{
  "id": 8524224,
  "name": "EDWARD J. DAVIS and wife, BOBBIE S. DAVIS v. MOBILIFT EQUIPMENT COMPANY, INC., WHITE FARM EQUIPMENT COMPANY, and MINNEAPOLIS-MOLINE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATED, INC.",
  "name_abbreviation": "Davis v. Mobilift Equipment Co.",
  "decision_date": "1984-10-02",
  "docket_number": "No. 8316SC1042",
  "first_page": "621",
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      "year": 1983,
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      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "N.C.",
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      "year": 1983,
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          "page": "426"
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T18:14:59.534868+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [
      "Chief Judge Vaughn and Judge JOHNSON concur."
    ],
    "parties": [
      "EDWARD J. DAVIS and wife, BOBBIE S. DAVIS v. MOBILIFT EQUIPMENT COMPANY, INC., WHITE FARM EQUIPMENT COMPANY, and MINNEAPOLIS-MOLINE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATED, INC."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "WHICHARD, Judge.\nDefendant Mobilift Equipment Company, Inc. (Mobilift) sold an industrial lift truck to plaintiff-husband\u2019s employer on 17 August 1973. While plaintiff-husband was operating the truck on 16 June 1980, a box fell from it, struck him, and caused permanent disabling injuries. Plaintiffs commenced this action on 2 July 1981 seeking damages for plaintiff-husband\u2019s injuries and plaintiff-wife\u2019s loss of consortium.\nThe trial court granted Mobilift\u2019s motion for summary judgment, based on G.S. 1-50(6), which provides: \u201cNo action for the recovery of damages for personal injury, death or damage to property based upon or arising out of any alleged defect or any failure in relation to a product shall be brought more than six years after the date of initial purchase for use or consumption.\u201d By its terms this statute applies to the uncontroverted facts and precludes this action. Plaintiffs do not contend otherwise. They argue only that the statute is unconstitutional and that their forecast of evidence contained matter which should estop Mobilift from pleading the statute.\nWe find the reasoning of Lamb v. Wedgewood South Corp., 308 N.C. 419, 302 S.E. 2d 868 (1983), dispositive of these arguments. While Lamb dealt with G.S. 1-50(5) rather than G.S. 1-50(6), both are statutes of repose, and no rational basis appears for treating them differently with respect to the issues presented.\nThis Court has held that the Lamb analysis must apply to both statutes with regard to the constitutional issues. Colony Hill Condominium I Association v. Colony Company, 70 N.C. App. 390, 320 S.E. 2d 273 (1984). Pursuant to Lamb and Colony Hill, we hold that plaintiffs\u2019 constitutional arguments do not provide a basis for reversal.\nA statute of repose \u201cconstitutes a substantive definition of, rather than a procedural limitation on, rights.\u201d Lamb v. Wedgewood South Corp., 308 N.C. at 426, 302 S.E. 2d at 872. The effect \u201cis that unless the injury occurs within the six-year period, there is no cognizable claim.\u201d Id. at 440, 302 S.E. 2d at 880. Commencement of suit within the allotted time is a \u201ccondition to the legal cognizability of [the] claim.\u201d Id. at 444, 302 S.E. 2d at 882.\nIt is undisputed that plaintiff-husband sustained injuries and plaintiffs brought this action more than six years after Mobilift\u2019s sale of the truck to plaintiff-husband\u2019s employer. The action thus is simply not cognizable; and the doctrine of estoppel would appear inapplicable. Assuming the contrary, arguendo, the forecast of evidence does not raise an estoppel issue against Mobilift.\nAffirmed.\nChief Judge Vaughn and Judge JOHNSON concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "WHICHARD, Judge."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Hedrick, Eatman, Gardner, Feerick, and Kincheloe, by Richard T. Feerick and John F. Morris, for plaintiff appellants.",
      "McLean, Stacy, Henry & McLean, P.A., by William S. McLean, for defendant appellee Mobilift Equipment Company, Inc."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "EDWARD J. DAVIS and wife, BOBBIE S. DAVIS v. MOBILIFT EQUIPMENT COMPANY, INC., WHITE FARM EQUIPMENT COMPANY, and MINNEAPOLIS-MOLINE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATED, INC.\nNo. 8316SC1042\n(Filed 2 October 1984)\nLimitation of Actions \u00a7 4.2\u2014 product liability \u2014 statute of repose\nPlaintiffs claim was not cognizable where he brought his action more than six years after defendant\u2019s sale of a lift truck to plaintiffs employer, because G.S. 1-50(6) is a statute of repose, which \u201cconstitutes a substantive definition of, rather than procedural limitation on, rights.\u201d Commencement of suit within the allotted time is a \u201ccondition to the legal cognizability of [the] claim.\u201d G.S. 1-50(5).\nAppeal by plaintiffs from Britt, Samuel E., Judge. Order entered 21 June 1983 in Superior Court, ROBESON County. Heard in the Court of Appeals 17 September 1984.\nHedrick, Eatman, Gardner, Feerick, and Kincheloe, by Richard T. Feerick and John F. Morris, for plaintiff appellants.\nMcLean, Stacy, Henry & McLean, P.A., by William S. McLean, for defendant appellee Mobilift Equipment Company, Inc."
  },
  "file_name": "0621-01",
  "first_page_order": 653,
  "last_page_order": 655
}