{"id":898197,"date":"2020-11-10T15:40:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T22:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=898197"},"modified":"2020-11-10T15:40:07","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T22:40:07","slug":"economic-loss-rule-bars-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/economic-loss-rule-bars-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Loss Rule Bars Claims Against Manufacturer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>David Adelstein | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.floridaconstructionlegalupdates.com\/economic-loss-rule-bars-claims-against-manufacturer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Florida Construction Legal Updates<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/exceptions-economic-loss-rule\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">economic loss rule<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0lives to bar a claim against a product manufacturer in a real estate transaction.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>In a products liability action, there needs to be personal injury or property damage, other than to the property itself, in order to recover economic damages.<\/strong>\u00a0 Otherwise, the economic loss rule will bar the recovery of such economic losses when the economic losses deal to the product itself. \u00a0This is important to keep in mind in any product liability action against a manufacturer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a recent case,&nbsp;<em>2711 Hollywood Beach Condominium Ass\u2019n, Inc., v. TRG Holiday, Ltd<\/em>., 45 Fla. L. Weekly D2179a (Fla. 3d DCA 2020), a condominium association purchased the condominium from the developer.&nbsp; Subsequently, it noticed leaks with the fire suppression system in the condominium and sued multiple parties for damages for repairs due to the leaks and the replacement of the fire suppression system.&nbsp; One of the parties sued in&nbsp;<strong>negligence<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>strict liability<\/strong>&nbsp;was a manufacturer of pipe fittings used in the fire suppression system. &nbsp;The manufacturer moved for summary judgment based on the economic loss rule and relying on the 1993 Florida Supreme Court opinion in&nbsp;<em>Casa Clara Condominium Ass\u2019n v. Charley Toppino &amp; Sons, Inc.<\/em>, 620 So.2d 1244 (Fla. 1993), holding \u201c<strong>the economic loss rule limited a defendant\u2019s tort liability for allegedly defective products to injuries caused to persons or damage caused to property other than the defective product itself.<\/strong>\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>2711 Hollywood Beach Conominium Ass\u2019n, supra.&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;The trial court agreed with the manufacturer and granted summary judgment.&nbsp; On appeal, the Third District affirmed based on the economic loss rule:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Association bargained for, purchased and received a building; [the manufactuer\u2019s] fittings were only a component of the FSS [fire suppression system], incorporated into the building. Applying the rule set forth in&nbsp;<em>Casa Clara<\/em>, the Association purchased a completed building from the developer. [The manufactuer\u2019s] fittings were \u201can integral part of the finished product and, thus, did not injure \u2018other\u2019 property.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<u>Injury to the building itself is not injury to \u201cother\u201d property because the product purchased by the Association was the building<\/u>.&nbsp;<em>See<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Casa Clara<\/em>, 620 So. 2d at 1247. The economic loss rule therefore bars the Association\u2019s recovery as to [the manufacturer] to the extent that it sought damages to replace the FSS [fire suppression system] and repair damage to the building.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>2711 Hollywood Beach Conominium Ass\u2019n, supra&nbsp;<\/em>(internal citations omitted).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, in&nbsp;<em>Casa Clara<\/em>, homeowners sued a concrete supplier for supplying defective concrete that caused the reinforcing steel in the concrete in their homes to rust.&nbsp; The concrete supplier, in an action that went up to the Florida Supreme Court, prevailed based on the economic loss rule because there was no personal injury or damage to property other than the property itself, which was the completed building.&nbsp; As the Florida Supreme Court held:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The homeowners also argue that [the supplier\u2019s] concrete damaged \u201cother\u201d property because the individual components and items of building material, not the homes themselves, are the products they purchased. We disagree.&nbsp;<u>The character of a loss determines the appropriate remedies, and, to determine the character of a loss, one must look to the product purchased by the plaintiff, not the product sold by the defendant<\/u>.&nbsp; Generally, house buyers have little or no interest in how or where the individual components of a house are obtained. They are content to let the builder produce the finished product, i.e., a house.&nbsp;<u>These homeowners bought finished products\u2014dwellings\u2014not the individual components of those dwellings<\/u>. They bargained for the finished products, not their various components.&nbsp;<u>The concrete became an integral part of the finished product and, thus, did not injure \u201cother\u201d property<\/u>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>We also disagree with the homeowners that the mere possibility that the exploding concrete will cause physical injury is sufficient reason to abrogate the economic loss rule. This argument goes completely against the principle that injury must occur before a negligence action exist<\/u>s. Because an injury has not occurred, its extent and the identity of injured persons is completely speculative. Thus, the degree of risk is indeterminate, with no guarantee that damages will be reasonably related to the risk of injury, and with no possibility for the producer of a product to structure its business behavior to cover that risk. Agreeing with the homeowners\u2019 argument would make it difficult \u201cto maintain a realistic limitation on damages.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Casa Clara, supra<\/em>, at 1247 (internal citations omitted)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Adelstein | Florida Construction Legal Updates The\u00a0economic loss rule\u00a0lives to bar a claim against a product manufacturer in a real estate transaction.\u00a0\u00a0In a products liability action, there needs to be personal injury or property damage, other than to the property itself, in order to recover economic damages.\u00a0 Otherwise, the economic loss rule will bar&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/economic-loss-rule-bars-claims\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Economic Loss Rule Bars Claims Against Manufacturer<\/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":[10721,10918],"tags":[9895,319,9070],"class_list":["post-898197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance","category-product-liability-product-liability","tag-advise-consult","tag-economic-loss-rule","tag-products-liability","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>Economic Loss Rule Bars Claims Against Manufacturer - Advise &amp; 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