No Implied Warranty of Fitness for a Particular Purpose With Regard to Architectural and Design Services in Michigan…for Now

A recent case out of the Court of Appeals of Michigan, Albion College v. Stockade Buildings Inc., No. 322917 (behind paywall), gives us an example of a case where precedent was obeyed but one of the judges worried the precedent might provide the wrong result, setting up the potential for further examination by Michigan’s Supreme Court. 

Plaintiff hired Defendant to build an equestrian facility. Defendant allegedly informed Plaintiff that it had “the necessary experience and expertise” to build the facility that Plaintiff required and promised it would be backed by a warranty. 

Because this is a case I’m writing up here, we all know that the story of this equestrian center does not go smoothly. The roof leaked badly. The problem was evident during construction and theoretically repaired but the roof continued to leak badly even after construction was completed. Reviews of the structure blamed the persistent problem on poor design of the facility by Defendant. 

The crux of the case was whether the agreement between Plaintiff and Defendant contained an implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. In Michigan, such an implied warranty is found in sales of goods governed by the UCC and sales of electricity. The court was reluctant to extend such a warranty to the architectural and design services at issue here. 

A concurrence, however, expressed hesitation with the conclusion. While reasonably correct as a matter of simple legal precedent, the concurrence had policy concerns and thought that Michigan’s supreme court should review the case and extend the warranty to this situation because of the “egregious facts” of this case.  Stay tuned for what happens next!