Forty years ago, the Maryland legislature enacted the Statute of Repose, which bars the right of plaintiffs from pursuing certain stale (old) claims. In its current iteration, the Statute prohibits a plaintiff’s cause of action from accruing for damages to person or property resulting from the defective and unsafe conditions of improvements to real property that were completed more than 20 years before the injury. In addition, the Statute provides heightened protection to certain professions within the construction industry. Claims for damages against
architects, professional engineers, and contractors no longer accrue 10 years after the improvement was completed. So, a plaintiff’s damages must have occurred within 10 years after the completion of the improvement for their lawsuit to proceed
against architects, professional engineers, and contractors. Matthew T. Vocci of Ober|Kaler discusses the statute.
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