Krieger v. Nick Alexander Imports, Inc

In Krieger v. Nick Alexander Imports, Inc. (1991) 234 Cal. App. 3d 205, the court was confronted with the issue whether a three-or four-year statute of limitations applied to the plaintiff's breach of warranty claims. (Id. at p. 211.) In determining that the four-year statute applied, it held that pursuant to California Uniform Commercial Code section 2725 , in cases where a warranty expressly extends to the future performance of goods, a cause of action for breach of warranty accrues upon discovery of the breach. (Krieger, supra, 234 Cal. App. 3d at pp. 215-216.) In Krieger, this "future" warranty was important because it fixed the time for accrual of the cause of action for breach of the warranty at the time the defect was discovered, up to the end of the warranty period. (Id. at p. 217.) The promise of future performance was the promise that the vehicle would perform during the warranty period. Thus, in Krieger, it was held that the cause of action did not accrue at the date of sale, but at the time during the warranty period that the defect was discovered. (Id. at pp. 210-211, 218-219.) In fact, in Krieger, the warranty was breached during the time that the warranty existed. ( Ibid.)