Court Opinion

ID: 9914743
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-01-02 20:00:32.947653+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:14:23.408489
License: Public Domain

RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION
                                Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b)
                                       File Name: 24a0001p.06

                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                  FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

 JERE HINMAN,                                                  ┐
                                                  Plaintiff,   │
                                                               │
        v.                                                     │
                                                                >      No. 22-6019
                                                               │
 VALLEYCREST LANDSCAPING DEVELOPMENT, INC., et al.             │
                                     Defendants,               │
                                                               │
 BRIGHTVIEW LANDSCAPE DEVELOPMENT, INC.,                       │
            Defendant-Third Party Plaintiff-Appellant,         │
                                                               │
        v.                                                     │
                                                               │
 GEORGIA GUNITE AND POOL COMPANY, INC.,                        │
                                                               │
                     Third Party Defendant-Appellee.
                                                               ┘

 Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee at Nashville.
                  No. 3:19-cv-00551—Aleta Arthur Trauger, District Judge.

                                  Argued: December 7, 2023

                              Decided and Filed: January 2, 2024

                   Before: BUSH, LARSEN, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.
                                  _________________

                                            COUNSEL

ARGUED: W. Douglas Kemper, WILSON ELSER MOSKOWITZ EDELMAN & DICKER
LLP, Louisville, Kentucky, for Appellant. Isaac S. Lew, LEWIS THOMASON, P.C., Memphis,
Tennessee, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: W. Douglas Kemper, WILSON ELSER MOSKOWITZ
EDELMAN & DICKER LLP, Louisville, Kentucky, for Appellant. Isaac S. Lew, LEWIS
THOMASON, P.C., Memphis, Tennessee, for Appellee.

       LARSEN, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which BUSH and MURPHY, JJ.,
joined. MURPHY, J. (pp. 10–15), delivered a separate concurring opinion.
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                                       _________________

                                            OPINION
                                       _________________

        LARSEN, Circuit Judge. A customer sued BrightView Landscape Development, Inc.,
for alleged faulty construction of a residential pool. BrightView believed that Georgia Gunite
and Pool Company, Inc., a subcontractor that performed work on the pool, was liable for any
damages it might have to pay the customer. So BrightView filed a third-party complaint to bring
Georgia Gunite into the case. The district court granted Georgia Gunite’s subsequent motion for
summary judgment, concluding that a Tennessee statute of repose precluded BrightView’s
third-party action. BrightView appeals. For the reasons that follow, we AFFIRM.

                                                 I.

        In March 2015, Jere Hinman hired BrightView Landscape Development, Inc., to design
and build a pool at her residence. The next month, BrightView subcontracted with Georgia
Gunite and Pool Company, Inc., to install plumbing and spray shotcrete for the pool shell. That
contract required Georgia Gunite to indemnify and hold BrightView harmless from any actions
arising out of Georgia Gunite’s performance of the subcontract. Georgia Gunite performed the
work that same month. The parties agree that the pool was substantially completed in September
2015.

        Due to an abnormally high water bill, Hinman contacted BrightView two months later.
BrightView discovered that the pool was leaking water because Georgia Gunite had not installed
a particular part (which was neither included in Georgia Gunite’s scope of work nor its bid).
Working together, BrightView and Georgia Gunite tried to address the problem in April 2016,
traveling back to Hinman’s home and installing a retrofitted part.

        Three years later, Hinman sued BrightView, alleging, among other issues, defective
construction of the pool because of the late-installed part. More than two years after Hinman
initiated her suit, and about six years after substantial completion of the pool, BrightView filed a
third-party complaint to bring Georgia Gunite into the case.          BrightView alleged that an
indemnification clause in the parties’ subcontract obligated Georgia Gunite to indemnify
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BrightView against Hinman’s claims arising out of Georgia Gunite’s work on the pool. Georgia
Gunite had not heard from BrightView or Hinman regarding the pool since it had installed the
part in 2016.

