{"id":459366,"date":"2015-02-03T06:30:13","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T13:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=459366"},"modified":"2015-01-29T09:35:09","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T16:35:09","slug":"n-c-supreme-court-reverses-court-appeals-upholds-20-year-construction-warranty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/n-c-supreme-court-reverses-court-appeals-upholds-20-year-construction-warranty\/","title":{"rendered":"N.C. Supreme Court Reverses Court of Appeals and Upholds 20-year Construction Warranty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Richard A. Prosser | Poyner Spurill LLP | January 14, 2015<\/p>\n<p>Freedom of contract principles prevailed in the Supreme Court\u2019s recent ruling that a manufacturer waived application of North Carolina\u2019s 6-year statute of repose by extending an express 20-year warranty of its product.\u00a0 The opinion in Christie v. Hartley issued on December 19 reverses the Court of Appeals\u2019 2013 holding that a homeowner\u2019s claims under a manufacturer\u2019s 20-year warranty were barred by the 6-year statute of repose, a disruptive decision which stood to impose a 6-year sunset on express warranties irrespective of the stated term.\u00a0 By reversing the Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court has restored confidence that an express warranty can be relied on for its full term.<\/p>\n<p>The notion that a party could advertise a warranty for a period longer than legally enforceable is offensive.\u00a0 This, however, was the well-reasoned conclusion of the trial court and Court of Appeals in George and Deborah Christie\u2019s lawsuit against the manufacturer of a defective exterior cladding system used in the construction of their home.\u00a0 The basis for this conclusion was the 6-year statute of repose applicable to construction claims, which serves as an absolute bar to actions for claims commenced more than six years after a project\u2019s completion.<\/p>\n<p>Though many practitioners believed the statute of repose did not apply to express warranties, a 2008 Court of Appeals\u2019 opinion, Roemer v. Preferred Roofing, created uncertainty by restricting a homeowner\u2019s remedy under a \u201clifetime warranty\u201d and denying monetary relief.\u00a0 This uncertainty shifted to concern when the Court of Appeals relied on Roemer to decide the Christies\u2019 case, finding its prior opinion instructive for its conclusion that the statute of repose serves as an outside limitation for express warranty claims.\u00a0 The potential far-reaching impact of this decision across the construction industry\u2014including application to somewhat standard 10-year new-home warranties and longer term manufacturer\u2019s warranties of materials\u2014led to considerable outside interest leading up to the Supreme Court\u2019s review.<\/p>\n<p>In its opinion, the Supreme Court considered the conflict between the policy of the statute of repose as a safeguard against open-ended exposure to claims and the right of parties to negotiate and contract freely.\u00a0 Ultimately, the court concluded that at the intersection of these two policies, the beneficiary of the statute of repose is free to waive its protections and does so by extending an express warranty beyond the 6-year repose period.\u00a0\u00a0 On this basis, the Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals, upholding the Christies\u2019 20-year warranty and, in the process, preserving countless existing warranties extended industry-wide.<\/p>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lexology.com\/library\/detail.aspx?g=d72dd111-a47b-422d-9e93-f4d4c15a5821&amp;utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&amp;utm_medium=HTML+email+-+Other+states+section&amp;utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&amp;utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2015-01-16&amp;utm_term=\">N.C. Supreme Court reverses Court of Appeals and upholds 20-year construction warranty &#8211; Lexology<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard A. Prosser | Poyner Spurill LLP | January 14, 2015 Freedom of contract principles prevailed in the Supreme Court\u2019s recent ruling that a manufacturer waived application of North Carolina\u2019s 6-year statute of repose by extending an express 20-year warranty of its product.\u00a0 The opinion in Christie v. Hartley issued on December 19 reverses the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/n-c-supreme-court-reverses-court-appeals-upholds-20-year-construction-warranty\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">N.C. Supreme Court Reverses Court of Appeals and Upholds 20-year Construction Warranty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,3],"tags":[188,6599,268],"class_list":["post-459366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-2","category-insurance-claims","tag-construction-claims","tag-construction-warranty","tag-statute-of-repose","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>N.C. 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Prosser | Poyner Spurill LLP | January 14, 2015 Freedom of contract principles prevailed in the Supreme Court\u2019s recent ruling that a manufacturer waived application of North Carolina\u2019s 6-year statute of repose by extending an express 20-year warranty of its product.\u00a0 The opinion in Christie v. Hartley issued on December 19 reverses the&hellip; Continue reading N.C. 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Supreme Court Reverses Court of Appeals and Upholds 20-year Construction Warranty","og_url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/n-c-supreme-court-reverses-court-appeals-upholds-20-year-construction-warranty\/","og_site_name":"Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/","article_published_time":"2015-02-03T13:30:13+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@adviseconsult","twitter_site":"@adviseconsult","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/n-c-supreme-court-reverses-court-appeals-upholds-20-year-construction-warranty\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/n-c-supreme-court-reverses-court-appeals-upholds-20-year-construction-warranty\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7"},"headline":"N.C. 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