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Olmanson v. LeSueur County3/31/2005
by the following presumptions:
(3) the legislature does not intend to violate the Constitution of the United States or of this state;
(4) when a court of last resort has construed the language of a law, the legislature in subsequent laws on the same subject matter intends the same construction to be placed upon such language.
Minn. Stat. § 645.17 (2004). We have also said that when construing the statute of repose, we "strive to give effect to the plain meaning of the words of the statute without resort to technical legal constructions of its terms." Pacific Indem. Co., 260 N.W.2d at 554.
Applying their plain meaning, the words of Minn. Stat. § 541.051 bar claims against any person performing the construction of an improvement to real property or the owner of the improved real property for injuries arising from the "defective and unsafe condition of an improvement to real property" that accrue more than 10 years after the improvement is substantially completed. Minn. Stat. § 541.051, subd. 1(a) (2004) (emphasis added). Because the statute begins to run at the substantial completion of the improvement, the condition triggering the statute is not just any condition of the property, but only those conditions that are both "defective and unsafe" and in existence at the time construction of the improvement is substantially completed.
Subdivision 1(c) of section 541.051 creates an exception to the 10-year time limit. That exception applies "to actions for damages resulting from negligence in the maintenance, operation or inspection of the real property improvement" by the property's owner. Put another way, the exception applies to the "maintenance, operation, and inspection of the real property improvement" after completion and not to the "defective and unsafe condition" of the improvement as completed. Reading subdivision 1(c) in conjunction with subdivision 1(a), it is clear that the legislature intended to hold an owner liable only for those changes to the real property improvement that arise from the owner's negligent actions after the construction of the improvement is completed and not for those conditions already in existence at the time the improvement was substantially completed. Simply put, with respect to the defective and unsafe conditions existing at the substantial completion of construction, owners enjoy the same statutory protection as construction professionals. Applying our rules of statutory construction, any other reading of Minn. Stat. § 541.051, subd. 1(c), would render subdivision 1(a) meaningless, violate our holding in Pacific Indemnity, and render the statutory scheme unconstitutional.
Thus, to the extent that Olmanson's claim is that his injuries arose out of the defective and unsafe condition of the culvert as constructed, his claim is barred by Minn. Stat. § 541.051, subd. 1(a), because the record before us establishes that the culvert's alleged defective and unsafe condition was inherent in the culvert's construction and existed at the time of the culvert's substantial completion and because the improvement to the real property, the culvert, was substantially completed more than 10 years before Olmanson's snowmobile accident. I would, therefore, reverse the court of appeals' decision and reinstate the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of appellants.
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