Court Opinion

ID: 9765188
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:54:58.016405+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:40.465648
License: Public Domain

Justice KITTREDGE,
dissenting in a separate opinion.
I vote to affirm the order of the circuit court. The Court misconstrues a straightforward and unambiguous statutory scheme. Having created a phantom conflict in the South Carolina Notice and Opportunity to Cure Construction Dwelling Defects Act (Act), the Court resolves the purported statutory conflict in a manner that I believe is patently at odds with the intent of the South Carolina Legislature. I respectfully dissent.
The Court is called upon to construe the Act. S.C.Code Ann. §§ 40-59-810 to 860 (Supp.2009). The Act mandates that a claimant “must” serve a residential home builder with notice of a claim related to an alleged defect in the construction of a dwelling no later than ninety days “before filing the action:”
(A) In an action brought against a contractor or subcontractor arising out of the construction of a dwelling, the claimant must, no later than ninety days before filing the action, serve a unitten notice of claim on the contractor. The notice of claim must contain the following:
(1) a statement that the claimant asserts a construction defect;
(2) a description of the claim or claims in reasonable detail sufficient to determine the general nature of the construction defect; and
(8) a description of any results of the defect, if known. The contractor or subcontractor shall advise the claimant within fifteen days of receipt of the claim if the construction
*580defect is not sufficiently stated and shall request clarification.
S.C.Code Ann. § 40-59-840 (emphasis added).
The Act specifies that within “thirty days from service of the notice,” the contractor or subcontractor must notify the claimant of his “election under this section.” § 40-59-850(A).8 “Failure to respond within thirty days is deemed a denial of the claim.” Id. “If the parties cannot settle the dispute pursuant to this article, the claimant may proceed with a civil action or other remedy provided by contract or by law.” § 40-59-850(C).
The legislature further provided for a stay of an action when a “claimant files an action in court before first complying with the requirements of this article.” S.C.Code § 40-59-830. (“[T]he court shall stay the action until the claimant has complied with the requirements of this article.”). I would construe the stay provision in section 40-59-830 as applying only when the required pre-filing notice is not satisfied. So construed, the stay operates as a failsafe to preserve an action and avoid potential statute of limitations concerns. I part company with the majority’s construction, which reads the stay provision as an invitation to willfully ignore the pre-filing notice requirement. The legislature expressed a preference for the pre-filing notice, and I do not believe our rules of statutory construction allow us to hold otherwise.9
I do agree with the proposition posed by the majority that, as a general rule, the Act’s stay provision should be invoked when an action is filed in violation of the notice requirements *581of section 40-59-840, but that is not the issue before us. The precise question before the circuit court and us is whether the legislature intended to grant a court the authority to preemptively sanction the practice of willfully violating the pre-filing notice requirements of the Act. I am convinced, as was the circuit court, that the legislature intended no such result.
The section 40-59-830 stay provision should not be construed to trump or sanction a violation of the statutory preference for the section 40-59-840 pre-filing notice requirement. The legislature clearly mandated pre-litigation efforts to resolve construction defect claims. The majority acknowledges as much — “the purpose of the Act is to encourage the resolution of these types of claims without using litigation, by providing an environment that codifies a contractor/subcontractor’s ability to inspect and offer a remedy or settlement.” I believe the Court’s interpretation of the Act encourages a claimant to intentionally ignore the pre-filing notice requirements and is in direct conflict with legislative intent. I believe the Court’s interpretation of the Act renders the statutory requirement for pre-filing notice meaningless.
I make two final points. First, I disagree with the Court’s finding that the legislature was not concerned about “when ” a contractor or subcontractor actually received notice and exercised its statutory rights. (Emphasis in majority opinion). I believe the issue of “when” notice is given was important to the legislature. I believe the legislature expressed a clear preference in section 40-59-840 that the claimant “must” serve written notice on a contractor or subcontractor “before filing the action.” The argument that a contractor or subcontractor may rely on these statutory rights in normal discovery, as does “any defendant in litigation,” misses the mark. (Emphasis in majority opinion). If the legislature was not concerned about the timing issue (the question of “when”), then the Act’s stated pre-filing notice requirement serves no purpose and the legislature intended to engage in a meaningless act.
Second, the majority opinion suggests that “[t]he effect of the circuit court’s determination was that no class action lawsuits could be filed for claims falling under the rubric of the Right to Cure Act.” The circuit court made no such *582finding, nor is it the “effect” of the circuit court’s ruling. The circuit court order forecloses only Appellants’ attempt to create a class action lawsuit by purposely thwarting the Act’s pre-filing notice mandate.
In dissenting, I would join the trial court in refusing to permit Appellants to willfully violate the pre-filing notice requirements of section 40-59-840 by adding unidentified claimants to the pending action.

. The Act grants certain rights to a contractor and subcontractor upon receipt of the pre-filing notice: (1) the right to request clarification of the alleged defect (§ 40-59-840); (2) the right to inspect the dwelling (§ 40-59-850); (3) the right to offer to remedy the alleged defect (§ 40-59-850); (4) the right to offer to settle the claims (§ 40-59-850); and (5) the right to deny the claim (§ 40-59-850). The majority refers to these statutory provisions as "alleged rights.”

. As a further expression of legislative intent to ensure the parties' compliance with the Act, the legislature directed Court Administration to "develop a designation on the Civil Action Cover Sheet which indicates whether a stay has been granted for a civil action filed pursuant to the South Carolina Notice and Opportunity to Cure Construction Defects Act.” § 40-59-860(B).