       Georgia Gunite moved for summary judgment, arguing that the Tennessee statute of
repose for actions alleging defective improvements to real estate covered BrightView’s action for
indemnity. BrightView responded by arguing that the Tennessee repose statute does not apply to
contract actions and that its indemnity claim against Georgia Gunite is contractual in nature. The
district court concluded that the Tennessee Supreme Court would interpret the Tennessee statute
of repose to include BrightView’s claim and granted Georgia Gunite summary judgment.
Hinman v. BrightView Landscape Dev., Inc., 627 F. Supp. 3d 922, 928 (M.D. Tenn. 2022).

       At BrightView’s request, the district court certified its decision as final and appealable
under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54. BrightView now appeals. We have jurisdiction under
28 U.S.C. § 1291.

                                               II.

       BrightView argues that the district court erred in concluding that the Tennessee Supreme
Court would interpret the statute of repose as preventing BrightView’s third-party action against
Georgie Gunite. We review the summary-judgment decision, including the district court’s
interpretation of state law, de novo. El-Khalil v. Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., 23 F.4th 633, 634
(6th Cir. 2022); Lukas v. McPeak, 730 F.3d 635, 637 (6th Cir. 2013). Summary judgment is
appropriate “if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the
movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” El-Khalil, 23 F.4th at 634–35 (quoting Fed.
R. Civ. P. 56(a)).

       As the parties have framed it, the dispositive question is whether Tennessee’s statute of
repose encompasses BrightView’s claim for indemnity, notwithstanding its basis in contract
rather than tort or common law. To answer this question of Tennessee law, “we must determine,
as best we can, how we think the Tennessee Supreme Court would interpret the statute if
presented with this issue.” Kochins v. Linden-Alimak, Inc., 799 F.2d 1128, 1135 (6th Cir. 1986).
Of course, decisions of the Tennessee Supreme Court are key in this exercise. See id. In the
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absence of on-point caselaw from the Tennessee Supreme Court, we also consider any precedent
from the Tennessee Court of Appeals as persuasive authority. Lukas, 730 F.3d at 638.

       The Tennessee Supreme Court’s “primary rule governing [its] construction of any statute
is to ascertain and give effect to the legislature’s intent.” Nye v. Bayer Cropscience, Inc., 347
S.W.3d 686, 694 (Tenn. 2011). The court begins by “examining the language of the statute.” Id.
If unambiguous, the “natural and ordinary meaning of the statutory language” demonstrates what
the legislature intended. Id. (quoting State v. Flemming, 19 S.W.3d 195, 197 (Tenn. 2000)). The
repose statute provides:

       All actions, arbitrations, or other binding dispute resolution proceedings to
       recover damages for any deficiency in the design, planning, supervision,
       observation of construction, or construction of an improvement to real property,
       for injury to property, real or personal, arising out of any such deficiency, or for
       injury to the person or for wrongful death arising out of any such deficiency, must
       be brought against any person performing or furnishing the design, planning,
       supervision, observation of construction, or construction of the improvement
       within four (4) years after substantial completion of an improvement.

Tenn. Code. Ann. § 28-3-202.

       Given its current precedent, we predict the Tennessee Supreme Court would conclude
that “the plain language of the statute” encompasses BrightView’s claim against Georgie Gunite.
See Chrisman v. Hill Home Dev., Inc., 978 S.W.2d 535, 540 (Tenn. 1998).

