## Facts

- Foodcraft Equipment Company sold Calvary Baptist Church a walk-in freezer and assembled it on site using component parts supplied by W.A. Brown & Son, Inc., including a preassembled door with a Standard-Keil latch and inside release.
- Foodcraft did not alter or adjust the latch assembly and, after installation, tested the inside release and concluded it worked properly.
- A label on the inside of the door stated that the door could be opened from the inside by pushing the inside release.
- On July 2, 1985, Vickie Ann Buchanan Crews, age thirteen, volunteered at the church, entered the freezer, and became trapped when the door closed behind her.
- Crews attempted to use the inside release but could not open the door; she remained inside for more than an hour and suffered severe frostbite, leading to amputations and other medical treatment.
- Plaintiffs’ expert attributed the latch failure to frost accumulation caused by improper assembly of the seal and/or latch, preventing the mechanism from operating.

## Issues

1. Whether Crews, a non-purchasing third party, could assert a breach of the implied warranty of merchantability against Foodcraft absent direct contractual privity.
2. Whether N.C. Gen. Stat. § 25-2-318 extends implied-warranty protection to a foreseeable user of goods purchased by an institutional buyer (a church), even though the statute’s text refers to family/household members or guests.
3. Whether Foodcraft’s sale-and-installation transaction was governed by UCC Article 2 such that Foodcraft could be treated as a “seller” subject to implied warranties.
4. Whether genuine disputes of material fact precluded summary judgment for Foodcraft on the implied-warranty claim.

## Decision

- The North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to Foodcraft and remanded.
- The court treated Foodcraft as a seller in a transaction predominantly for goods with incidental services, bringing the sale within UCC Article 2 and its implied warranties.
- The court held that Crews’s lack of direct privity with Foodcraft did not bar her implied-warranty claim where she was a foreseeable user of the freezer bought for use by persons associated with the church.
- The court concluded that evidence of latch malfunction and expert testimony attributing the failure to improper assembly created triable issues on breach and causation.

## Legal Principles

- A mixed transaction involving a sale of goods plus incidental installation/assembly may be governed by UCC Article 2, making the vendor a “seller” subject to implied warranties, including merchantability under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 25-2-314.
- In applying N.C. Gen. Stat. § 25-2-318, warranty protection may extend beyond the literal household/guest categories when the injured person is a natural person reasonably expected to use or be affected by the goods purchased by an institutional buyer.
- Lack of direct contractual privity does not necessarily defeat an implied-warranty claim by a foreseeable user when the statutory policy is to protect those reasonably expected to be affected by goods placed into commerce.
- Summary judgment is improper where the record shows genuine disputes of material fact concerning defect, breach of warranty, and proximate causation.

## Conclusion

The court reinstated the implied-warranty claim against the seller/installer, holding that a church volunteer was a foreseeable user within the reach of North Carolina’s warranty-extension statute and that factual disputes about the freezer latch’s failure and Foodcraft’s installation work required a trial.


Crews v. W.A. Brown & Son, Inc., 106 N.C. App. 324, 416 S.E.2d 924 (N.C. Ct. App. 1992)