Opinion ID: 1834681
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether Section 614.1(11) Applies to Manufacturers of Improvements.

Text: Mapco's fallback position is that the legislature did not intend to protect manufacturers of improvements from suit under section 614.1(11). For reasons that follow, we disagree. In interpreting statutes, we try to give effect to legislative intent. Coker v. Abell-Howe Co., 491 N.W.2d 143, 152 (Iowa 1992) (citation omitted). When the statutory language is plain and its meaning is clear, we should not reach for meaning beyond the statute's express terms or resort to rules of statutory construction. Meier v. Sac & Fox Indian Tribe, 476 N.W.2d 61, 63-64 (Iowa 1991) (citations omitted). In searching for legislative intent, we are bound by what the legislature said, not by what it should or might have said. So we cannot under the guise of statutory interpretation enlarge or otherwise change terms of a statute. State v. Jones, 464 N.W.2d 241, 242 (Iowa 1990) (citation omitted). The plain language of section 614.1(11) bars all actions that meet two requirements. First, the plaintiff's injuries must have resulted from the alleged defective and unsafe condition of an improvement to real property. Second, fifteen years must have passed since the date of the act or omission that allegedly caused the injuries. Section 614.1(11) bars all suits that meet these two conditions. A defendant's identity is not relevant in determining whether the bar applies. Cf. Rose v. Fox Pool Corp., 335 Md. 351, 359, 643 A.2d 906, 910 (1994) (reaching same conclusion on similar reasoning in interpreting similar statutory language). The cases that Mapco relies on interpret statutes that define specific classes for whom liability is cut off after a certain number of years. See, e.g., Uricam Corp. v. W.R. Grace & Co., 739 F.Supp. 1493, 1494 (W.D.Okla. 1990) (No action in tort to recover damages... shall be brought against any person owning, leasing, or in possession of such an improvement or performing or furnishing the design, planning, supervision or observation of construction or construction of such an improvement more than ten (10) years after substantial completion of such an improvement.); Stanske v. Wazee Elec. Co., 722 P.2d 402, 404 (Colo.1986) (en banc) (All actions against any architect, contractor, builder or building vendor, engineer, or inspector performing or furnishing the design, planning, supervision, inspection, construction, or observation of construction of any improvement to real property shall be brought within two years after the claim for relief arises, and not thereafter, but in no case shall such an action be brought more than ten years after the substantial completion of the improvement to the real property.). In contrast, section 614.1(11) cuts off liability for the defendant alleged to be the cause of the injury after more than fifteen years. Our statute is therefore much broader in terms of coverage than these statutes because it does not name classes but just refers to the defendant as the covered party. So the cases Mapco relies on are distinguishable. In addition, section 614.1(11) expressly excludes claims against persons in their capacity as owners, occupants or operators of improvements to real property. Manufacturers are conspicuously missing from this listing. Because the legislature has provided an exception, we presume no others were intended. In re Estate of Mills, 374 N.W.2d 675, 677 (Iowa 1985). So claims against manufacturers are presumed not to be claims excluded from the bar of the statute. Cf. Rose, 335 Md. at 359, 643 A.2d at 910 (using similar reasoning and reaching same conclusion as to similar exclusion). We conclude that section 614.1(11) applies to manufacturers of improvements to real property. As a manufacturer of such an improvement, Honeywell is covered by the fifteen-year time constraint of section 614.1(11). So Mapco's indemnity action is barred because it was brought more than fifteen years after the date on which occurred the act or omission of [Honeywell] alleged in the action to have been the cause of the injury.