RON HENRY, ET AL. v. CHEROKEE CONSTRUCTION AND SUPPLY COMPANY, INC. (Tenn. Ct. App. March 26, 2009)
Ron Henry and Linda Henry (“Plaintiffs”) sued Cherokee Construction and Supply Company, Inc. (“Defendant”) alleging damages sustained when a wall in the home that Defendant constructed for Plaintiffs collapsed. Defendant filed a motion for summary judgment. The Trial Court entered an order finding and holding that Plaintiffs’ claim was barred by the four year statute of repose contained in Tenn. Code Ann. section 28-3-201, et seq., and granting Defendant summary judgment. Plaintiffs appeal to this Court. We affirm.
Opinion may be found at the TBA website:
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCA/2009/henryr_032609.pdf
“Plaintiffs argue that they have not sued for damages resulting from a construction defect but instead have sued for “a negligent misrepresentation of completeness and Notice of Completion....” Plaintiffs argue that their claim is based upon the Notice of Completion being negligently filed because Defendant had not actually completed the construction as required by the agreement between the parties.” Id.
“After a careful and thorough review of the record on appeal, we conclude that regardless of how Plaintiffs’ claim is couched, the case at hand is an action “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….” Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-202 (2000). The material substantive allegations of Plaintiffs’ complaint relate to Defendant’s alleged negligence in the construction of the house. As such, the Trial Court did not err in applying Tenn. Code Ann. 28-3-202.” Id.
“By its plain and unambiguous language, Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-205(b) provides that the statute of repose will not be available “to any person who shall wrongfully conceal any such cause of action.” However, Plaintiffs’ claim with regard to this issue is predicated upon the assertion that Defendant wrongfully concealed construction defects and the fact that the job was not finished according to the contract. As this Court stated in Register v. Goad: “The concealment referred to in the statute is not concealment in the original construction, but rather a concealment by defendant of plaintiff’s cause of action once it arises.” Plaintiffs make no allegation that Defendant did anything to conceal the cause of action once it arose. Rather, the “concealment” complained of by Plaintiffs occurred in the original construction itself. As such, Plaintiffs’ claim for wrongful concealment fails.” Id.
