The appellate judges remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings, noting potential factual issues regarding whether the statute of repose is fatal to the plaintiffs’ case. The law includes exceptions that preserve a claimant’s ability to sue beyond the 12-year time frame in certain circumstances, such as if the seller warranted the product for longer or caused the harm by misrepresenting or concealing certain information about the product.
The teachers argued in their petition that the Court of Appeals ruling conflicts with the state supreme court’s 2023 ruling in Bennett v. United States, which found that the statute of repose for medical malpractice claims violated the Washington Constitution’s privileges and immunities clause.
The teachers said that the appellate panel in Erickson upheld the WPLA statute of repose as constitutional without showing it passed the test outlined in Bennett, which involves serving the legislature’s stated purpose of curbing insurance costs for businesses.