       Consider the nature of BrightView’s claim and the relief it seeks. BrightView asked the
district court for an order requiring Georgia Gunite to indemnify—i.e., to “reimburse” for any
“loss suffered,” Indemnify, Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019)—BrightView for any costs it
incurred arising out of Georgia Gunite’s work on Hinman’s swimming pool. According to
BrightView, Georgia Gunite’s “acts, and/or omissions” “in its performance of the [subcontract]
in connection with the subject construction project obligate[]” it to indemnify BrightView.
Third-Party Complaint, R. 52, PageID 419. Regardless of BrightView’s designation of the claim
as sounding in contractual indemnity, the claim nevertheless is at its core an “action[] . . . to
recover damages for any deficiency in the . . . construction of an improvement to real property.”
See Tenn. Code. Ann. § 28-3-202; Action, Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019) (defining
“action,” without limitation, as “a civil or criminal judicial proceeding”); Damages, Black’s Law
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Dictionary (11th ed. 2019) (defining “damages” as “[m]oney claimed by, or ordered to be paid
to, a person as compensation for loss or injury”). Put simply, absent Georgia Gunite’s alleged
deficient work, BrightView could not recover damages from it in this case—on any theory. So
BrightView had to bring its claim within four years after substantial completion of the
improvement. See Tenn. Code. Ann. § 28-3-202.

       To the extent that BrightView argues that contractual indemnity claims are not covered
simply because they are contractual in nature, the Tennessee Supreme Court has all but expressly
ruled that position untenable. In Chrisman, the Tennessee Supreme Court rejected the plaintiffs’
contention that the repose statute reached only negligence claims, holding that the statute also
covered claims for continuing nuisance, “a strict liability action.” 978 S.W.2d at 540. The court
emphasized that the Tennessee legislature granted repose for “all actions to recover damages[]
caused by any deficiency in the design or construction of an improvement.” Id. (emphasis in
original). And the court directed that “the substantive allegations” of the complaint rather than
“the designation given to a cause of action” determine whether the statute applies. Id. In other
words, Tennessee law looks to whether, “[a]t the heart of the” claim, a plaintiff seeks to recover
damages “caused by” any deficient construction. Id. at 540–41. The state’s high court tells us
that’s because the Tennessee legislature sought to “insulate contractors” from “liability for
defective construction” by requiring any claims to be brought within four years of substantial
completion.    Id.; see also Watts v. Putnam Cnty., 525 S.W.2d 488, 492 (Tenn. 1975).
Contractors, the court said, “are not at all insulated if plaintiffs are allowed to circumvent the
statute of repose merely by sticking” a different label on the claim. Chrisman, 978 S.W.2d at
540.

       Chrisman, it is true, involved a claim sounding in tort. But nothing in the court’s
reasoning suggests that the statute is limited to such claims. Indeed, the court’s decision cited,
with approval, Tennessee Court of Appeals cases holding that the repose statute can prevent even
claims for breach of implied and express warranty, which sound in contract. Id. (citing Lonning
v. Jim Walter Homes, Inc., 725 S.W.2d 682 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1987) and Pridemark Custom
Plating, Inc. v. Upjohn, Co., 702 S.W.2d 566 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1985)); see also Williams v.
Thompson, 443 S.W.2d 447, 449 (Tenn. 1969) (claim for breach of implied warranty “sounds in
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contract”); Bissinger v. New Country Buffet, 2014 WL 2568413, at *13 (Tenn. Ct. App. June 6,
2014) (“[W]arranty claims sound in contract rather than in tort.”). Even though the claims in
Lonning and Pridemark sounded in contract, the Tennessee Supreme Court remarked that “the
statute of repose applies with equal effect to all of them.” Chrisman, 978 S.W.2d at 540. The
court recently reaffirmed this position by signaling that one of its earlier cases involving a claim
“sound[ing] in contract,” Williams, 443 S.W.2d at 449, would now fall within the later-enacted
statute of repose. Benz-Elliott v. Barrett Enters., LP, 456 S.W.3d 140, 148 n.8 (Tenn. 2015).
Thus, we think the Tennessee Supreme Court would reject BrightView’s contention that the
contractual nature of its claim, alone, is dispositive.

