Court Opinion

ID: 9741016
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:47:37.120536+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:21.657560
License: Public Domain

NEAL, Judge,
dissenting.
IND.CODE 84-1-2-2 provides a two year statute of limitation for injuries to personal property measured from the date the cause of action accrued. This section was last amended in 1981 and the particular provision was not changed. A cause of action ordinarily accrues when there occurs a union of the negligent act and ascertainable injuries. Babson Brothers Company v. Tipstar Corporation (1983), Ind.App., 446 N.E.2d 11. This statute of limitation is viable and there is no suggestion of legislative intent in IND.CODE 34-4-20-2 that it was to be repealed or restricted.
I repeat and emphasize IND.CODE 34-4-20-2:
"Time limitation for deficiency in design or construction of improvements.-No action to recover damages whether based upon contract, tort, nuisance, or otherwise, for:
(a) Any deficiency, or alleged deficiency, in the design, planning, supervision, construction, or observation of construction of an improvement to real property;
(b) An injury to property, either real or personal, arising out of any deficiency; or
*635(c) Injury to the person, or for wrongful death, arising out of any such deficienCY;
shall be brought against any person who designs, plans, supervises, or observes the construction of, or constructs an improvement to real property, unless the action is commenced within the earlier of ten (10) years from the date of substantial completion of the improvement or twelve (12) years after the completion and submission of plans and specifications to the owner if the action is for deficiency in design." (Emphasis added.)
This section does not use the word injuries, but the word deficiencies, which the majority opinion correctly states as meaning either inadequate or defective. The statute measures the time limitation of 10 years not from the date of injury, but from completion. Thus IND.CODE 34-4-20-2 addresses a tort arising out of a completed but deficient building or improvement.
To me this conjures up an image of a cornice falling, inadequate roof supports, defective steps and the like, which, after the building is completed and accepted, causes injuries to a third party. The section does not contemplate casual and ordinary acts of negligence committed by a workman on a machine while digging a trench on the property of a third party, which has nothing to do with a completed but defective improvement. Such would repeal IND.CODE 84-1-2-2.
IND.CODE 34-4-20-2 was meant to limit the time period in which a builder and architect would remain liable for latent de-feets where the injury occurred many, many years later after which the plaintiff could bring his suit within two years. Because of the lapse of time the builder and architect, not being in possession, would be helpless to defend themselves. It is noted that the owner in possession remains liable and all responsibility is shifted to him after the period of limitation has run. Because of this section a cause of action may be barred before it accrues. See Cory Beecher and Frances Spalding v. Howard L. White, AIA and James Associates (1988), Ind.App., 447 N.E.2d 622.
Under IND.CODE 34-4-20A-5, the statute of limitation for products liability, the plaintiff faces a limitation of two years from the accrual of the action, or ten years from delivery. We cannot implant the same two year limitation in this section, though it seems implicit. However, in my opinion, the injury must arise out of a completed but deficient improvement, and not casual acts of negligence wherein the cause of action acerues during construction.