## Facts

- Texas Instruments sold concentrated sulfuric acid to Mostek Corporation between August 16, 1974 and January 31, 1975.
- The acid was delivered in fiberboard cartons containing four one-gallon glass containers.
- On February 18, 1975, Richard Y. Garcia, a Mostek employee, tripped while moving cartons, broke a container, and suffered severe acid burns.
- On October 18, 1978, Garcia sued Texas Instruments for breach of the UCC implied warranty of merchantability, alleging the acid was not adequately contained, packaged, or labeled and was unfit for its intended use.
- Garcia also alleged he was a third-party beneficiary of the Mostek–Texas Instruments sales contract.
- Garcia pleaded only implied-warranty claims under UCC Article 2; he did not plead tort theories.

## Issues

1. Whether a personal-injury claim pleaded solely as breach of the UCC implied warranty of merchantability is governed by UCC § 2.725’s four-year limitations period or Texas’s two-year personal-injury limitations statute.
2. Whether lack of contractual privity between an injured consumer/ultimate user and a remote seller bars an implied-warranty personal-injury action under UCC Article 2.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Texas reversed the summary judgment for Texas Instruments and remanded.
- The court held the four-year limitations period in UCC § 2.725 governs an action pleaded as breach of implied warranty arising out of a sale of goods, even when damages are for personal injury.
- The court held privity of contract is not required for an ultimate consumer/user to sue a remote seller for breach of the implied warranty of merchantability.

## Legal Principles

- For limitations purposes, the governing statute turns on the theory pleaded and the nature of the right asserted; a UCC Article 2 implied-warranty claim is treated as an action for breach of a contract for sale under § 2.725.
- The fact that the plaintiff seeks personal-injury damages does not, by itself, convert a pleaded UCC warranty claim into a tort action subject to the general two-year personal-injury limitations period.
- An implied warranty of merchantability under UCC Article 2 may be enforced for personal injuries by an ultimate user/consumer against a remote seller; lack of privity does not bar the claim.

## Conclusion

A personal-injury claim pleaded solely as breach of the UCC implied warranty of merchantability is subject to UCC § 2.725’s four-year limitations period, and an ultimate user may pursue that warranty remedy against a remote seller without proving privity.


Garcia v. Tex. Instruments, Inc., 610 S.W.2d 456 (Tex. 1980)