Opinion ID: 2310580
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Implied Warranty of Good Quality and Workmanship

Text: An implied warranty of good quality and workmanship does exist in Delaware, however. Bye v. George W. McCaulley & Son Co., Del.Super., 76 A. 621, 622 (1908). See Smith, 287 A.2d 693. Other jurisdictions in applying such a warranty, have recognized no ground for relevant distinction between new construction and complete renovation within an existing shell. See Towers Tenant Ass'n v. Towers Ltd. Partnership, 563 F.Supp. 566 (D.D.C. 1983); Licciardi v. Pascarella, 194 N.J.Super. 381, 476 A.2d 1273 (1983) (denominating the warranty as one of habitability). We agree. If an implied warranty can attach to a contract for the addition of concrete steps to an existing building, as in Bye, it can also attach to a contract for the construction of condominiums within an existing shell. Defendants argue that the judicial expansion of an implied warranty of good quality and workmanship to the conversion of apartments into condominium units would impermissibly intrude upon the domain of the legislature. The Unit Property Act is silent on the subject of implied warranties. 25 Del.C. ch. 22. However, we find the application of an implied warranty of good quality and workmanship to the construction of less than a completely new structure to be well within existing common law, and thus no expansion. Consequently, we find defendants' contentions to be without merit. The Superior Court also found that under the rule in Bye, because defendants were not the builders of the condominiums, no implied warranty of good quality and workmanship could apply to them. It does not follow from Bye, however, that merely by interposing a third party, the developer, between the actual builder and the purchaser, that any implied warranty should be defeated. A developer who, under the circumstances of a particular case, would otherwise be subject to an implied warranty of good quality and workmanship cannot escape that warranty merely by arranging for the actual construction to be performed by his contractual agent. See, e.g., Bolkum v. Staab, 133 Vt. 467, 346 A.2d 210 (1975).