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Alloway v. General Marine Industries6/30/1997
d. at Reporters' Note to Comment d.
Recently, several state courts have confined consumers to contract principles in actions for economic loss. In a case that involved a pleasure boat with a defective hull, the Alabama Supreme Court declined to recognize a tort action against the manufacturer when the boat took on water after striking a submerged object. Wellcraft Marine, (supra) , 577 So. 2d 414. The purchaser sued the manufacturer and others for breach of implied warranties and under the Alabama Extended Manufacturer's Liability Doctrine. In rejecting the latter claim, the Court said that the Doctrine did not apply when the damage was to the product itself. Id. at 418. Declining to distinguish between purchasers who were consumers or commercial buyers, the Court held that the "rule remains the same, regardless of the nature of the consumer." Ibid. ; see also Dairyland Ins. Co. v. General Motors Corp., 549 So. 2d 44, 46 (Ala. 1989) (holding that consumer purchaser of defective van could not recover economic loss).
In Casa Clara, (supra) , 620 So. 2d 1244, the Florida Supreme Court rejected the contention of homeowners that they should be allowed to recover in tort for economic loss. Consequently, the Court held that the homeowners could not maintain a tort action to recover the costs of repair and lost value in their homes. Id. at 1247. The Court found that statutory remedies sufficed and that contract principles more appropriately addressed their claims for disappointed expectations. Ibid. ; see Florida Power & Light Co., (supra) , 510 So. 2d at 902 (holding that commercial purchaser suffering economic loss was limited to contract remedies). Unlike with personal injuries, the "consuming public as a whole" should not "bear the cost of economic losses sustained by those who failed to bargain for adequate contract remedies." Casa Clara, (supra) , 620 So. 2d at 1247.
Likewise, in Danforth, (supra) , 608 A.2d 1194, the Delaware Supreme Court rejected the contention of homeowners that an individual consumer's unequal bargaining power warranted an exception to the economic loss rule. Accordingly, the Court upheld the dismissal of the homeowners' negligence claim. Id. at 1201. Writing for a unanimous court, Chief Justice Veasey reasoned that to allow an exception for individual consumers would defeat the legislative intent in enacting the U.C.C. "as the complete framework of the rights and remedies available to parties to a sale of goods contract." Id. at 1200-01.
Other jurisdictions also have rejected homeowners' reliance on tort law to recover economic loss arising out of construction defects. See, e.g., Oceanside, (supra) , 659 A.2d at 270 (rejecting association's and individual homeowners' tort claims that sought recovery of economic loss caused by water damage around windows); Morris v. Osmose Wood Preserving, 99 Md. App. 646, 639 A.2d 147, 152 (Md. App. 1994) (rejecting homeowners' tort claims against plywood manufacturer for gradual deterioration of plywood in roofs because such damage constituted economic loss), modified, 667 A.2d 624 (Md. 1995); Lempke v. Dagenais, 130 N.H. 782, 547 A.2d 290, 291 (N.H. 1988) (rejecting property owners tort claims for economic loss resulting from defective construction of garage); Waggoner, (supra) , 808 P. 2d at 650, 653 (rejecting mobile home purchasers' tort actions against manufacturer for costs of repair and lost value resulting from defective roof design when damage was to only the mobile home itself, and holding that claim would be more properly made in warranty action). Cf. Aronsohn v. Mandara, 98 N.J. 92, 107, 484 A.2d 675 (1984) (declining "to decide the validity of plaintiff's negligence claim, since . . . the contractor'
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