New Jersey’s Statute of Repose provides that no action for deficient design or construction of an “improvement to real property” may be brought “more than 10 years after the performance or furnishing of such services and construction.” N.J.S.A. § 2A:14-1.1(a). Although the language of the statute appears to be relatively straightforward, the statute has, over the years, spawned numerous disputes and opinions regarding when the trigger date for the 10-year period commences. In State v. Perini, 2012 N.J. Super. LEXIS 43 (App. Div. Mar. 30, 2012), a recent opinion approved for publication, the Appellate Division addressed this precise issue and attempted to harmonize the various factors that can implicate the trigger date in multiparty and multiphase projects.

Perini involved a dispute regarding the construction of the South Woods State Prison for the State of New Jersey in the mid-1990s. The project was divided into three phases that had separate completion deadlines. The first phase involved, among other things, the construction of a hot-water heating system, although the heating system was used for buildings that would be constructed in all three phases. A temporary certificate of occupancy was issued in May 1997 reflecting that the building housing the boilers for the heating system was substantially complete, and the State took control of and was operating the system in June 1997. Certificates of occupancy for the last phase of the project were issued on May 1, 1998. Within two years, the hot-water system began to fail.

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