Padula v. J. J. Deb-Cin Homes, Inc.
Decision Date | 11 January 1973 |
Docket Number | DEB-CIN,No. 1670-A,1670-A |
Citation | 298 A.2d 529,111 R.I. 29 |
Parties | Joseph D. PADULA et ux. v. J. J.HOMES, INC. ppeal. |
Court | Rhode Island Supreme Court |
This is a civil action to recover damages in the amount of $3,000 from a defendant contractor alleged to have resulted from a breach of the contractor's implied warranty of habitability of a dwelling house. After a trial to a jury in the Superior Court, a verdict was returned for the defendant. The plaintiffs then filed a motion for a new trial and subsequently a motion for a directed verdict. Their motion for a new trial was granted on the issue of damages only, and their motion for a directed verdict was granted with respect to liability. The defendant is now prosecuting an appeal in this court from that order.
The record discloses that defendant corporation engaged in the business of building dwelling houses and apartments and that sometime in 1967 it had completed the erection of a dwelling house on Wood Cove Drive in the town of Coventry. Thereafter, on December 27, 1967, plaintiffs purchased this dwelling house from defendant builder and began occupancy thereof on January 22, 1968. It does not appear to be disputed that on January 28 of that year, during a heavy rainstorm, water flowed into the basement of the building, causing severe damage to a family room and basement, as well as to personal property stored therein. Testimony was adduced through plaintiffs also for the purpose of establishing that certain appliances installed in the premises were either inoperative or defective. These included a hot water heater defectively installed and a garbage disposal and a number of thermostats through the house improperly wired and defective.
The trial justice instructed the jury that To that portion of the charge defendant excepted. In this court defendant contends that the instruction thus given to the jury by the court, that the law in this state imposes an implied warranty of habitability on the builder of a house that he subsequently sells, was erroneous. In support of this contention defendant urges that the principle of cavat emptor has never been overruled or abandoned in this jurisdiction.
The question here, in our opinion, is not whether the principle of caveat emptor has been overruled or abandoned in this state but whether we will join the increasing number of jurisdictions that hold that the builder of a house selling it to another impliedly warrants that such dwelling is reasonably fit for its intended use, human habitation. This is an era when mass production and commercialism have extended themselves into the realm of home construction and in which a customer purchasing a new dwelling from the builder thereof must rely on his skill and workmanship.
We think that the courts which have adopted the principle of implied warranty of habitability have done so on sound ground. In Bethlahmy v. Bechtel, 91 Idaho 55, 67, 415 P.2d 698, 710 (1966), the Idaho Supreme Court said:
While defendant in the instant case urges that we retain and apply the doctrine of caveat emptor to the transaction under consideration, he has given us no sound reason for continuing to apply that doctrine. A reading of the more recent cases in this area of the law provides us with numerous examples of the harshness and injustice of this ancient common-law doctrine when applied to the sale of a new house by the builder-vendor. In Rothberg v. Olenik, 128 Vt. 295, 305, 262 A.2d 461, 467 (1970), the court said, referring to the retention of that doctrine in the instant circumstances:
Our research discloses an abundance of judicial opinion exhaustively researched and excellently written that persuades us to adopt the doctrine that where a builder-vendor sells a house, either new or under construction, he implicitly warrants that the construction has been or will be done in a workmanlike manner and that the dwelling will be reasonably fit for human habitation. For this reason we will refrain from duplicating the excellent work of so many eminent jurists and text writers. 1
Therefore, we conclude that the trial justice was not in error and that where there is a sale of a new house by a vendor who is also the builder thereof, there is an implied warranty of reasonable workmanship and habitability surviving the delivery of the...
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