        We find additional support for our prediction in decisions of the Tennessee Court of
Appeals. See Lukas, 730 F.3d at 638. The parties draw our attention to Clinton Seafood, Inc. v.
Harrington, 1991 WL 50218 (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 10, 1991). There, the Tennessee Court of
Appeals held that the statute of repose extends to claims for common-law indemnity. Id. at *2
(“We conclude that the statutory language ‘all actions to recover damages’ must be construed to
include actions for indemnity, notwithstanding their discrete nature, because they are derived
from and arise out of an underlying ‘deficiency in the construction of an improvement to real
estate.’”). BrightView does not argue that Clinton Seafood is an errant case; it conceded at oral
argument that common-law indemnity claims indeed are within the statute of repose. Recording
of Oral Arg. at 7:01–7:19, 10:24–10:55, 11:05–11:50, 30:23–31:50. That proposition finds
further support in published authority. The Tennessee Court of Appeals has applied the statute
of repose to claims for indemnity where a general contractor sues a subcontractor to recover its
losses after being held liable to a customer, even when the general contractor brings its lawsuit
via claims for “breach of contract, breach of warranty, indemnity and tort.” Counts Co. v.
Praters, Inc., 392 S.W.3d 80, 82, 86 (Tenn. Ct. App.), perm. app. denied (Oct. 23, 2012); see
also Wells Fargo & Co. v. Paul Davidson Const. Co., 1992 WL 108703, at *3 (Tenn. Ct. App.
May 22, 1992) (bank’s claims for common law indemnity and contribution fall within the repose
statute). While it is true that the plaintiffs in these cases seemed to demand indemnity under a
common law, as opposed to a contract, theory, we do not think this distinction makes a
difference in light of the court’s holding that even breach-of-contract claims can fall within the
repose statute.
 No. 22-6019                 Hinman v. ValleyCrest Landscaping Dev., et al.                                Page 7

          To sum up: Tennessee courts have consistently looked beyond a plaintiff’s
characterization of a claim to determine whether, at its core, the claim falls within the plain
language of the statute preventing “[a]ll actions” “to recover damages” for deficient construction.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-202. Decisions of the Tennessee Supreme Court strongly signal that
contract actions can fall within the statute of repose. The Tennessee Court of Appeals has
applied the statute to breach-of-contract claims and warranty actions that sound in contract and
has held that indemnity claims can fall within the statute. So we think it natural to conclude that
the Tennessee Supreme Court would hold that the statute of repose includes a claim for
contractual indemnity that seeks to recover damages arising out of alleged deficient construction.
A natural reading of the statute, the Tennessee Supreme Court’s prior interpretations of the
statute, and Tennessee Court of Appeals cases all point in the same direction: Tenn. Code Ann.
§ 28-3-202 encompasses BrightView’s claim for contractual indemnification against Georgia
Gunite.

          BrightView’s arguments to the contrary are not persuasive. To start, it characterizes the
statute of repose as a “tortious construction defect statute of repose” that applies only to “tort
actions.” Appellant Br. at 9–10. But, as the Tennessee courts have explained, by applying
repose to “[a]ll actions,” the Tennessee legislature did not so limit the reach of the statute. Tenn.
Code Ann. § 28-3-202. It could have done so—indeed, some other states have. See, e.g., Mass.
Gen. Laws ch. 260, § 2B (applying repose to “[a]ction[s] of tort”). To read the word “tort” into
Tennessee’s repose statute would contradict the Tennessee Supreme Court’s admonition not to
apply a “forced or subtle construction that would extend or limit the statute’s meaning.” Nye,
347 S.W.3d at 694 (quoting Flemming, 19 S.W.3d at 197). And, as discussed, the Tennessee
Supreme Court has indicated, and the Tennessee Court of Appeals has expressly held, that the
legislature chose not to grant repose to tort claims alone. See, e.g., Chrisman, 978 S.W.2d at
540; Lonning, 725 S.W.2d at 685–86; Counts Co., 392 S.W.3d at 87.1

