Court Opinion

ID: 9533164
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:29:07.816349+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:56.337658
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE STOUDER, dissenting: I agree with the majority that the proper cause of action of a tenant against his landlord is not a tort action sounding in negligence but an action based upon the lease agreement between the parties and the implied covenants recognized by law. I do not agree that the counts based upon negligence and strict liability against the construction company, the architect and material supplier should have been allowed to proceed on a negligence theory. As I read Moorman, the recovery sought by this plaintiff is exactly the type of recovery which Moor-man forbids. The Moorman case adopts as a definition for economic loss “ ‘damages for inadequate value, costs of repair and replacement of the defective product, or consequent loss of profits— without any claim of personal injury or damage to other property***.’ ” Moorman Manufacturing Co. v. National Tank Co. (1982), 91 Ill. 2d 69, 82. In this case, plaintiff/lessee is claiming that the chemically treated beams caused the loss of business and a subsequent loss of profits at its restaurant because of the noxious odors coming from the beams. These losses fit the Moorman case’s definition of purely economic loss precisely. Furthermore, the plaintiff alleges no other physical damage to either a person or property. Moorman, of course, goes on to deny recovery for purely economic loss in a tort action when the damage is to the product alone. Moorman also distinguishes between sudden and dangerous occurrences and qualitative defects which are properly left to be remedied under the law of warranty. Moorman, speaking about the slow crack that grew in the steel band of the tank, stated: “This was not the type of sudden and dangerous occurrence best served by the policy of tort law that the manufacturer should bear the risk of hazardous products. Rather, like the factual situation in Jones & Laughlin Steel, and unlike that in Cloud and Pennsylvania Glass, the harm resulted from a qualitative defect relating to the purchaser’s expectation in terms of the product’s fitness to perform its intended function. *** Our conclusion that qualitative defects are best handled by contract, rather than tort, law applies whether the tort theory involved is strict liability or negligence. Tort theory is appropriately suited for personal injury or property damage resulting from a sudden or dangerous occurrence of the nature described above.” (Moorman Manufacturing Co. v. National Tank Co. (1982), 91 Ill. 2d 69, 85-86.) The defect complained of in this case certainly does not meet this sudden-and-dangerous requirement either. I believe that Ferentchak v. Village of Frankfort (1984), 121 Ill. App. 3d 599, 459 N.E.2d 1085, did nothing to clarify the Moorman rule. I expressed this belief in my dissent filed in the Ferentchak case, although my main contention in that dissent was that no duty was owed to plaintiff. If we are going to use Moorman’s definition of economic loss to decide whether or not to allow an action in tort in this district, we certainly cannot read the rule in Moorman to allow this action when the damages claimed fit exactly the definition of “economic loss” used by the supreme court in the Moorman case. Practically speaking, Ferentchak eviscerated the Moorman rule rather than expanded it, and in my opinion speaking of economic loss is now meaningless because we are now allowing recovery for disappointed commercial expectations, just what Moorman forbids. Possibly this is the path of the future, but at least I think we should admit that we are not going to follow Moorman rather than pretending to follow it and reaching an opposite conclusion. Because the rules of stare decisis demand that we be bound by the decisions of the Illinois Supreme Court, I would have affirmed the circuit court of Will County and dismissed the counts against the architect, the construction company and the supplier sounding in tort.