 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Penley v. Honda Motor Co.8/25/2000
nce more readily available at a reasonable cost so that product cost may be lessened to the consumer; and
WHEREAS, In enacting this act, it is the purpose of the General Assembly to provide a reasonable time within which action may be commenced against manufacturers and/or sellers while limiting the time to a specific period of time for which product liability insurance premiums can be reasonably and accurately calculated . . . . 1978 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 703 preamble.
As the preamble to the TPLA indicates, the General Assembly perceived that uncertainty as to future liability increased the premiums for product liability insurance, which in turn increased the costs of production and ultimately consumer prices. The legislature considered the limitation of future liability to a reasonable and specific period to be one of the most important keys in solving the perceived products liability crisis. Accordingly, it is significant that the General Assembly created within the TPLA its own specific set of limitation periods for products liability actions, rather than relying upon more general limitation periods found elsewhere in the code. In fact, section 29-28-103(a) is quite explicit that its statutes of repose apply "notwithstanding any exceptions" to the limitation periods which would otherwise apply in Titles 28 and 47.
Where the General Assembly enacts some specific limitations period as part of an overall statutory scheme, these specific limitations will apply over more general provisions found elsewhere in the code. See Dobbins v. Terrazzo Mach. & Supply Co., 479 S.W.2d 806, 809 (Tenn. 1972) (stating that "where the mind of the legislature has been turned to the details of a subject and they have acted upon it, a statute treating the subject in a general manner should not be considered as intended to effect the more particular provision"). Therefore, to reason that the legal disability statute somehow tolls the ten-year statute of repose in section 29-28-103(a) for an indefinite period of mental incompetency would be to defeat the very purposes behind the enactment of the TPLA. As the TPLA statute of repose was enacted as an important and specific measure to address products liability actions, we will not construe the legal disability statute to undermine the purposes behind that Act.
Because the General Assembly has excepted minors from strict application of the ten-year statute of repose, it could not have been unmindful as to the effect of the TPLA ten-year statute of repose on some persons with legal disabilities. Despite the plaintiff's assertions to the contrary, however, not all types of legal disability affect the running of a statute of repose in the same manner. For example, minority differs from mental incompetency in that any period of minority will necessarily extend no longer than eighteen years. Extending the running of a statute of repose during the minority of the plaintiff is not entirely destructive of the purposes for which statutes of repose have been enacted, because a defendant's exposure to liability will nevertheless be discontinued after an ascertainable passage of time. Consequently, by allowing a special exception for minors in the TPLA statute of repose, the General Assembly did not undermine its goal of providing for "a reasonable time within which action may be commenced."
By contrast, a policy that allows a plaintiff's mental incompetency to toll a statute of repose severely damages the purposes underlying statutes of repose generally because it envisions no practical end to a defendant's liability. Mental incompetency, for instance, could continue throughout the plaintiff's lifetime, and even once ended, could occur again
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tennessee Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|