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Final Copy 289 Ga. 57 S10G0877. ROSENBERG v. FALLING WATER, INC.

MELTON, Justice. In Rosenberg v. Falling Water, Inc., 302 Ga. App. 78 (690 SE2d 183) (2009), the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment to the defendant, Falling Water, Inc., in a personal injury action arising from the collapse of a deck at plaintiff Richard Rosenberg's home. We granted review to determine whether the Court of Appeals erred in holding that Falling Water was not equitably estopped from relying on the statute of repose to defeat Rosenberg's construction defect claim. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm. As set forth by the Court of Appeals, the record shows the following undisputed facts: On May 5, 1994, [Falling Water, Inc.] obtained a permit from the City of Kennesaw to begin construction of a house at 1423 Shiloh Way. The city issued a certificate of occupancy for the property on July 12, 1994. On July 14, 1994, [Falling Water] transferred title to the property to Susan and William Nowicki. The Nowickis subsequently sold the property to Axel and Charlotte Bayala. On March 28, 2002, almost eight years after the city issued a certificate of occupancy for the property and [Falling Water] transferred title to the property, the Bayalas sold the house to Rosenberg. According to Rosenberg, he learned about the house from a real estate agent whose name he could not remember, and he testified that the agent did not make any statements regarding the quality of homes other than to say they were "nice starter homes at a great value." Before buying

the house, Rosenberg did not know who had built the house and did not inquire about it, had no contact with [Falling Water], did not know anything about [Falling Water]'s reputation, did not know anything about Shiloh Plantation subdivision, and did not talk to any other homeowners in the subdivision about their homes. The house had a deck attached to the back. In August 2005, Rosenberg hired his neighbors, who were not carpenters, builders or renovators, to remove the wood siding from the house so that it could be replaced with vinyl siding. On August 31, 2005, on the second day of the renovation project, the neighbors removed the siding from the back of the house, but left the original siding at the site where the deck was attached to the house. When Rosenberg arrived home from work, he started to walk out onto the deck to check the progress of the project. As soon as he stepped on the deck, it collapsed and he fell, sustaining serious injuries. There is no evidence in the record that Rosenberg or the previous owners experienced any problems with the deck prior to the August 2005 collapse. On May 25, 2006, Rosenberg sued [Falling Water] for injuries resulting from the deck collapse. In his complaint, Rosenberg alleged that [Falling Water] had negligently constructed the deck by failing to properly affix it to the house and had committed fraud by hiding the defective construction from future owners by using certain bolts that made it appear that the deck was properly attached to the house. In [Falling Water]'s motion for summary judgment, it asserted that Rosenberg's claims were barred by OCGA

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