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Westfield Ins. Co. v. Huls Am.6/9/1998
met before the limitation period set forth in R.C. 2305.10 commences to run. First, the plaintiff must know or should have reasonably known that he has been injured and, second, the plaintiff must know or reasonably should have known that his injury was proximately caused by the conduct of the defendant. Viock v. Stowe-Woodward Co. (1983), 13 Ohio App.3d 7, 13 OBR 8s467 N.E.2d 1378. Appellants knew, at the latest, on March 16, 1992, that HULS, as successor corporation to Dynamit, was responsible for supplying and installing the TROCAL roof at the mall, and appellant had reason to believe that the TROCAL roof was defective or prone to shattering. Their cause of action therefore accrued on March 16, 1992.
UAP's product liability claim is one for compensatory and economic damages, governed by R.C. 2307.73. The Ohio Supreme Court has held that "causes of action brought pursuant to R.C. 2307.73 are not governed by the six-year statute of limitations provided in R.C. 2305.07" (McAuliffe, paragraph two of the syllabus) but instead are governed by the two-year limitation provided by R.C. 2305.10. McAuliffe, 72 Ohio St.3d at 540, 651 N.E.2d at 961-962. Therefore, appellants' cause of action based on a product liability claim accrued when appellants discovered, on March 16, 1992, that the TROCAL roofing material was prone to shattering, and the time for bringing such an action began to run on that date. The time for filing their product liability action expired on March 16, 1994, ten months prior to appellants' earliest filing date of January 13, 1995. This court finds that the trial court did not err in finding that appellants' product liability causes of action were barred by the time limitations for filing such claims.
Appellants further argue that their warranty claims are not time-barred. The four-year statute of limitations of R.C. 1302.98(A) governs claims for property damage when, as appellants contend, the transaction concerns a sale of goods. Prokasy v. Pearle Vision Ctr. (1985), 27 Ohio App.3d 44, 27 OBR 46, 499 N.E.2d 387. As has been stated above, the warranties for the TROCAL roof expired on May 4, 1991. R.C. 1302.98(A) provides that an "action for breach of any contract for sale must be commenced within four years after the cause of action accrued." A "cause of action accrues when the breach occurs, regardless of the aggrieved party's lack of knowledge of the breach. A breach of warranty occurs when tender of delivery is made, except that where a warranty explicitly extends to future performance of the goods, * * * the cause of action accrues when the breach is or should have been discovered." R.C. 1302.98(B). The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that, under R.C. 1302.98, the cause of action accrues when a plaintiff discovered, or should have discovered, the defect in the product so long as the discovery arose during the warranty period. Std. Alliance Industries, Inc. v. Black Clawson Co. (C.A.6 1978), 587 F.2d 813, 821. Appellants did not discover the defect within the warranty period, and the warranty expired on May 4, 1991. UAP's warranty cause of action accrued, therefore, on May 4, 1981, and is time-barred in this respect.
Further, the Ohio Supreme court has held that when a sophisticated commercial buyer sues for property damage caused by an allegedly defectivsproduct, claims relating to property other than the defective product itself are controlled by the statute of limitations contained in R.C. 2305.10 for personal property or R.C. 2305.09(D) for real property. Sun Refining, 68 Ohio St.3d at 397, 627 N.E.2d at 553. As has been stated above, and under the Sun court's holding, the statutes of limitations for real property actions as well as for perso
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