Frickel v. Sunnyside Enterprises, Inc.
Supreme Court of Washington
725 P.2d 422 (1986)
The Frickels (plaintiffs) approached Sunnyside Enterprises, Inc. (defendant), a professional developer that normally built properties to own and manage rather than sell, about buying an apartment building Sunnyside had constructed, intending it as retirement income. With counsel's help, the Frickels signed a sale agreement stating they had fully inspected the property and releasing Sunnyside from any covenant about the building's condition. Years later, they discovered the foundation was inadequately designed for the soil -- even though it met the city's exact specifications -- requiring $330,000 in repairs or the foundation would fail within eight or nine years; the trial court found this defect wasn't reasonably discoverable even by an expert contractor, found an implied warranty of habitability, and found Sunnyside breached it, and Sunnyside appealed.
Whether a vendor-builder's implied warranty that a new home is structurally safe and its foundation firm and secure applies when the builder constructed the building for its own use and management rather than for the purpose of sale.