QUESTION
small claims court case, past the statues of limitations
Asked on Jun 04th, 2019 on Breach of Contract - Florida
More details to this question:
I contracted an individual to pour a concrete driveway and sidewalks. After a couple of weeks I started having trouble with the surfaces. The contractor came back and admitted that his workers did a poor job, and that he would come back and "re-surface" the concrete, (a lot cheaper repair, than removing all of the concrete and starting over". A few weeks later, he sent one of his workers over and made a few small temporary repairs on the surface. After that, whenever I contacted him, to complete the work...he always had an excuse why he had to delay completing the work. After repetitive calls of over the next two years, he still failed to respond. After that he just avoided to return my calls, and refused to answer my calls. My wife finally told me to just let it go. I am really upset that he "never fulfilled his responsibility to fix or repair the poor work his workers did". The Statue of Limitations has expired. Can I still hold him accountable, for the work?
1 ANSWER
You state that the statute of limitations has run. If so, it is too late for you to sue successfully. However, I don't think it is true (unless here was a statute fo limitations in your contract which shortened the normal period). The statute of limitations for breach of contract in Florida is 5 years from the breach, although there is a 4 year statute of limitations for contracts to improve real property which may apply. If I understood you correctly, it has only been between 2 and 3 years since the work was done, less than that since he breached his contract to repair the work. Also, sometimes a party can be estopped to invoke the statute of limitations, or it can be tolled, where that party's misrepresentations caused the other party not to sue. That might apply here (although it's a tough sell if it's been 2 years sinceyou've had contact).
Answered on Jun 04th, 2019 at 12:43 PM