Gaggero v. County of San Diego

In Gaggero v. County of San Diego (2004) 124 Cal.App.4th 609, the landowners had purchased the property from another landowner, who bought it in an "as-is" condition from the defendant County, which had constructed and operated a landfill on it. When the current landowners, the Gaggeros, discovered there was subsidence on the property due to the ancient landfill, causing damages to structures, they filed a claim and then a complaint against the County: "The complaint alleged causes of action for inverse condemnation, nuisance, negligence, trespass and for recovery of toxic waste response costs. In particular, the complaint alleged the county was negligent in the manner in which the landfill was planned, designed, owned, occupied and maintained." (Id. at p. 614.) The Gaggeros contended that methane gas releases from the landfill and consequent subsidence were the proximate cause of their losses, due to defective construction. In upholding a grant of summary judgment for the County on limitations grounds, this court held in Gaggero that the County's construction and operation of "the landfill was an improvement within the meaning of section 337.15." (Gaggero, supra, 124 Cal.App.4th at p. 617.) The Court reasoned that the term "improvement" in the statute has been broadly construed, and the nature of the work analyzed in other construction defect case law was similar to the work performed by the County in constructing and operating the landfill, so that section 337.15 governed the allegations of those plaintiffs (that their purchased land was defective because of subsidence from the improperly constructed landfill under it). "While the county's primary goal may not have been to obtain a profit from eventual sale of the landfill, in filling it, covering it and selling it, the county was engaged in making the real property suitable for further use by others. Section 337.15 and the cases which have interpreted it make it clear, in enacting the statute, the Legislature's unambiguous intention was to put a temporal limit on liability for individuals and entities engaged in these sorts of purposeful alterations to and transfers of real property." (Gaggero, supra, at p. 618.) (However, we do not interpret this general statement regarding "transfers" of real property as limiting the scope of coverage of 337.15 to fact patterns in which the subject property has been transferred.) This court also rejected an argument by the Gaggeros that "even if the county's activities in constructing and operating the landfill are governed by section 337.15, the landfill is continuing to produce methane gas, which in turn creates the soil subsidence, and is therefore a continuing nuisance. The Gaggeros reason that the landfill, as a continuing nuisance, continually gives rise to causes of action. However, the continuing nature of a nuisance does not extend the 10-year limit imposed by section 337.15. 'The continuing nuisance or trespass theory allows for deferral of the starting date of the statute of limitations in much the same way as does the discovery rule. Neither theory or rule may override the statute of repose created by the Legislature's fixed starting point and outer limit for latent construction defects. ..."The event which triggers the 10-year period is the date of substantial completion of the improvement.' " (Gaggero, supra, 124 Cal.App.4th at p. 618) This reasoning applies where the defective construction is the proximate cause of the plaintiff's losses. (Gaggero, supra, at p. 619.)