Court Opinion

ID: 9751246
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:16:28.026752+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:40.845859
License: Public Domain

HOOD, Associate Judge
(dissenting).
Taking appellant’s allegations in their most favorable light, I think his case is this: On June 22, 1950, he bought a piano from appellee on the representation that it had been completely rebuilt and all defective parts had been replaced. Thereafter he discovered that the pin block was defective and called upon appellee to replace it. Ap-pellee took the piano and returned it to appellant on November 10, 1951, representing that the defective pin block had been replaced. In 1954 appellant discovered that the pin block had not been replaced, and this action was brought on August 12, 1954.
The majority opinion treats appellant’s action as one for fraud, but it appears to me that it is, as stated in appellant’s brief, one for “breach of warranty in the sale of a piano.” The warranty was made at the time of and as part of the sale. It related to the then condition of the piano. The warranty was breached when the sale was made and the statute of limitations ran from the time of the breach. Poole v. Terminix Co., 91 U.S.App.D.C. 287, 200 F.2d 746, affirming this court in 84 A.2d 699. To hold that the action of the parties in 1951 *544tolled the statute “would write into the law an unrecognized exception to the statute of limitations.” Zellan v. Cole, 87 U.S.App.D.C. 9, 183 F.2d 139. And I see no basis for holding that the statute did not begin to run until discovery of breach in 1951, because that rule has application only when discovery has been prevented by fraud. Poole v. Terminix, supra. On the admitted facts, I see this case as simply one where suit for breach of warranty was brought more than four years after the breach occurred, and in my opinion the trial court properly granted summary judgment on the ground that the action was barred by the three-year statute of limitations.