          1
           We express no opinion or prediction as to whether the Tennessee Supreme Court would conclude that the
statute of repose provides a default rule around which parties can expressly contract. See Ismoilov v. Sears Holdings
Corp., 2018 WL 1956491, at *2, *7–8 (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 25, 2018) (recognizing uncertainty on the question).
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       BrightView next says that, if applied here, the repose statute would extinguish its claim
before it even accrues, or before Georgia Gunite’s potential liability arises. After all, the statute
of repose at issue in this case “begin[s] to run on the date of substantial completion as opposed to
the date of injury or damage.” Watts, 525 S.W.2d at 491. But this contention is, at its core,
directed at the nature of a statute of repose. Unlike a statute of limitations, which “normally
governs the time within which legal proceedings must be commenced after a cause of action
accrues,” a statute of repose “is unrelated to the accrual of any cause of action.” Calaway ex rel.
Calaway v. Schucker, 193 S.W.3d 509, 515 (Tenn. 2005). Its effect is “to prevent what might
otherwise be a cause of action from ever arising.” Id. (citation omitted). And we have long
recognized that “Tennessee courts have rejected” similar arguments that a statute cannot be read
to have the “effect of extinguishing claims before they arise.” Mathis v. Eli Lilly & Co.,
719 F.2d 134, 145 (6th Cir. 1983).

       For a similar reason, BrightView’s argument that its claim should be subject only to
Tennessee’s contract statute of limitations falls short.      Statutes of repose are not mutually
exclusive with statutes of limitations; the repose statute is “superimposed upon existing statutes.”
Watts, 525 S.W.2d at 491; see also id. at 493 (illustrating when a plaintiff must file suit under
various scenarios, accounting for both a statute of limitations and the repose statute at issue in
this case). Thus, although BrightView’s claim is likely also governed by Tennessee’s contract
statute of limitations, that conclusion does not preclude application of the repose statute.

       Finally, citing a few cases interpreting other states’ repose statutes, BrightView argues
that our prediction of how the Tennessee Supreme Court would construe the Tennessee statute of
repose would render the statute an outlier. These cases, of course, are not directly instructive as
to how the Tennessee Supreme Court would interpret the Tennessee statute—particularly in light
of the Tennessee caselaw we have discussed. But perhaps the intuition is that the Tennessee
Supreme Court would be unlikely to adopt an interpretation that leaves it unique among the
states. Whatever the instinct, the interpretation we predict today is not such an outlier. See, e.g.,
Parkridge Assocs., Ltd v. Ledcor Indus., Inc., 54 P.3d 225, 228, 232 (Wash. Ct. App. 2002)
(statute of repose applicable to “all claims” covers claims for equitable and contractual
indemnity); State, Dep’t of Transp. v. Echeverri, 736 So. 2d 791, 792 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1999)
 No. 22-6019            Hinman v. ValleyCrest Landscaping Dev., et al.                      Page 9

(statute of repose applicable to “[a]n action” covers claims for indemnity); see also New Riegel
Loc. Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Buehrer Grp. Architecture & Eng’g, Inc., 133 N.E.3d 482, 492
(Ohio 2019) (statute of repose applicable to “cause[s] of action” including for “indemnity”
applies to contract actions); McGee v. City of Warren, 807 N.W.2d 315 (Mich. 2012) (similar).

       Nor is the practical result of our prediction particularly odd. As state court interpretations
differ, so too does the language of state statutes. Many state repose statutes expressly include
contractual indemnity claims. E.g., N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:14-1.1. Some explicitly exempt, or
apply different rules to, indemnity claims. E.g., Minn. Stat. Ann. § 541.051; Cal. Civ. Proc.
Code § 337.15(c) (indemnity claims based on latent construction defects are generally reposed,
except for those brought as a cross claim in a timely primary action). And some are silent. E.g.,
N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 508:4-b; Wash. Rev. Code § 4.16.310; Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-202.
Considering the many differences in state court interpretations and the text of state statutes, we
cannot agree that our prediction today is anomalous.

