Injured Worker’s Claims Alleging Defective Conveyor System Barred By Michigan Statute Of Repose
A worker for a company in the business of designing and manufacturing corrugated box packaging was injured while off-loading a stack of corrugated material from one conveyor to another when allegedly being crushed by an automated transfer car. He brought suit against the transfer car manufacturer alleging that because of the absence of various safety precautions, the transfer car failed to provide adequate visible and audible warnings. The transfer car manufacturer had specially designed the conveyor system used at this facility to accommodate the work flow from each piece of the owner’s manufacturing equipment. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan concluded that Michigan’s six-year statute of repose for actions against contractors for improvements made to real property bars the plaintiff’s action (the system was installed in January 2007, and the plaintiff filed suit in November 2013 after being injured in 2012). The plaintiff contended that the action was a product liability suit for negligence related to the design of the transfer cars, not to the manner of construction or workmanship of the cars or the system, but the court rejected that argument.
The court explained that the transfer car manufacturer was a contractor that made improvements to real property, after analyzing four factors: 1) whether the modification added to the value of the property for purposes of its intended use (here, the conveyor system enhanced the efficiency of the facility); 2) the nature of the improvement (here, the entire facility was built “literally” around the conveyor system); 3) its relationship to the land and its occupants; and 4) its permanence. The court concluded that all four factors weighed in favor of finding that the conveyor system was an improvement to real property, and that as a result, the plaintiff’s claims were barred by the Michigan statute of repose governing these types of claims.
