Warranties

Hello Everyone,

I had some utility work done at my park. The company gave me a one year warranty. The warranty did not say that they dicslaimed all other warranties of fitness for particular purpose and merchantibility. The warranty expired. However, the contract states that all work was to be performed in a “workmanlike manner according to standard industry practices.” The company told me that they were doing me a favor by helping me since the warranty expired.

However, contracts have conditions-terms. This one had a condition that all work was to be done in a workmanlike manner according to standard industry practices. So, I am going to sue this company for breach of contract. I advised them that the statute of limitations on the contract is four years. I simply have to offer testimony by other industry professionals proving that the standard way to install utilities is not that which this company did. In the end they will have to pay for all mistakes they made and attorneys fees, etc… Also, the prevailing party is not entitled to attorneys fees. So, since I am a lawyer I can sue for free and they have to pay someone to represent them and if they win (which I doubt they will) they can’t make me pay their attorney fees. I am mentioning the attorney fees rule, because in FL and many other states simple landlord tenant disputes do allow the prevailing party to recover attorneys fees.

I wanted everyone to be aware that even though a warranty may have expired your attorney may be able to find a way to recover money for you in the event of a breach of contract.

Also, this contract did not have an “integration clause” stating that it was the complete and final expression of the parties and further stating that no other (oral) agreements express or implied are part of the contract. Big mistake. The parol evidence rule states that when a writing is a complete and final expression of the parties agreement then no other prior or contemporaneous oral agreements are allowed to be introduced into evidence to contradict the terms of the writing. Since this clause was missing I can offer more evidence to defeat the contract. The exceptions to the parol evidence rule are DAM FOIL. That is a mimonic. Can anyone figure out what it stands for??? I had to learn this mimonic for the bar exam.