Koken v. Black & Veatch Construction, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
426 F.3d 39 (2005)
Black & Veatch Construction (B&V) and its insurer, Reliance (plaintiffs), sued Auburn Manufacturing and its distributor, Inpro (defendants), for breach of the implied warranty of merchantability after a fire blanket, which B&V was using to contain welding sparks, caught fire and caused roughly $9 million in damage while being extinguished. The defendants didn't dispute that using the blanket to contain welding sparks was its ordinary purpose, but conflicting trial testimony addressed whether the blanket was actually unfit for that purpose: B&V testified it was surprised the blanket caught fire, while the construction foreman testified the blanket performed as expected and that the type of resulting holes wasn't unusual. The trial court granted the defendants summary judgment for insufficient evidence of unfitness, and B&V and Reliance appealed.
Whether a purchaser's testimony that a good failed to perform as expected is sufficient to establish breach of the implied warranty of merchantability when the good objectively performed as an ordinary purchaser would reasonably expect.