Plumber installed new underground water supply to apartment buildings under renovation by new owner. After several years owner determined that the water line installation was defective as joints in the pipes burst from having been overtightened at installation. No visible evidence existed of the harm until a puddling of water in common area outside a building and repair efforts required digging to locate the source leak several feet underground. The trial court granted summary judgment to plumber and sewer district on all claims on the basis that owner should have known of an underground, nonvisible leak and therefore an installation defect based solely on the ‘excessive’ water bills owner received over time. Owner appealed and Court of Appeals reversed on certain issues and held that owner should be entitled to trial on its contract-based claims even though its negligence-based claims were barred by the statute of limitations and that Owner should have discovered those claims earlier. Owner petitioned for discretionary review on the discovery rule for statute of limitations purposes as there is no Kentucky case addressing it except in the context of medical malpractice.
Professional negligence/discovery of hidden defect/statute of limitations/damages
