PjM Practice Exam Form #2 - Statue of Limitation Clarification

project management
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I have a question regarding question #1 on practice exam form #2 and the definition of “statute of limitations” verse “status of repose”

The question is "A project is built using AIA B101 as the owner-architect agreement. The project was built in a state where the statute of limitations is four years, but the architect’s office and residence are in another state where the statute of limitations is six years. Three years after the project is built, the client discovers mold and attributes the mold to a design error by the architect.

In this instance, what is the maximum time period after this discovery that the building owner has to bring a lawsuit?"

The answer is 4.

Given that the project is built in a state where the “statute of limitations” is four years, and the client discovers the mold after three years, then shouldn’t the answer be that the client has 1 year left to bring a lawsuit due to the fact that the “statue of limitation” timeline begins at substantial completion of the project, not at the time of discovery of the mold. If the question had indicated that the state had a “status of repose” of four years then I understand how the answer would be four, but the question clearly states “status of limitation” not “status of repose”. Can someone help explain the logic behind this question?

thanks

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Hey @lizl - thanks for the question! This topic is tricky but I find reviewing the definitions of statute of repose and statute of limitations in the AHPP glossary to be helpful.
For this question, we have a statute of limitations of 4-years where the project is located. The 6-year statute of limitations in the architect’s state is a distractor and is irrelevant to this question.
A statute of limitations begins after an alleged injury occurs, which in this instance is 3 years after the project is built. Therefore, since we’re working with a statute of limitations here, the client has 4 years after discovery of the condition to bring a claim forth. It’s helpful to note that even if the defect were noticed 20 years later, the client would still have a 4 year window within which to bring forth a claim, due to the statute of limitations.
If the question noted that the state had a four year statute of repose in the state where the project is located, the correct answer would be 1 year.
I hope this clarification was helpful!

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2A Workshop attendees - Check this out.

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