Orange Coast Marine v. Ocean Alexander California CA4/3

I. INTRODUCTION

Two yacht dealers with ties to the prominent Taiwanese yacht manufacturer “Ocean Alexander,”1 appeal from a judgment for $179,104.50 in favor of an independent Newport Beach yacht dealer, Orange Coast Marine, Inc. (Orange Coast). The judgment is for unpaid commissions in respect to two discrete yacht sales. The first sale involved a new 64-foot Ocean Alexander yacht sold to a buyer named Halberda. The other sale involved a new 78-foot Ocean Alexander yacht sold to a buyer named Smith. The two Alexander appellants challenge the judgment on three fronts: They say the statute of limitations on the Halberda sale was the two-year one that applies to oral contracts, not the four-year one for written ones, and the two-year statute ran prior to the filing of this action. They next argue that even under a four-year statute of limitations, a mid-trial amendment allowing one of the two Alexander appellants to be brought into the case as Doe 1 was still too late because, as a matter of law, the amendment did not relate back to the original complaint. Finally, they argue that there was a lack of substantial evidence to support a commission recovery by Orange Coast on the Smith…