2009AP2891 Champion Companies of Wisconsin, Inc., v. Stafford Development, LLC

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Contracts
Injury to property; economic waste

Where a defect is cosmetic rather than structural, the circuit court properly awarded the cost to repair rather than replace the defective product.

“The circuit court here, like the court in Jacob, used economic reasoning to conclude that because repairing the bricks by re-staining them and replacing the bricks would lead to substantially similar results at different costs, damages should be awarded for the less expensive option. The circuit court was not wrong to say that awarding $344,000 in damages (replacing the bricks) to correct something that could be corrected for $11,000 (re-staining the bricks) would constitute unreasonable economic waste.”

“The circuit court, in finding that the defect in the bricks was cosmetic, properly concluded that re-staining the bricks placed Zanow in as good a position as if the contract had been fully performed. As the economic waste rule does not require an estimate of the diminished value of the property, we affirm the circuit court’s judgment.”

Affirmed.

Recommended for publication in the official reports.

2009AP2891 Champion Companies of Wisconsin, Inc., v. Stafford Development, LLC

Dist. II, Kenosha County, Bastianelli, J., Reilly, J.

Attorneys: For Appellant: Knurr, Timothy S., Racine; For Respondent: Love, George W., Waukesha

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