       The district court did not err in concluding that the Tennessee Supreme Court would hold
that BrightView’s claim falls within the Tennessee statute of repose. Summary judgment for
Georgia Gunite was therefore appropriate.

                                               ***

       We AFFIRM.
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                                       _________________

                                        CONCURRENCE
                                       _________________

       MURPHY, Circuit Judge, concurring. I concur in Judge Larsen’s excellent opinion
rejecting BrightView Landscape Development’s atextual reading of the Tennessee statute of
repose. The Tennessee Supreme Court’s precedent in this area suggests that it would interpret
the statute to cover BrightView’s claim for indemnity against Georgia Gunite and Pool
Company. As the majority explains, nothing in the statute’s text supports BrightView’s lone
contrary argument: that the statute reaches only tort claims, not contract claims.

       That said, I write to highlight some interpretive issues that we need not resolve in this
case because BrightView did not raise them. The statute of repose provides:

       All actions, arbitrations, or other binding dispute resolution proceedings to
       recover damages for any deficiency in the design, planning, supervision,
       observation of construction, or construction of an improvement to real property,
       for injury to property, real or personal, arising out of any such deficiency, or for
       injury to the person or for wrongful death arising out of any such deficiency, must
       be brought against any person performing or furnishing the design, planning,
       supervision, observation of construction, or construction of the improvement
       within four (4) years after substantial completion of an improvement.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-202. As far as I can tell, the Tennessee courts have yet to answer two
questions about this text. How does the text apply to crossclaims or third-party claims raised in a
single case? And how do the statute’s three categories of covered claims relate to each other?

       First, the statute notes that “all actions . . . must be brought” within four years of a
construction project’s substantial completion. Id. This text makes critical the date on which an
“action” is brought. But it is not clear to me what the statute means by the word “action.” Does
it mean the general case? Or does it mean a specific claim within the case?

       The facts here show why this distinction matters. Jere Hinman brought the case against
BrightView in July 2019, which was within four years of her pool’s substantial completion in
September 2015. But BrightView did not file its third-party complaint against Georgia Gunite
until September 2021—after the four-year statute of repose had run. If “action” refers to the
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overarching case, BrightView’s third-party claim against Georgie Gunite might well be timely.
After all, the general case was brought within the four-year repose period. But if “action” refers
to each claim within the case, BrightView’s third-party claim against Georgia Gunite is
untimely.

       This interpretative issue also implicates more than third-party claims. Suppose this case
had all the same facts except that Hinman originally sued both BrightView and Georgia Gunite.
If BrightView then filed a crossclaim against Georgia Gunite (rather than a third-party claim),
would the date of the case or the date of the crossclaim matter for purposes of the statute of
repose?

       I can see arguments both ways. On the one hand, most lawyers would initially presume
that “action” means “case.” The legal community generally understands the word to refer to a
“judicial proceeding” (a common definition of “action”) rather than an “assertion of an existing
right” (a common definition of “claim”). Black’s Law Dictionary 28, 240 (7th ed. 1999).
Indeed, it is natural to say that a “third-party complaint” was filed within an “action” that had
been brought earlier. See Velsicol Chem. Corp. v. Rowe, 543 S.W.2d 337, 338–39 (Tenn. 1976)
(citing Tenn. R. Civ. P. 14.01). At times, moreover, courts have interpreted statutes to follow
this ordinary meaning of the word “action” and have distinguished an “action” from the “claims”
within it. See, e.g., Brown v. Megg, 857 F.3d 287, 290–91 (5th Cir. 2017); Horkey v. J.V.D.B. &
Assocs., Inc., 333 F.3d 769, 775 (7th Cir. 2003); Medmoun v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., 2022 WL
1443919, at *3 (M.D. Fla. May 7, 2022); Lincoln Harbor Enterps., LLC v. Hartz Mountain
Indus., Inc., 517 F. Supp. 3d 293, 301–02 (D.N.J. 2021). And the Tennessee legislature might
have had good reasons to tie the statute of repose to the overarching “judicial proceeding.”
Assume that a homeowner files a negligence case against two contractors on the last day of the
repose period. In that scenario, the contractors would lack a realistic opportunity to respond by
filing independent indemnity suits against each other.        But if “action” means “judicial
proceeding,” they could still file indemnity crossclaims within the homeowner’s proceeding.

