D.P. MARSHALL, Jr., District Judge.
Electrolux Home Products makes Electrolux, Frigidaire, and Kenmore clothes dryers. Tammie Humphrey owns one. She alleges that her dryer is defective because too much lint accumulates in inaccessible parts of it, causing the dryer to stop working properly and creating a fire hazard. She sues, asserting a passel of claims. Humphrey seeks relief for herself and many others: She asks the Court to certify a nation-wide class and a state-wide subclass of folks who purchased the allegedly defective dryers. Electrolux moves to dismiss across the board.
The parties' briefs are too long. Rare is the motion that needs 131 pages of briefing. This one does not. The Court would appreciate brevity and concision in future papers. Larger type would be helpful too.
Whether the warranties at issue came from the Guide, or from this particular version of it, is disputed. And Humphrey does not cite the Guide in her complaint, raising the possibility that these warranty provisions may come from somewhere else too. In light of this dispute — which must be resolved in Humphrey's favor at this early stage — the Court cannot be sure that the Guide is "necessarily embraced by the pleadings." Porous Media Corp. v. Pall Corp., 186 F.3d 1077, 1079 (8th Cir. 1999) (quotation omitted). The Court will not consider it in deciding the motion. FED. R. CIV. P. 12(d).
On the implied warranties, Electrolux is correct that Humphrey did not plead that her dryer will no longer dry clothes. But the complaint alleges that the excess-lint defect makes using the dryer a fire hazard, rendering it unfit. In other words, although the dryer will dry clothes, it poses (Humphrey says) too great a risk to make it fit to do so. Taken as true, these facts make out a plausible claim for breach of implied warranties. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009); Great Dane Trailer Sales, Inc. v. Malvern Pulpwood, Inc., 301 Ark. 436, 442-43, 785 S.W.2d 13, 17 (1990).
The Court has some hesitation about the viability of the express-warranty claim, particularly in light of the timing issues and factual disputes about what version of the warranty Humphrey received. But Humphrey's allegations must be taken as true at this point. At the least, she has plausibly pleaded that Electrolux guaranteed that the dryer would be" free of material defects or component malfunctions[,]" that this warranty was "part of the bargain[,]" and that her dryer has a material defect. Document No. 1, ¶¶ 74 & 77. While this claim may prove empty, it is sufficient at this point. Taken as true, these same facts state a plausible, though thin, claim under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. ARK. CODE ANN. §§ 4-88-107(a)(1) & 4-88-113(f).
In light of the Court's ruling on the implied — and express-warranty claims, Electrolux's argument about the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is moot. The motion to dismiss the warranty, ADTPA, and Magnuson-Moss claims is denied.
Humphrey's complaint alleges that Electrolux knew its dryers contained the alleged defect and that Electrolux stood silent when Humphrey bought her dryer, despite Electrolux's" superior position to know the truth[.]" Document No. 1, ¶ 128. Humphrey further alleges that she would not have bought the product if she had known about the defect. These allegations satisfy the heightened pleading requirement of Rule 9(b).
She has also well pleaded the familiar elements of negligence—duty, breach, proximate cause, and damage. E.g., Branscumb v. Freeman, 360 Ark. 171, 179, 200 S.W.3d 411, 416 (2004). Humphrey says Electrolux had a duty to use reasonable care in designing and manufacturing its dryers; that Electrolux violated that duty when it designed, manufactured, and distributed the defective dryers; and that the lint-build-up defect proximately caused her dryer to stop working normally. The motion to dismiss the negligence claim is denied.
Electrolux's motion highlights the weak points in Humphrey's case. Whether a class should be certified and whether Humphrey has trial-worthy claims are important and imminent questions. But for now — taking Humphrey's allegations as true and disregarding the collateral materials — the complaint is sufficiently plausible to survive. Motion to dismiss, Document No. 16, mostly denied, but granted on unjust enrichment.
So Ordered.