Court Opinion

ID: 9669162
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:41:13.786838+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:53.077647
License: Public Domain

HOUSER,
Senior Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Under the doctrine of Ballwin Plaza Corporation v. H.B. Deal Construction Company, 462 S.W.2d 687 (Mo.1971), I agree with the majority opinion insofar as it holds that the school district’s action against Butler Manufacturing Company is not barred by the statute of limitations. Butler guaranteed in writing to correct, repair or replace defective materials or workmanship for a one-year period after completion of the work. The district’s action against Butler thus accrued in June, 1973, when the guarantee period expired. The district filed suit against Butler on October 3, 1977, several months before expiration of the period of limitations.
I respectfully dissent, however, from the ruling and rationale of the majority opinion that the district’s action against Frangkiser & Hutchins, Inc., the architect, and Vincent Roofing Company, is not barred by the statute of limitations.
When the roof leaked the damage resulting from the architect's breach of warranty and from the roofer’s faulty construction, was sustained and was capable of ascertainment. The damage was not only capable of ascertainment; it was actually ascertained, as established by unassailable evidence: the pleadings filed by the school district and its judicial admissions contained therein and in its appellate brief; the answers of the parties to interrogatories; the undenied correspondence between the parties and the extensive deposition testimony of Dewey Phillips, Superintendent of the School District: Thurman Wil-lett, former Superintendent; Donald Bro-man, Eugene Plegge, Sigel Holland, Joseph J. Fick, Jr., Charles Campbell, and Joseph T. McCuskey, present and former members of the school board, and experts Harold Schulte and J. Robert Bence. This evidence and these admissions established beyond cavil that the roof leaked from the time it was applied; that it continued to leak every time it rained; that the members of the school board had personal knowledge of the fact that the roof leaked, “from day one,” and at the latest by July 31, 1972.
“The claim for damages arose when it was ascertained that the roof was leaking.” Ruhling v. Robert Dawes Construction Co., 610 S.W.2d 403, 406 (Mo.App.1980); Friends University v. W.R. Grace & Co., 227 Kan. 559, 608 P.2d 936 (1980); Grand Island School District #2 of Hall County v. Celotex Corp., 203 Neb. 559, 279 N.W.2d 603, 608[6] (1979); Wills v. Black and West, Architects, 344 P.2d 581 (Okla.1959). The school board’s cause of action against the architect for breach of warranty arising out of defective design, and against the roofer for faulty construction, therefore, accrued in July, 1972, but suit was not filed until October 3,1977 — more than five years *345after accrual of the cause of action. The cause of action was barred by the five-year statute of limitation.
The majority opinion excuses the school district’s tardy filing of suit on the basis (unpleaded) that there was more than one item of damage and that the last item of damage occurred sometime in November, 1972, within the five years preceding the date the petition was filed. (The gymnasium floor warped as a result of water leaking through the roof onto the floor sometime in November, 1972.)
The conclusion that there was more than one item of damage is unwarranted. The school district claims that the corporate architect breached its warranty that it would design a roof which when constructed would be watertight; that the architect’s improper and faulty design resulted in the construction of a leaky roof. There was one and only one breach of warranty, not several successive breaches of warranty. There was only one “item of damage”; only one “resulting damage”, namely, a roof that leaked. The item of damage — the resulting damage — was defective construction which caused, allowed and permitted water to enter the building. When the school board ascertained that the roof leaked and would not repel, divert and shed rainwater a cause of action accrued at that time for all injurious consequences, past and future, and the five-year statute of limitations began to run at that time. A new cause of action for breach of warranty in this leaky roof case does not arise after each succeeding rainfall in which property damage results from invading water. One cause of action arises from one breach of warranty and all damages, past and prospective, may be recovered in one action. The fact that the school district had been damaged by defective design and faulty construction, was ascertained by the responsible representatives of the district on and before July 31, 1972. The cause of action arose in July, 1972. The 'fact that the extent of the damages was not then fully known and would depend upon future eventualities did not delay or postpone the accrual of the cause of action, or prevent the commencement of the running of the statute of limitations. The district then had five years within which to pursue its claim for all resultant property damage, including the damage from the November, 1972 rainfall which warped the gymnasium floor, and all future damages.
Last year this Court held that “The word ‘ascertain’ has always been read as referring to the fact of damage, rather than to the precise amount.” Dixon v. Shafton, 649 S.W.2d 435, 438 (Mo. banc 1983). The Court recognized that “[i]n many actions the extent of the damage may be dependent on uncertain future events,” but that uncertainty about the eventual outcome of the litigation or the amount that possibly might be recovered does not preclude the filing of suit or delay the accrual of the claim for the purpose of the statute of limitations. The Court said that “[t]he most that is required is that some damages have been sustained, so that the claimants know that they have a claim for some amount.” 649 S.W.2d at 439.
Until it is fixed a leaky roof leaks every time it rains, intermittently and indefinitely into the future, but “[wjhether the injury causes continuous or intermittent damages is not the test. When a substantial injury is done, a cause of action arises for all past and future damages.” Person v. City of Independence, 114 S.W.2d. 175 (Mo.App.1938).
The “last item of damage” language of § 516.100, applied to a leaking roof case based upon an architect’s breach of warranty, does not admit of the interpretation that each leakage after each rainfall constitutes a separate item of damage.
A case in point is Arst v. Max Barken, Inc., 655 S.W.2d 845 (Mo.App.1983), in which owners of a residence sued the building contractor for breach of warranty in the construction of the building. In August, 1969, within one month after occupying the house, the owners discovered cracks, leaks and shifting of the founda*346tion, which continued through the years. They did not file suit until March of 1981. To excuse their delay the owners contended that their damages were not ascertainable until after April of 1976 when “additional movement (of the house) occurred,” and “only then could appellant have maintained an action for the full extent of their damages to a successful conclusion.” 1 Upholding the trial court’s denial of relief on the basis of limitations the appellate court, Dowd, J., reasoned as follows, at 847:
“Only when there is more than one item of damage does the cause of action accrue, so as to begin only after the last wrong has been completed. Ruhling v. Robert Dawes Construction Company, 610 S.W.2d 403, 405 (Mo.App.1980). When there is only one wrong which results in continuing damage, as in the case at bar, the cause of action accrues when that wrong is committed and the damage sustained is capable of ascertainment. We find that there was just one wrong committed here, not continuing wrongs. Consequently, appellants cause of action accrued in August of 1969 when their house was delivered in its defective condition and appellants discovered the cracks and shifting of their house’s foundation. At this time, the damage was sustained and capable of ascertainment. The fact that the damage was continuing is immaterial since an instruction on future damages is included in the Missouri Approved Instructions and appropriate in such circumstances.”
I would affirm the judgment of the trial court dismissing with prejudice the school district’s claims against defendants Vincent Roofing Company and Frangkiser & Hutchens, Inc.; reverse the judgment dismissing the claim against defendant Butler Manufacturing Company, and remand the cause for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

. The school district's pleaded excuse for its delay in filing suit is that "while the roof leaked continuously plaintiff was not fully advised until approximately the time of filing of this suit of the nature and extent of the breach of warranty of defendants and the conditions herein set forth until 1977.”