Frazier v. Baker Material Handling Corp.

Summary

The court affirms summary judgments based on Florida’s twelve-year products-liability statute of repose. It rejects applying the Strickland exception to preserve tort claims allegedly affected by reliance on Battilla, follows Pullum and Melendez, and certifies conflict with decisions from the First and Fifth District Courts of Appeal.

Holdings

1. Pullum applies retroactively to bar the plaintiffs' tort claims that accrued during the Battilla-Pullum interval; the Strickland exception does not extend to these claims merely because the plaintiffs assert reliance on Battilla.
2. Summary judgment for the appellees was proper because the applicable statute of repose, as interpreted by Pullum and Melendez, barred the plaintiffs' claims.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial courts properly granted summary judgment under the twelve-year products-liability statute of repose.
2. Whether the Strickland exception protecting property or contract rights acquired in reliance on a prior judicial construction should be extended to tort claims allegedly affected by the retrospective application of Pullum.
3. Whether the 1986 repeal of the products-liability statute of repose or the plaintiffs' asserted reliance on Battilla prevented application of Pullum to their claims.

Disposition

affirmed