Court Opinion

ID: 9723309
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:11:15.610161+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:46.750888
License: Public Domain

Williams, J.
(dissenting). I dissent. My disagreement with my Brother, Justice Fitzgerald, is on two grounds.
First, as I expressed in my dissenting opinion in Parish v B F Goodrich Co, 395 Mich 271; 235 NW2d 570 (1975), I believe that "the UCC does establish its own right of recovery for personal injuries separate from and in addition to the judicially developed 'products liability’ ”. 395 Mich 271, 285.
More importantly, however, I agree with the circuit court’s conclusion that MCLA 600.5805(7); MSA 27A.5805(7), which establishes a three-year statute of limitations for "all other actions to *83recover damages for injuries to persons and property”, is inapplicable to a case like that before us, where the only damaged property is the product manufactured by the defendant.
As is indicated in Schreiber v Loew’s Inc, 147 F Supp 319, 322 (WD Mich, 1957), under Michigan law "any case not clearly otherwise provided for must come within the six-year limitation”. Thus, the question here becomes whether it is clearly provided that the instant action is covered under MCLA 600.5805(7); MSA 27A.5805(7).
I conclude that it is not at all clear that the three-year statute of limitations was meant to apply, and therefore, the six-year statute is applicable.
The use of the word "injury” in the three-year statute indicates that coverage includes those situations where the product sold causes injury to someone or something else, rather than suffering deterioration itself as in this case.
Also, an examination of the annotations to the three-year statute reveals that every case involving property damage pertained to damage other than that of deterioration of a defective product alone.
Given that the situation described in the instant case does not fall clearly under the three-year statute, I would hold the six-year statute applicable.