Opinion ID: 2008604
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: accrual of the causes of action

Text: Having decided that the statutes of limitation may be asserted against the College, we will now discuss the College's remaining challenges to the trial court's ruling. There is no dispute over which statutes of limitation are applicable, nor are any of the facts in dispute. The trial court granted summary judgment because it determined that Spring of 1979 was the latest that any of the causes of action could have arisen. Because the applicable statutes of limitation in contract, tort and fraud ran before July 2, 1984, the date that the College commenced the action, the court granted Dow's motion for summary judgment. We find no error in the trial court's decision. In reviewing a grant of a motion for summary judgment, the reviewing court must decide whether the record demonstrates both an absence of genuine issues of fact and an entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. Pa.R.C.P. 1035(b); Chicarella v. Passant, 343 Pa.Super. 330, 340, 494 A.2d 1109, 1114 (1985). When the date of accrual is certain, whether an action is timebarred is a question of law properly decided on a motion for summary judgment, unless there are disputed factual allegations. Cathcart v. Keene Industry Insulation, 324 Pa.Super. 123, 471 A.2d 493 (1984). The College claims that its action was timely filed because, under the discovery rule, the latent defect in the building was not reasonably discoverable until less than two years before it filed suit. The College claims that the date of accrual of the action is a disputed question of fact that makes summary judgment for Dow inappropriate. The College also claims that Dow should be estopped from asserting the statutes of limitation because it fraudulently induced the College to sit on its rights. Under the judicially-created discovery rule, the running of the statute of limitations on a cause of action in tort may be delayed by a plaintiff's ignorance of its cause of action until such time as the cause of action could or should have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence. Bickell v. Stein, 291 Pa.Super. 145, 435 A.2d 610 (1981). If, as in this case, the plaintiff alleges the existence of a latent defect in construction, the cause of action does not accrue until the plaintiff became aware or, through exercise of reasonable diligence, should have become aware of the defect. General State Authority v. Lawrie and Green and John McShain, Inc., supra. While most questions relating to whether a party has exercised due diligence in discovering the incidentce of his injury so as to toll the statute are jury questions, Taylor v. Tukanowicz, 290 Pa.Super. 581, 435 A.2d 181 (1981), summary judgment is proper where the plaintiff has failed to plead facts sufficient to toll the statute. Id. The College argues that the discovery rule applies to both its warranty and tort actions. The trial court decided that, by virtue of Dow's January 12, 1979 letter to the College and the College's actual knowledge of the cracks, the facts pleaded established that the College reasonably should have become aware of the defect by the spring of 1979 at the latest. We have held that summary judgment is proper where the court can establish from undisputed facts the reasonable time for discovery of a defect. Cathcart v. Keene Industrial Insulation, supra. In Cathcart, an asbestos claim case, this Court, sitting en banc, decided that once the injured party discovers that he has an injury and that he is aware of the cause, the burden is upon him to discover the party whose breach was responsible. We held that the mere allegation of difficulty in identifying the defendants was not sufficient to toll the statute of limitations for those defendants who had not been named in the initial action and were named in a subsequent action only after they had been finally discovered. Therefore we granted summary judgment in favor of these later-discovered defendants. See also Huber v. McElwee-Courbis Construction, 392 F.Supp. 1379 (E.D.Pa. 1974). We now apply the same reasoning to the case before us and affirm the trial court's conclusion that the statute began to run when the College received the letter from Dow and gained knowledge that the building was potentially defective because there were cracks in the masonry, or as the trial court determined, several months after this at the latest, by which time the College should have completed an inspection. The College presents scant evidence upon which to base a later date for discovery of the cause of action. It relies solely on the fact that, some time after the inspection, an independent expert read Dow's report and informed the College that Sarabond probably caused the defect. The facts, construed in a light most favorable to the College, support the trial court's conclusion that no genuine issue for trial exists regarding when the College should reasonably have discovered the defects.