Crown Castle purchased a number of assets from a variety of cell phone providers in upstate New York between 1995 and 2000. These providers had earlier contracted with the Fred A. Nudd Corporation for the construction and placement of monopoles, more commonly known as cell towers. However, after some time the monopoles began to collapse structurally. In fact, problems began to develop as early as 2001. In 2003, two cell towers actually collapsed. Crown Castle brought suit in 2005, more than four years after the first of the monopoles began failing. This is an important timing issue: Under common law, a breach-of-contract lawsuit must be brought within six years; but, under the UCC, the lawsuit must be brought within four years. Thus, the first major legal question is whether the lawsuit can stand and not be dismissed under the statute of limitations. To decide this, the court must rule, as a matter of law, on whether the contract for the construction and placement of monopoles was a contract created under common law or under the UCC.

1. Is the sale of monopoles a contract for the sale of goods when the contract also included installation and initial maintenance? Does this contract fall under the UCC Article 2 or under common law?
2. If this is a contract for both goods (monopoles) and services (the installation and initial maintenance), how is the contract determined to fall under either common law or the UCC?