Minnesota Session Laws - 1988, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1988 

                        CHAPTER 607-H.F.No. 1681 
           An act relating to civil actions; clarifying the 
          statute of limitations for damages based on services 
          or construction to improve real property; clarifying 
          the statute of limitations for asbestos actions; 
          amending Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 541.051, 
          subdivision 1; and Minnesota Statutes 1987 Supplement, 
          section 541.22, subdivision 2. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 541.051, 
subdivision 1, is amended to read:  
    Subdivision 1.  (a) Except where fraud is involved, no 
action by any person in contract, tort, or otherwise to recover 
damages for any injury to property, real or personal, or for 
bodily injury or wrongful death, arising out of the defective 
and unsafe condition of an improvement to real property, nor any 
action for contribution or indemnity for damages sustained on 
account of the injury, shall be brought against any person 
performing or furnishing the design, planning, supervision, 
materials, or observation of construction or construction of the 
improvement to real property or against the owner of the real 
property more than two years after discovery thereof of the 
injury or, in the case of an action for contribution or 
indemnity, accrual of the cause of action, nor, in any event 
shall such a cause of action accrue more than ten years after 
substantial completion of the construction.  Date of substantial 
completion shall be determined by the date when construction is 
sufficiently completed so that the owner or the owner's 
representative can occupy or use the improvement for the 
intended purpose.  
    (b) For purposes of paragraph (a), a cause of action 
accrues upon discovery of the injury or, in the case of an 
action for contribution or indemnity, upon payment of a final 
judgment, arbitration award or settlement arising out of the 
defective and unsafe condition. 
    (c) Nothing in this section shall apply to actions for 
damages resulting from negligence in the maintenance, operation 
or inspection of the real property improvement against the owner 
or other person in possession. 
    Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1987 Supplement, section 
541.22, subdivision 2, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 2.  [LIMITATION ON CERTAIN ASBESTOS ACTIONS.] 
Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, an action against 
a manufacturer or supplier of asbestos or material containing 
asbestos to recover for (1) removal of asbestos or materials 
containing asbestos from a building, (2) other measures taken to 
locate, correct, or ameliorate any problem related to asbestos 
in a building, or (3) reimbursement for removal, correction, or 
amelioration of an asbestos problem that would otherwise be 
barred before July 1, 1990, as a result of expiration of the 
applicable period of limitation, is revived or extended.  An 
asbestos action revived or extended under this subdivision may 
be begun before July 1, 1990. 
    Sec. 3.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
    Sections 1 and 2 are effective the day following final 
enactment and apply to matters pending on or instituted on or 
after the effective date. 
    Approved April 24, 1988