Court Opinion

ID: 9695381
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:17:18.920051+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:11.385573
License: Public Domain

DISSENT
ANDERSON, PAUL H., Justice
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I respectfully dissent. I agree with the majority that the provisions of the municipal ordinance regulating ground fault interrupter receptacles and bathroom ventilation are prohibited by the State Building Code. But I conclude that egress window coverings are not “components or systems” of a “residential structure” and therefore may be regulated under the municipal ordinance. Minn.Stat. § 16B.62, subd. 1 (2006).
The majority correctly concludes that “ground fault interrupter receptacles work with the other devices that comprise a building’s electrical system.” I therefore agree that such receptacles are part of the system of a residential structure, and thus the State Building Code prohibits municipalities from regulating them in a way that differs from the Code. Similarly, a bathroom ventilation provision that requires “the incorporation of either a window or a mechanical ventilation system into the structure itself, see Morris, Minn., Rental Licensing Ordinance § 4.32, subd. 21(f), § 4.02 (2002),” regulates a component of a residential structure because it affects a “constituent part” of that structure. Thus the State Building code also prohibits municipalities from regulating bathroom ventilation differently.
Unlike ground fault interrupter receptacles and bathroom ventilation, I conclude that coverings on egress windows are neither “systems” nor “components” of a residential structure. The majority *15reasons that because egress windows are components of a residential structure,' and because an ordinance requiring window covers requires the installation of an additional device on these components, the ordinance regulates the components themselves. While I agree that an egress window itself may be a component of a residential structure, extending the definition of “component” to include the window cover goes too far.
An egress window cover is an external add-on that is neither a part of the structure itself, nor a part of any systems that are part of the structure. Because egress window covers easily attach to the outside surface of a window on a residential structure (if they are attached at all), regulation of such covers would not require an owner to rewire anything within the structure, as would the installation of ground fault interrupter receptacles, or to cut into walls or any other part of the structure, as would bathroom ventilation regulations. Because the State Building Code explicitly states that only “building code provisions regulating components or systems of any residential structure” are prohibited, Minn.Stat. § 16B.62, subd. 1, and because I conclude that egress window coverings are not “components or systems,” I further conclude that the State Building Code does not prohibit the regulation of egress window covers. Thus, I would hold that the district court did not err when it concluded that the municipality’s ordinance provision requiring the installation of rigid covers over basement egress windows is valid under the State Building Code.