Opinion ID: 2773003
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Application of the Two-Step Approach

Text: In determining that the gravamen of Ms. Elliott’s claim was for injury to real property, the Court of Appeals, like the early decisions of this Court, focused almost exclusively upon the type of damages she had requested. Employing the two-step Vance approach, we conclude that the basis of Ms. Elliott’s claim is breach of contract. Ms. Elliott alleged, and the trial court found, that the contract had been breached because she had not received the sixty-foot wide strip of property contemplated by the contract. The trial court dismissed Ms. Elliott’s claims of intentional and negligent misrepresentation. The sole legal basis of Ms. Elliott’s prevailing claim against the defendants is breach of contract. Moreover, the type of injuries for which Ms. Elliott sought to recover resulted from the breach of contract. Cf. Vance, 547 S.W.2d at 933 (concluding that the gravamen was injury to property where the plaintiff elected not to seek the contract remedy of rescission). Specific performance, which Ms. Elliott sought, is available solely for breach of contract claims. The trial court refused to order it here because BE had constructed detention ponds in the area where the sixty-foot strip of property would need to be located. The trial court instead awarded Ms. Elliott money damages for the diminution in value to her remaining property resulting from the lack of the contractually guaranteed access road. This injury is financial only, involving no injury to the real property itself. Although diminution in value damages may be recovered for both tort and contract claims,9 the diminution in value 9 See BVT Lebanon Shopping Ctr., LTD. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 48 S.W.3d 132, 135-36 (Tenn. 2001) (holding that an appropriate measure of damages for breach of a covenant of continuous occupancy -15- damages Ms. Elliott sought to recover flowed directly from her breach of contract claim. Thus, because the legal basis of the claim is breach of contract and the damages sought and awarded are for breach of contract, we conclude that Ms. Elliott’s breach of contract claim is governed by the six-year statute of limitations applicable to “[a]ctions on contracts not otherwise expressly provided for.” Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-109(a)(3).10