Court Tosses Case of Africa-bound Alternators in Fridley Garage Snafu

A three-year saga of a Fridley charity effort gone awry may have ended Monday at the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

A panel of judges rejected the argument of a man whose alternators-to-Africa project got scuttled in a comedy of errors that led him to file a lawsuit against his landlord and the City of Fridley.

On the other hand, the story—in which spare parts from Cummins Power Generation were bound for Nigeria but never got waylaid in a garage-stall mixup —may yet have another chapter.

Parties Sound Off
Attorney Shanika Alston said she hasn't had a chance to ask her client, Obiora C. Onyemelukwe, whether he wants to appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court (Onyemelukwe, who used to work at the Fridley headquarters of Cummins Power Generation, has since moved out of state, Alston said.) Alston maintained that the City of Fridley was negligent and the apartment owners had "a history of mismanagement" that bore on the case.

Rylee J. Retzer, a League of Minnesota Cities attorney who represented the City of Fridley said the city and police officers were "happy with the decision" of the court that Onyemelukwe lacked a "valid ownership interest in the property that he claims the City converted and/or negligently handled."

An attorney for the landlord, Filister Enterprises (doing business as Georgetown Court Apartments), didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Comedy of Errors
In reaching its opinion that Onyemelukwe essentially didn't have anything to sue about (), the court recounted the story of one snafu after another. It's a long but intriguing tale:

Appellant Obiora C. Onyemelukwe was employed by Cummins, Inc. in 2008, when he noticed other employees placing alternators into a pile at Cummins. He learned that the alternators were considered "scrap" because they were no longer useful to Cummins. Onyemelukwe, who is from Nigeria, believed that the parts might be useful in developing countries and offered to connect Cummins with an organization that could use mechanical parts. Later, shop-floor coordinator Larry Moy orally authorized Onyemelukwe to donate a variety of starters and alternators to a charity in Nigeria. In addition, engine-material planner Victoria Skoglund stated, in an e-mail, that the parts were "[o]k to scrap or donate." Mark Lindquist, a master scheduler, also told Onyemelukwe that the parts were no longer useful to Cummins. Acting on these representations, Onyemelukwe removed the parts from Cummins's warehouse between September 25 and September 29.

Because he needed a place to store the Cummins parts, Onyemelukwe signed an addendum to his apartment lease with respondent Filister Enterprises to rent garage stall 118. But when Onyemelukwe attempted to access stall 118, he discovered that it was already in use. A Filister employee gave Onyemelukwe the keys to garage stall 78, where he ultimately stored the Cummins parts. But because Filister failed to update its records regarding garage stall 78, a Filister employee later offered to lease stall 78 to another tenant. At that time, Filister discovered that stall 78 contained numerous boxes marked "Cummins." Filister contacted Cummins regarding the boxes. Cummins's environmental coordinator, Anita Costello, drove to the apartment complex and spoke with Filister employees. Neither the Filister employees nor Costello could determine why the garage stall contained Cummins parts. The Fridley police therefore were called.

Fridley Police Officer Bridget Menne responded to the call. Officer Menne opened two or three of the Cummins boxes to see their contents. The boxes contained parts that looked new and appeared to be in original packaging. Officer Menne spoke with the owner of the apartment complex. He informed her that his records indicated that stall 78 had been vacant since June, and he was unable to tell her who owned the property in the garage stall. Officer Menne concluded that the property may have been stolen. She contacted her supervisor, Fridley Police Sergeant Michael Morrissey, for advice regarding how to handle the property.

Sergeant Morrissey arrived at the apartment complex and examined the parts. Sergeant Morrissey believed that the parts were new and possibly expensive and that they did not appear to be scrap parts. Like Officer Menne, Sergeant Morrissey concluded that the parts may have been stolen. He therefore directed that the boxes be removed from the garage stall and secured pending further investigation. Because there was not enough room for the property at the Fridley Police Department storage facility, Sergeant Morrissey told Officer Menne to inform Cummins that it should collect the property and hold it at its facility pending further investigation or until a claimant presented proper documentation of ownership. Cummins subsequently removed the property and transported it back to its facility.

Onyemelukwe heard rumors that stolen Cummins parts had been discovered in a garage. Acting on a hunch, he drove to his apartment complex and discovered that garage stall 78 was empty. He spoke with a Filister employee and then went to the Fridley Police Department. Officer Menne interviewed Onyemelukwe, who stated that he did not know if "the people who donated the parts" had the authorization to do so. Officer Menne concluded that Onyemelukwe did not have proper authorization to remove the parts from Cummins's warehouse.

Onyemelukwe contacted Costello regarding the parts, which led to a human-resources investigation of how and why Onyemelukwe had removed the parts from Cummins's premises, including whether Onyemelukwe followed the appropriate process for removing property. Specifically, Cummins has a "Security Post Material Pass" (SPMP) policy that requires Cummins employees to obtain a form, signed by an appropriate management representative, before removing company property from the facility. Cummins employees are not permitted to remove company property without completing this form. Human resources found no evidence that Onyemelukwe obtained a signed SPMP authorizing the removal of any mechanical parts. According to Cummins, because Onyemelukwe did not obtain an SPMP, he was not authorized to remove the parts from Cummins's facility. Therefore, Cummins did not return the parts to Onyemelukwe. Later in 2008, Onyemelukwe was laid off due to a reduction in work force, and Onyemelukwe released all legal claims against Cummins in connection with his severance package.

In December 2009, Onyemelukwe sued Filister for breach of contract, conversion, negligence, breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment, and defamation. Onyemelukwe also sued the City of Fridley, Officer Menne, and Sergeant Morrissey for conversion and negligence. All of the claims stem from Onyemelukwe's loss of possession of the Cummins parts to Cummins. Filister, the city, and the officers moved for summary judgment, and their motions were granted by the district court.