. Kocienda, Peter M. Van Dyke, Steven E. Arnold, Stanger & Arnold, LLP, West Hartford, CT, M. Sheila Jeffrey, Miller Canfield Paddock & Stone, Ann Arbor, MI, for Plaintiff.
Daniel J. Krisch, Horton, Shields & Knox, Hartford, CT, James P. Kerr, Marie E. Chafe, Peter M. Durney, Cornell & Gollub, Boston, MA, Raymond M. Kethledge, Stefanie E. Deller, Bush Seyferth & Kethledge PLLC, Troy, MI, for Defendant.
Ruling on Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. # 117]1
After de novo review, Magistrate Judge Joan Glazer Margolis' recommended ruling [Doc. # 134] is approved and adopted with the expansions set forth below. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(b). Accordingly, defendant Daimler Chrysler Corporation's ("DCC") motion for summary judgment [Doc. # 117] is GRANTED.
Count one of plaintiff Angela Phelan's amended complaint alleges generally that, beginning in April 1979 and continuing to the present, DCC has committed and continues to commit CUTPA violations in the designing, manufacturing, marketing, advertising, sale, and/or leasing of its Jeep Wrangler series model vehicles. The CUTPA allegations charge that DCC deceptively designed, manufactured, and marketed the vehicles by fraudulently misrepresenting to the consuming public that the Jeep Wrangler series model vehicles had roll bars and hard top roofs that provided adequate safety protections in the event of a rollover even though DCC knew that the vehicles had a propensity to roll over and the existing roll bars and/or hardtop roof did not provide the represented rollover safety protection.
The manifestations of the alleged fraudulent misrepresentations are alleged to include: 1) misnaming, misspelling and misidentifying the Jeep Wrangler overhead and side bar component parts as "roll bars," notwithstanding that such components are not real roll bars; 2) training and misinforming dealers and sales agents to represent to consumers that the Jeep Wrangler has structural roll bar and hardtop roof rollover safety protection, when it does not; 3) manufacturing the Jeep Wrangler with a "hardtop" roof that has no adequate steel or other structural support to protect Jeep Wrangler occupants from roof-crush injuries from a rollover accident; 4) providing only minimal warning decals that inadequately warn about the rollover propensity of the Jeep Wrangler, and that the Jeep Wrangler doors and "hardtop" roof only provide occupants protection from the outside elements; and 5) failing to warn that the Jeep Wrangler "rollbars" are not structural roll bars, or that the Jeep Wrangler "rollbars" and its "hardtop" roof do not provide occupants with any adequate roll bar of hardtop roof rollover safety protection.
According to Phelan, the misrepresentations and deceptions outlined above fraudulently induced consumers to purchase the Jeep Wrangler for inflated purchase prices, that is, for an amount greater than they otherwise would have paid had they known the true nature of the rollover protection provided by the vehicle's roll bar and hard top roof. As such, notwithstanding that consumers did not receive what they believed they were bargaining for, they paid as if they did. Plaintiffs' current opposition includes various documents obtained during discovery purporting to provide factual support for these allegations as well as concerted efforts to conceal the Jeep Wrangler's shortcomings from the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration and the public at large.
