Justia Business Law Opinion Summaries

J.P. Fox is co-owner and general manager of Lumber 2, which is a retail home and ranch supply store. Fox and some company employees attended the Handy Hardware Show, a trade show in Houston, Texas, in 2003. They stopped at the "Hobart" booth of Defendant Illinois Tool Works (ITW) where they found Scott Massie, a sales representative of ITW. Massie showed Fox some new Hobart Champion 10,000 welder/generators ("Champ 10,000's) in which Fox had no interest because of the price. Massie asked if he would be interested in reconditioned units and handed him a list of items on a yellow legal pad. The list showed that ITW/ Hobart had eleven reconditioned Champ 10,000's for sale. The parties agreed orally that Fox would buy them for $1600.00 each. Upon returning to Oklahoma City, however, Fox received a telephone call from Massie who told him he could not deliver the Champ 10,000s to him because Hobart would not agree to sell them to Fox and Lumber 2. Massie told him the sales manager at Hobart refused to complete the sale because it would "screw up the whole territory" for its existing customers in the area. Thereafter, ITW/Hobart sold the welders to Atwood's, a much larger competitor of Lumber 2 which then sold them for $1800.00 each. Fox and Lumber 2 sued ITW for breach of contract, fraud, and for violations of the Oklahoma Antitrust Reform Act (OARA) and Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act (OCPA). A jury verdict was returned in favor of Lumber 2, and money damages were awarded on its claims for breach of contract and for violations of the OARA and the OCPA. The trial court denied ITW's motion for new trial. ITW appealed, and the Court of Civil Appeals (COCA) affirmed the judgment on Lumber 2's breach of contract claim but reversed it on the award of damages for the OARA and OCPA claims. Upon review, the Supreme Court was asked to consider an issue of first impression whether Lumber 2, as a retailer and purchaser of merchandise intended for resale in its business, was a "consumer" for purposes of the Act. The Court held that Lumber 2 was not a consumer under the OCPA, and it reversed the trial court on that issue alone. The Court affirmed the trial court on all other issues.