Caceci v. DiCanio Construction Corp

Caceci v. DiCanio Construction Corp. (72 N.Y.2d 52 [1988]), was a significant case in the history of the statutory new home warranty. In Caceci, the Court placed its imprimatur upon a rule that in a home construction contract, "there is an implied term in the express contract between builder-vendor and purchasers that the house to be constructed would be done in a skillful manner free from material defects" (72 N.Y.2d at 56). This alone would have broken no new ground, but the Court went on to hold that the merger doctrine applicable upon transfer of title, whether derived from the parties' contract or otherwise by operation of law, would not extinguish the implied warranty ( id. at 56-57). This was central to the case, because the plaintiffs' contract with the builder called not only for home construction but conveyance of the underlying real property upon which the home was built. "To hold, in a case such as this, that the closing itself, the very act which triggers the claim, also served to extinguish it is self-contradictory, illusory and against public policy" (id.).