The critical question on which the present motion focuses, as directed by the Court's earlier dispositions, see Ruling [Doc. # 70] and Order [Doc. # 81], is did Phelan's decedent purchase his 1994 Jeep Wrangler before, on, or after July 17, 1999. If purchased before July 17, 1999, the Court's prior rulings direct that Phelan's CUTPA claim is time-barred pursuant to CUTPA's 3 year statute of limitations, Conn. Gen.Stat. § 42-110g(f). The Recommended Ruling concludes that, by operation of Conn. Gen.Stat. § 42a-2-401(2), Phelan's decedent's purchase occurred on July 9, 1999, the date title passed to him upon his taking physical possession of the jeep, and not on or after July 17, 1999, when Phelan's decedent's letter of credit was honored and funds transferred to the jeep's seller. See Ruling [Doc. # 134] at 8-10. The Court agrees with this legal conclusion and adopts her analysis, which is further supported by: State v. Cardwell, 246 Conn. 721, 730-32, 718 A.2d 954 (1998); DeRubbo v. Aetna Ins. Co., 161 Conn. 388, 393-94, 288 A.2d 430 (1971); Providence Electric Co. v. Sutton Place Inc., 161 Conn. 242, 247, 287 A.2d 379 (1971). Phelan objects to this aspect of the Recommended Ruling, arguing that title transfer and taking possession are here irrelevant because the CUTPA violation was not completed until the decedent's letter of credit was honored as that is the date on which he parted with possession and control of his money and prior thereto he could have discovered DCC's alleged fraudulent conduct and directed dishonoring of his letter of credit. See Objection [Doc. # 139] at 3-6. Under the facts of this case as admitted by Phelan, see Pl.'s Statement [Doc. # 124], there is no basis for concluding that the occurrence of the alleged CUTPA violation here, the fraudulently induced purchase of a jeep at an inflated price, was not complete at the same time the sale occurred for purposes of the Uniform Commercial Code as adopted in Connecticut. All documents critical to the purchase refer to July 9, 1999 as the purchase date; Phelan took possession on that date; Phelan tendered payment (part in cash, part by check, and part by letter of credit) on that date; and Phelan had a soft top installed on the jeep on July 15, 1999. Under these facts, July 9 is the end point of any possible deceptive act by DCC related to inducing purchase of the jeep by Phelan's decedent and, as such, the final date of a CUTPA violation from which the statute of limitations begins to run. The transfer of funds rather represents the ascertainable loss element of a private CUTPA claim for damages, see Conn. Gen.Stat. § 42-110g(a), and thus is not relevant to calculation of the CUTPA limitations period, see Fichera v. Mine Hill Corp., 207 Conn. 204, 211-13, 541 A.2d 472 (1988).
The Magistrate Judge also rejected Phelan's reassertion of her earlier tolling arguments, referencing the Court's earlier rulings. See Ruling [Doc. # 70] at 16-20 and Order [Doc. # 81] at 1-4. Phelan objects and requests the Court revisit its prior rulings in light of what she claims her discovery has produced. The Court agrees with the Recommended Ruling's conclusion that tolling doctrines — continuing course of conduct and fraudulent concealment — do not save Phelan's CUTPA cause of action here but sets forth its analysis in greater detail than previously.
To support a finding of a `continuing course of conduct' that may toll the statute of limitations there must be evidence of the breach of a duty that remained in existence after commission of the original wrong related thereto. That duty must not have terminated prior to commencement of the period allowed for bringing an action for such a wrong.
. . . . .
Where we have upheld a finding that a duty continued to exist after the cessation of the relied upon, there has been evidence of either a special relationship between the parties giving rise to such a continuing duty or some later wrongful conduct of a defendant related to the prior act.
Blanchette v. Barrett, 229 Conn. 256, 275, 640 A.2d 74 (1994) (quoting Fichera v. Mine Hill Corp., 207 Conn. 204, 209-10, 541 A.2d 472 (1988)). Examples of a special relationship or later wrongful conduct related to a prior act include "repeated instructions and advice given to the plaintiff by the defendant concerning a furnace it had previously converted and left in a defective condition," or "injurious consequences arising from a course of treatment by a physician." Fichera, 207 Conn. at 210, 541 A.2d 472 (quotation and brackets omitted).
In the analogous context of Fichera v. Mine Hill Corp., 207 Conn. 204, 541 A.2d 472 (1988), the Connecticut Supreme Court applied CUTPA's three year statute of limitations to allegations that defendants, joint venturers in the development of a recreational real estate subdivision, had induced the plaintiffs with false representations to purchase four lots in the subdivision. The plaintiffs had purchased the lots on May 29, 1979, based on false representations of the defendants and their agents that community recreational facilities would be constructed and completed for the subdivision by May 1980. In July 1981, plaintiffs learned that the defendants did not intend to carry through with their representations. Plaintiffs commenced suit on January 23, 1984, a date more than three years subsequent to their May 29, 1979 purchases. The trial court excused plaintiffs' delay under the "continuing course of conduct" tolling doctrine, reasoning that, notwithstanding that defendants' misrepresentations had been made in 1978 and 1979, their course of conduct was not completed until July 1981 when plaintiffs became aware of defendants' intent not to construct recreational facilities. Rejecting the trial court's conclusion, the Connecticut Supreme Court concluded plaintiffs' claims were time-barred under Conn. Gen.Stat. § 42-110g(f), and remanded the case for further proceedings.
With respect to the existence of a special relationship, the Connecticut Supreme Court commented,
We are aware of no authority holding that the perpetrator of a fraud involving merely a vendor-vendee...
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