BEAUMONT — An appellate court ruled that the statute of limitations barred the plaintiffs in a lawsuit from making claims of negligence against a property company.
The appellate court held that the trial court did not err when it granted the motion for summary judgment in favor of Nova Consulting Group, which argued that Kingwood Commercial Properties' claims were barred due to the statute of limitations, according to the April 30 opinion.
Justice Hollis Horton authored the opinion. Justices Charles Kreger and Steve McKeithen concurred.
Kingwood bought two buildings in September 2015 and used an environmental, property condition and engineering assessment from Nova to finance the purchase. Nova's report noted the roof of one of the buildings was in good condition, however, substantial water damage occurred three months after purchase from water penetrating the roof.
Kingwood filed suit against Nova on Jan. 30, 2018, because of the damage, alleging that Nova failed to properly assess the roof's condition and that failure caused Kingwood significant damages. Nova then moved for summary judgment, alleging that Kingwood could not claim negligence because of the statute of limitations.
The trial court agreed with Nova and granted the motion for summary judgment in July 2018. Kingwood sought a new trial, but that was denied, so Kingwood then appealed to the appellate court.
In the appeal, Kingwood argued that Nova's motion should not have been granted because the cause of action didn't technically begin until February 2016, the date that Greg Huff, the management member of Kingwood, first realized that Kingwood possibly had a cause of action against Nova.
"Based on the arguments in the motions, we imply the trial court applied the two-year statute of limitations to bar Kingwood’s claims," Horton wrote. "Here, Kingwood has not argued that some other limitations period applies to its claims."
Horton wrote that the record shows that Kingwood waited more than two years after it began the roof repairs to file its lawsuit.
"Because Nova established that Kingwood’s claims accrued more than two years before Kingwood sued, we hold the statute of limitations bars Kingwood’s claim for negligence," Horton wrote.
Texas Ninth District Court of Appeals case number: 09-18-00321-CV