The last segment of the preliminary analysis was lengthy enough that I decided to give it a separate post. The time spent researching secondary sources and pinpointing their relevant sections took approximately three hours, and another hour to compile and draft. If I were to read all the possible background reading in depth, I estimate several days would be spent doing so. I searched by browsing familiar Oregon practice materials at the Washington County Law Library, consulting corresponding general treatise materials, various legal encyclopedias, and online databases for relevant Oregon journal and law review articles.
Taken from browsing law library's Oregon material shelves:
Oregon State Bar Book "Contracts"
This resource had none of my key terms in the index, and browsing through the table of contents gave me the impression that the information pertained to all kinds of contracts BUT sales contracts. This made even more sense as I found most of the sales contract law in the following practice book.
Oregon State Bar Book "Consumer Law"
Using the index and the term "lemon law," I was led to the index term "new motor vehicle." Other terms were "motor vehicle, material defects and nonconformities" and "warranty, breach of."
Section results to read: Entire chapters of 16 and 17, 4.20
Oregon State Bar Book "Damages"
This bar book's index had many entries under the "sales of goods, contracts for" that seemed relevant to remedying a breach of those contracts. All of these entries pointed to sections in chapter 25, titled "Contracts for the Sale of Goods." There were no entries under "lemon law" or warranties." Entries under "breach of contract" were general entries about all kinds of contracts, with a cross-reference for "sale of goods, etc."
Results to read: chapter 25.
Oregon Uniform Commercial Code (Henry J. Bailey III)
The term "lemon law" was not in the index. I also figured out that each of the three volumes had its own separate index for that volume, and that what I needed was solely in Volume 1, "General Principles, Sales of Goods, and Leases of Goods" and especially in chapter 2. Following is a list of the relevant index topics and subtopics I found and their corresponding sections for reading:
Acceptance of goods, effect on claim for breach: 2.63, 2.68
Breach of warranty, generally: 2.69, 2.153
Consumer sales, Consumer Warranty Act: 2.117, 2.119
Consumer sales, Unlawful Trade Practices Act: 2.120
Consumer sales, Federal Magnuson-Moss Act: 2.118, 2.119
Limitations of actions: 2.124
Limitations, modifications, and substitutions of remedies: 2.107, 2.113, 2.114
Notice of breach of warranty against infringement: 2.92
Products liability, basis of claim: 2.122, 2.123
Repairs, obligation established by course of dealing: 2.106
Remedies, generally: 2.126 - 2.130
Remedies, buyer's remedies, scope after rejection of goals: 2.144
Remedies, buyer's remedies, scope after revocation of acceptance: 2.71
Remedies, buyer's remedies as consumer, cover: 2.151
Remedies, buyer's remedies for breach of contract by seller, generally: 2.144 - 2.160
Resources found from browsing relevant subject call number area in law library's general treatises and self-help:
Products Liability, 6th ed, Nutshell series
This entire book would be useful background reading. From table of contents, all of chapter 4 is dedicated to warranties., and from index, p. 485-486 pertain specifically to motor vehicles.
Everyday Contracts (Random House)
From table of contents, it would appear that chapter 4, "Repairing Your Car," is potentially useful.
Corbin on Contracts, Willitson on Contracts, The Practice of Consumer Law
I did similar searches as above in the indices of all of these books; they all seemed either redundant or much less specific than the Oregon UCC book. My guess is that this is because the relevant law is mostly detailed at the state jurisdiction level, and probably variable.
Resources from online legal research databases, looking for relevant law jounal articles:
Hein Online
In this database I searched the Law Journal Library, but limited my results to Oregon published journals, though it is possible journal articles from other states might be useful. Using various combinations of my key terms - most of which are too broad alone - I found very little in Oregon. I began with a text search for "lemon law" and "lemon laws" and returned no relevant results. I then tried "motor vehicle warranty"- also no relevant results. Another tactic I tried was limiting my searches to the three subject areas "Commercial Law," "Contracts," and "Torts." This narrowed any results lists down to not just irrelevant results, but nearly NO results. After a few more unsuccessful permutations, I entered the search string "motor vehicle" OR "automobile" AND "breach of warranty." This led to two possible relevant results, both of which are not very recent:
Products liability in a nutshell, Oregon Law Review, vol. 37(2), Feb. 1958, p. 119-159.
Private remedy under Oregon's Unlawful Trade Practices Act, Oregon Law Review, v. 56(3), 1977, p. 490-517.
Westlaw (Oregon Journals and Law Reviews database)
These searches were also frustratingly unproductive. "Lemon law" as a term found nothing. "Motor vehicle" alone was too broad, so I then tried "motor vehicles" AND "breach of warranty." This was also unproductive, as the results were completely irrelevant. I finally hit on "motor vehicles" AND "products liability." This produced one result that seemed at least relevant, though I am unsure how useful in my case:
Oregon's products liability law and the problem of economic loss: Willamette Law Review, vol. 28 (565).
Resources from legal encyclopedias using print indexes:
AmJur 2d
Looking up the term "lemon laws" pointed to its location under the index terms "Automobiles and Highway Traffic, Lemon Laws, generally." This pointed to the entry "Consumer Protection (ConsumePro) sections 49-57." A search under "Warranties, breach of warranty" led to "Sales sections 1128-1137." Entries under "Vehicles, actions and remedies, repairs" - the subtopic that would seem relevant - did not relate to lemon law, except where the term "lemon law" is again subordinated, which leads back to the "Consumer Protection" entry above.
Corpus Juris Secundum
In the CJS index, the term "lemon law" led to the subject and section "Credit Agency section 59." The term "vehicles" did not lead to any relevant entries; "automobiles" gave a cross-reference to "motor vehicles." Subordinated under "motor vehicles" was "defects" which referred to "products liability" also subordinated under "motor vehicles." This led to the subject "Motor Vehicles sections 409-430." There was no subordinated entry for "warranty," though there were a large number of subordinated entries under the index term "warranty." Relevant ones included "breach of warranty, products liability," leading to "Product section 208" and "sales, general provisions, damages ("Sales section 310 et seq.") and "sales, general provisions, remedies ("Sales section 278 et seq.") and "sales, general provisions, right of action, defenses, and counterclaims ("Sales section 284 et seq.")
American Law Reviews
In the ALR index, a search under the term "lemon law" gave a subentry for "jury trial," which yielded a section from the following article:
Constitutional right to jury trial in cause of action under state unfair or deceptive trade practices law (54 ALR 5th 631, 4(b))
Also under "lemon law" was the entry "motor vehicles," and an entry for the article:
Validity, construction, and effect of state motor vehicle warranty legislation (88 ALR 5th 301).
Searching under the term "motor vehicles" gave a cross-reference to "Automobiles and highway traffic" which in turn had a subentry for "lemon law!" This in turn had two subentries, "products liability, generally" and "warranties." These led to the following two ALR articles:
New motor vehicle warranty as limiting liability to repair or replacement of defective parts (2 ALR 4th 576)
Construction and effect of standard new motor vehicle warranty (99 ALR 2d 1419)
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