The buyer of a new truck brought this suit against the dealer, manufacturer, and purchase money lender. In his complaint, the buyer alleged incessant problems with the truck after its purchase, because of which he revoked his acceptance of the truck and sought return of the purchase price or damages for breach of warranty. At a jury trial, the court granted the defendants’ motions for a directed verdict on grounds that 1 the buyer had re-accepted the truck by continuing to drive it and exercising other incidents of ownership after the manufacturer and dealer refused to take it back, and 2 the buyer did not prove damages for breach of warranty. Finding evidence from which a jury could find that the buyer’s conduct did not constitute a re-acceptance of the truck, we reverse the court’s grant of the defendants’ motion for directed verdict on the buyer’s revocation of acceptance claim. We agree, however, that the defendants were entitled to a directed verdict on the buyer’s breach of warranty claim. “A verdict shall be directed when there is no conflict in the evidence as to any material issue and the evidence introduced, with all reasonable deductions therefrom, shall demand a particular verdict.”1 A motion for directed verdict should not be granted where there exists even slight material issues of fact, because the trial court is substituting its judgment for the jury’s. On appeal, we review directed verdicts based upon the “any evidence” rule; if there is any evidence to support the case of the nonmoving party, a directed verdict must be reversed.2 The evidence here showed that on April 2, 2004, Samuel Franklin bought a new Dodge 2004 Ram truck from Augusta Dodge, Inc. the dealer and DaimlerChrysler Motors Company, LLC the manufacturer by making a down payment of $5,715 of which $3,000 was rebated and financing the $24,000 balance through a promissory note payable to Citizens Auto Finance, Inc. Franklin received a factory warranty on the truck as part of the purchase price and paid for a service contract to obtain additional warranty protection. Shortly after Franklin bought the truck, he began having problems with it. These problems —as shown by the testimony of Franklin and his wife and as documented by various invoices in the record —involved parts and features such as the seating, the satellite radio system, the air bag, the battery, rear-end and air-conditioning seals, the ignition switch, the horn, and the stabilizer bar.
Franklin testified that he had taken the truck to the dealer for repairs more than 30 times and that it had thus been “in the shop” more than it had been at his house. According to Franklin, Augusta Dodge on one occasion kept the truck for over a week, telephoned him to pick it up even though it had not been fixed, and then threatened to have it towed if he did not remove it from the premises. Franklin and his wife testified that on another occasion, the manufacturer offered to let him trade the truck in for another truck, but he did not do so because he would have also been required to pay about $6,000 more for the higher value of the other truck and the mileage on his current truck. By letter dated November 18, 2004, Franklin informed the manufacturer of his continuing problems with the truck and asked for a replacement or refund. He testified that he received no response. He also testified that he asked the service manager at the dealership to take back the truck and that, after much delay, the service manager told him that he could not do that and to “do what you’ve got to do.” As a result, Franklin brought this suit.
