AGCO Corporation filed a notice of removal last week seeking to transfer a District Court of Oklahoma County suit to the Western District of Oklahoma. The plaintiffs’ Sept. 17 complaint claimed that parties, including AGCO, who sold them heavy-duty farm equipment, an AGCO rotary gleaner and combine, deceitfully rolled back the machine’s working hours prior to sale. The plaintiffs, a husband and wife couple that operate a “custom harvesting and hauling business under the name First Farms and Trucking, LLC,” brought several fraud and breach of contract causes of action to remedy the alleged harm.
The complaint named the combine manufacturer, AGCO Corporation, the servicer, AGCO Service, in addition to AGCO Finance, LLC, Amtrust Financial Services, Wesco Insurance Company, AMT Warranty Corp. as defendants. It also named the AGCO authorized dealer, Rolling Plains Implement Company, Inc.
AGCO reportedly “sells a full range of agricultural equipment, including tractors, combines, self-propelled sprayers, hay tools, forage equipment, seeding and tillage equipment, implements, and grain storage and protein production systems.” It also “supports and monitors each dealer’s performance and profitability,” the plaintiffs’ filing stated.
In March 2016, the plaintiffs allegedly purchased a certified pre-owned AGCO Gleaner A76 HUC724 Rotary Combine and AGCO Gleaner 7200 30 HUW 7179 Rigid Flex Head (rotary combine) through the Rolling Plains dealership. Reportedly, one of the representations made to the plaintiffs was the rotary combine’s engine hours, an indicator of how much the machine had been used to date. Shortly thereafter, the plaintiffs began to work the rotary combine and experienced problems.
The complaint described how, after multiple unsuccessful attempts at repairing the purchased equipment, the plaintiffs learned that the rotary combine’s engine hours exceeded 900 hours, more than twice the amount represented by the defendants. The plaintiffs averred that the defendants had an opportunity to and did “engage[] in a course of conduct to deceive and commit fraud… by purposefully ‘rolling back’ the engine hours.” The plaintiffs further contended that the defendants “intentionally presented incomplete and inaccurate documents to… support their false statements and did so with the intent for Plaintiffs to rely on such false statements.”
The complaint sets forth the following claims: fraud, fraudulent inducement, negligence, the tort of outrage, civil conspiracy, violation of the Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act, and breach of the contractual duty of good faith and fair dealing regarding the purchase. The plaintiffs seek to recover actual and punitive damages.
The plaintiffs are represented by Wilson Cain & Acquaviva and The Bennett Law Firm. AGCO is represented by Ball, Morse & Lowe and AGCO Finance by Reynolds, Ridings, Vogt & McCart, P.L.L.C.
AmTrust Financial Services, Inc., Wesco Insurance Company, and AMT Warranty Corp. are represented by Hiltgen & Brewer, P.C. and Rolling Plains Implement Company, Inc. by Whitworth, Wilson & Evans, PLLC.