       On the other hand, courts also sometimes interpret the word “action” to mean “claim”
when the context calls for that reading. Take Jones v. Bock, 549 U.S. 199 (2007). There, the
Supreme Court interpreted the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s exhaustion provision. Id. at 204.
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This provision stated that “[n]o action shall be brought” to pursue various kinds of claims unless
a prisoner first exhausted any prison administrative remedies. 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). What
happened if a prisoner exhausted those remedies for some claims but not others—all of which
the prisoner asserted in one case? Must a court dismiss the whole case? Or just the unexhausted
claims? The Supreme Court opted for a “claim-by-claim approach.” Jones, 549 U.S. at 224. It
refused to interpret the provision’s “boilerplate language” (“[n]o action shall be brought”) to
require the dismissal of the entire suit. Id. at 220. It also suggested that courts have commonly
adopted this interpretation of “action” when legislatures use the word in the statute-of-limitations
context. Id. at 220–21. Nor would it be unusual to refer to BrightView’s claim against Georgia
Gunite as a “third-party action” “for indemnity.” Black’s, supra, at 32 (emphasis added).

       Second, if one breaks this statute down into its component parts, it prohibits three
categories of actions. It reaches “all actions” “to recover damages”:

               (1) “for any deficiency in the design, planning, supervision, observation of
                    construction, or construction of an improvement to real property,”
               (2) “for injury to property, real or personal, arising out of any such
                    deficiency, or”
               (3) “for injury to the person or for wrongful death arising out of any such
                    deficiency[.]”

Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-202. Which of these three categories of actions does BrightView’s
indemnity claim against Georgia Gunite fall into?

       Georgia Gunite conceded at oral argument that BrightView’s claim does not fall within
the second two categories. Those two apply to fact patterns in which a builder’s defective design
or construction of a real-property improvement caused some other injury. The second category
would apply to claims that the defective design or construction caused an injury to other property
(say, a subdivision’s defectively designed “drainage system” caused substantial flooding in a
home). Cf. Chrisman v. Hill Home Dev., Inc., 978 S.W.2d 535, 537 (Tenn. 1998). And the third
category would apply to claims that the defective design or construction caused an injury to a
person (say, a customer tripped on a “defectively constructed” “ramp” at a fast-food restaurant).
Cf. Clinton Seafood, Inc. v. Harrington, 1991 WL 50218, at *1 (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 10, 1991).
But BrightView does not seek money for an injury to its property or people.
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          Georgia Gunite instead argues that BrightView’s claim for indemnity falls within the first
category, which reaches actions seeking damages “for any deficiency in the design, planning,
supervision, observation of construction, or construction of an improvement to real property[.]”
Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-202.          Whether BrightView’s claim fits this text depends on the
following question: What connection must exist between a request for damages and a deficiency
in a real-property improvement to describe the damages request as one “for” the deficiency?
I see two potential paths to answering this question—one broader and one narrower.

          The broader path starts—and ends—with the ordinary meaning of this phrase as backed
by common-law concepts. The preposition “for” often means “[b]ecause of” or “on account
of[.]” VI Oxford English Dictionary 25 (2d ed. 1989). And courts regularly recognize that these
phrases trigger traditional causation concepts like “but-for causation.” See, e.g., Univ. of Tex.
Sw. Med. Ctr. v. Nassar, 570 U.S. 338, 346–47, 351–52, 360 (2013); Gross v. FBL Fin. Servs.,
Inc., 557 U.S. 167, 176–77 (2009). So one might interpret this language to cover any damages
that would not have arisen “but for” the alleged deficiency in the real-property improvement.
Comcast Corp. v. Nat’l Ass’n of African American-Owned Media, 140 S. Ct. 1009, 1014 (2020).
The Tennessee Supreme Court seemed to read the statute of repose in this broad way when it
noted that the statute covered actions seeking damages “caused by any deficiency in the design
or construction of an improvement[.]” Chrisman, 978 S.W.2d at 540 (emphasis added). And
there can be no dispute that the alleged deficiencies in the construction of Hinman’s pool are the
but-for causes of BrightView’s indemnity claim against Georgia Gunite.

