Kim v. Walter

Lauren Kim worked in a building constructed by Bayley Construction. After a building fixture fell and injured her, Kim sued Bayley for negligence. The trial court dismissed the case on summary judgment because the contractor had completed the building several years earlier and the buildings owner had accepted the work. Kim argued that this court should abrogate the "completion and acceptance" doctrine on which the trial court relied or create a latent defect exception to the doctrine. But because we have no authority to overrule Supreme Court precedent, we declined to abrogate the doctrine. We declined to develop a new exception to the doctrine because the facts of this case do not support it. The Supreme Court has since abrogated the completion and acceptance doctrine so on remand from that court, we reverse and remand to the trial court which also based its decision on the now--abrogated doctrine.