1999 Minnesota Statutes

     541.051 Limitation of action for damages based on 
  services or construction to improve real property. 

    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 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. 

    (d) The limitations prescribed in this section do not apply 
 to the manufacturer or supplier of any equipment or machinery 
 installed upon real property. 

    Subd. 2.  Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision 1, 
 in the case of an action which accrues during the ninth or tenth 
 year after substantial completion of the construction, an action 
 to recover damages may be brought within two years after the 
 date on which the action accrued, but in no event may an action 
 be brought more than 12 years after substantial completion of 
 the construction. 

    Subd. 3.  Nothing in this section shall be construed as 
 extending the period prescribed by the laws of this state for 
 the bringing of any action. 

    Subd. 4.  This section shall not apply to actions based on 
 breach of the statutory warranties set forth in section 327A.02, 
 or to actions based on breach of an express written warranty, 
 provided such actions shall be brought within two years of the 
 discovery of the breach.  

    HIST: 1965 c 564 s 1; 1977 c 65 s 8; 1980 c 518 s 2-4; 1986 c 
 444; 1986 c 455 s 92; 1988 c 607 s 1; 1990 c 555 s 13