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Cage v. Colonial Building Co.9/7/1993
Plaintiff-appellant, Ruthann M. Cage, filed a pro se action against Colonial Building Company, Inc. of Raleigh (Colonial) on 25 January 1991 in the small claims division of Wake County District Court to recover her expenses from repairs made to her home at 1419 Traherne Drive in Raleigh, North Carolina. The magistrate's 25 February 1991 decision dismissing the complaint was appealed to Wake County District Court.
On 13 May 1991, Ms. Cage retained counsel who filed a motion to amend the original small claims complaint. The motion was allowed, and the amended complaint was filed on 12 June 1991. Colonial filed its answer and motion to dismiss on 12 July 1991. By consent order, this action was transferred to the Wake County Superior Court Division on 27 August 1991. On 18 May 1992, after hearing the arguments of counsel, Colonial's motion to dismiss was allowed. Ms. Cage filed timely notice of appeal.
This case arises out of the construction of a townhouse in Gloucester Village in Raleigh, North Carolina. Colonial was the general contractor for the townhouses in Gloucester Village. Ms. Cage purchased her townhouse in Gloucester Village on 7 December 1984. Colonial was the owner of the townhouse at the time it was conveyed to Ms. Cage and throughout the construction of the townhouse.
Ms. Cage has lived in the townhouse with her two children from December 1984 when she purchased the townhouse through the present. In October of 1990, water from a second floor bathroom in the townhouse began to leak, pouring through the first floor ceiling and light fixture, onto the dining room table and carpeting on the first floor. Ms. Cage contacted a contractor, Forest Hill Associates, for a repair estimate and a plumber to evaluate the plumbing problem. The plumber could not determine the cause for the water leak. In the process of assessing the damage, the Forest Hill Associates' repairman pulled up the carpeting and discovered rotting floorboards underneath the carpet. The contractor pulled up more carpeting and continued to find rotting floorboards
throughout the entire first floor of the townhouse. Forest Hill Associates provided Ms. Cage with an estimate of the repair costs, including the costs of replacing the floorboards. Ms. Cage's homeowner's insurance carrier would not pay for the costs of repairing and replacing the rotting floorboards or the carpeting that needed to be removed to replace the floorboards because it determined that the extensive rotting floorboards were not caused by the October 1990 leak from the second floor bathroom. Ms. Cage filed her small claims action in January of 1991 to recover the costs to repair the rotting floorboards caused by the improper workmanship in the construction of the townhouse.
In April of 1991, Ms. Cage contacted Birmingham Consultant Services, a North Carolina licensed building contractor, to evaluate the possible cause of the rotting floorboards so that the cause could be corrected and further destruction of the townhouse prevented. George Birmingham of Birmingham Consulting Services conducted a thorough inspection of the townhouse and found several conditions contributing to the deterioration and rotting of the floorboards as well as numerous violations of the North Carolina Building Code. Specifically, Mr. Birmingham found that the copper flashing around the door frames and window frames was improperly constructed, causing water to drain toward the house rather than away from the house. The door and window openings to the exterior were not "fully weatherstripped, gasketed or otherwise treated to limit infiltration" as required by the applicable North Carolina Uniform Residential Building Code. Also, the brick
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