          The narrower path relies on the statute’s broader context. To begin with, if we read the
first category to reach all actions in which a deficiency in a real-property improvement is the but-
for cause of the damages, what is the point of the second and third categories? A “but-for cause”
view may well read the first category to swallow up the other two and leave them with no work
to do. Indeed, Georgia Gunite’s counsel all but conceded at oral argument that the company’s
reading renders these two other categories meaningless. But courts generally strive to give effect
to all of a statute’s provisions. See Yebuah v. Ctr. for Urological Treatment, PLC, 624 S.W.3d
481, 487 (Tenn. 2021); see also FCC v. NextWave Pers. Commc’n Inc., 537 U.S. 293, 302
(2003).
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       Next, but-for cause is not much of a limiting principle. As Justice Scalia explained, “‘for
want of a nail, a kingdom was lost’ is a commentary on fate, not the statement of a major cause
of action against a blacksmith.” Holmes v. Secs. Investor Prot. Corp., 503 U.S. 258, 287 (1992)
(Scalia, J., concurring in the judgment). There comes a point at which no reasonable person
would describe a plaintiff’s action as one “for” a deficiency in a real-property improvement, yet
the action may still satisfy the but-for-causation test. Suppose that a bank loaned a builder funds
to complete a project, which the builder constructed properly. Suppose further that the builder’s
deficient work on a second project led to its insolvency and so its default on the bank’s loan. If
the bank sued the builder to collect on the loan, would anyone say that it sued to recover
damages “for” the deficiency in the second project? I do not think so. But these facts may well
meet the but-for cause test.

       Given these interpretive difficulties, a natural reading of the text might require more than
but-for cause. Maybe one could read the first category of actions to cover only those in which a
real-property owner seeks damages directly “for” the defective improvement itself rather than for
injuries that have indirectly “aris[en] out of” the deficiency (the injuries covered by the second
and third categories). Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-202. Putting this instinct into legalese, perhaps
the preposition “for” in the first category incorporates the traditional concept of proximate
causation. See Kroger Co. v. Giem, 387 S.W.2d 620, 625–26 (Tenn. 1964); William L. Prosser,
Handbook of the Law of Torts 311–75 (1941). That concept sometimes asks whether a “direct
relation” exists between the plaintiff’s injury and the defendant’s conduct. Holmes, 503 U.S. at
268; see Prosser, supra, at 347–48. When, for example, a defendant’s conduct first harmed one
party and then later events spread that harm to third parties, the proximate-cause concept
sometimes allowed only the directly harmed party to recover. See Holmes, 503 U.S. at 268–69.
As Justice Holmes once noted, “[t]he general tendency of the law, in regard to damages at least,
is not to go beyond the first step.” S. Pac. Co. v. Darnell-Taenzer Lumber Co., 245 U.S. 531,
533 (1918). Here, then, one might argue that only an “indirect” connection exists between
BrightView’s indemnity claim and the deficient construction. Why? Because BrightView seeks
damages directly “for” Georgia Gunite’s distinct breach of its contractual promise to hold
BrightView harmless, not for Georgia Gunite’s deficient construction. And since neither the
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second nor the third categories of actions seem to cover this type of indirect injury, maybe the
statute of repose does not apply to indemnity claims.

       In the end, BrightView did not raise these issues, so this case does not require us to
resolve them. But the Tennessee courts might someday have to grapple with them. I thus flag
them here.