Opinion ID: 1138617
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Heading: constitutionality of the utah statute

Text: Berry established the following two-part test to determine whether a statute that limits one's right to remedy by due course of law for injury to one's person, property, or reputation violates Article I, section 11: First, section 11 is satisfied if the law provides an injured person an effective and reasonable alternative remedy by due course of law for vindication of his constitutional interest. The benefit provided by the substitute must be substantially equal in value or other benefit to the remedy abrogated in providing essentially comparable substantive protection to one's person, property, or reputation, although the form of the substitute remedy may be different... . Second, if there is no substitute or alternative remedy provided, abrogation of the remedy or cause of action may be justified only if there is a clear social or economic evil to be eliminated and the elimination of an existing legal remedy is not an arbitrary or unreasonable means for achieving the objective. 717 P.2d at 680. The Utah architects and builders statute of repose does not pass muster under the test established in Berry. First, it does not provide a reasonable alternative remedy for persons who suffer injuries or damage from the defective design or construction of improvements to real property by virtue of the negligence of one who designs, plans, or supervises the construction of, or constructs an improvement to, real estate. The statute states that it does not exempt from suit any person in actual possession and control as owner, tenant or otherwise, of the improvement at the time the defective and unsafe condition of such improvement constitutes the proximate cause of the injury for which it is proposed to bring an action. Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-25.5(2) (1977). But persons barred by the seven-year limitation from suing one who designs, plans, or constructs may not be able to recover from those in possession and control as owner or otherwise at the time the injury occurs because there may be no negligence on their part. Furthermore, the bar does not apply to suppliers of materials against whom, unless faulty materials caused the injury, no cause of action would lie any event. Thus, a person injured by latent defects in construction or design could be barred from any legal remedy if the injury occurs seven years after construction. Although an injured person may sue an owner or tenant rather than the builder, architect, or designer if the defect in the building or improvement is patent or sue a supplier where the materials in the building are defective, an injured party has no remedy in the case of a latent defect unless suit is filed within the seven-year limitation period. In short, in cases where an architect, an engineer, or a builder, or any combination of the three, is responsible for a defect causing harm, the statute violates the Utah open courts provision unless there is a clear social or economic evil to be eliminated and the elimination of an existing legal remedy is not an arbitrary or unreasonable means for achieving the objective. Berry, 717 P.2d at 680. We know of no clear social or economic evil that § 78-12-25.5 is aimed at, and the Legislature has identified none. [4] The obvious purpose of the legislation is to end the potential threat of a lawsuit to some construction professionals. That may be a meritorious objective, but when that objective can only be achieved at the expense of forcing an injured person to forego a legal remedy, the two objectives must be balanced against each other to determine which should prevail, and that balancing has been done by the open courts clause of the Utah Constitution. The notion that rights of action should be terminated because of the difficulty of proof which accompanies the passage of time is not a valid justification for the statute. Although the passage of time increases the difficulty of providing reliable evidence, the difficulties of proof fall much more heavily upon the plaintiffs, who have the burden of establishing a prima facie case of negligence to survive a motion for summary judgment or directed verdict. Jackson v. Mannesmann Demag Corp., 435 So.2d 725, 728 (Ala. 1983) (citing Overland Constr. Co. v. Sirmons, 369 So.2d 572, 574 (Fla. 1979)). Certainly there is a valid social interest in providing a time of repose  in wiping the slate clean and not allowing possible mistakes of the past to becloud an individual's life forever. The practice of wiping out past debts is an ancient one, rooted, indeed, in Old Testament times. We do not believe that the open courts clause necessarily forbids forever and always all such forgiveness of mistake. What it clearly does is make certain that periods of repose only be allowed when the possibility of injury and damage has become highly remote and unexpected. Short of that, injured persons are to be allowed their remedy. The statute of repose in this case is too likely to cut off injuries that should be compensated. A number of other courts have also reached the same conclusion we reach here and have held unconstitutional architects and builders statutes of repose under their state open courts provisions. In Jackson v. Mannesmann Demag Corp., 435 So.2d 725, 727-29 (Ala. 1983), the Alabama Supreme Court held that the rationale for the architects and builders statute of repose could not be distinguished from the rationale of the product liability statute of repose previously held unconstitutional under the Alabama open courts provision, and therefore the architects and builders statute was also held unconstitutional. The South Dakota Supreme Court struck down a similar statute in Daugaard v. Baltic Cooperative Building Supply Association, 349 N.W.2d 419 (S.D. 1984), because it was a statute of nullification which stamp[s] out our citizens' causes of action before they accrue. 349 N.W.2d at 425. The Kentucky Supreme Court held an architects and builders statute of repose unconstitutional under the Kentucky open courts provision in Saylor v. Hall, 497 S.W.2d 218 (Ky. 1973), on the ground that it destroyed a constitutionally protected cause of action before it legally existed. 497 S.W.2d at 225. But see Carney v. Moody, 646 S.W.2d 40 (Ky. 1982) (effectively overruling Saylor on the open courts rationale). Cf. Tabler v. Wallace, 704 S.W.2d 179 (Ky. 1985), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 822, 107 S.Ct. 89, 93 L.Ed.2d 41 (1986) (declaring the state's architects and builders statute of repose to be unconstitutional under the state's special legislation constitutional provision). A number of other courts have held that such statutes violate equal protection provisions. See, e.g., Fujioka v. Kam, 55 Haw. 7, 514 P.2d 568 (1973); Skinner v. Anderson, 38 Ill.2d 455, 231 N.E.2d 588 (1967); Pacific Indem. Co. v. Thompson-Yaeger, Inc., 260 N.W.2d 548 (Minn. 1977); Loyal Order of Moose, Lodge 1785 v. Cavaness, 563 P.2d 143 (Okla. 1977); Kallas Millwork Corp. v. Square D Co., 66 Wis.2d 382, 225 N.W.2d 454 (1975); Phillips v. ABC Builders, Inc., 611 P.2d 821 (Wyo. 1980). The Rhode Island Supreme Court, in Walsh v. Gowing, 494 A.2d 543 (R.I. 1985), construed its open courts provision to sustain the constitutionality of a builders statute of repose. In Walsh, the court concluded that an architects and builders statute of repose was constitutional under the Rhode Island open court provision because the Legislature was authorized to enact laws that limit or place a burden upon a party's right to bring a claim so long as it did not result in a total denial of access to the courts. 494 A.2d at 547. The court concluded that since the Rhode Island architects and builders statute of repose permitted injured parties to sue an improver of real property within ten years after the completion of the structure and since thereafter parties could resort to the courts for redress of injuries arising out of improvements to real property against the owners or operators of that improved property, the statute did not entirely deny access to the courts. 494 A.2d at 548 (emphasis added). Walsh is not persuasive authority under the Utah open courts provision. The statute of repose operates to eliminate all causes of actions after seven years from the completion of construction for injury due to defective design or construction. Although the statute allows actions filed after seven years to proceed against those who are in actual possession and control as owner, tenant or otherwise of an improvement, that provides no remedy at law for those injured by latent defects created by a builder or designer. Ordinarily, those in control and possession will not know of such defects and hence would not ordinarily be guilty of negligence. In short, the statute denies a remedy for injury to one's person or property when the injury is caused by a latent defect. In sum, the Utah architects and builders statute of repose is unconstitutional under Article I, section 11 of the Utah Constitution. HALL, C.J., and HOWE, Associate C.J., concur.