## Facts

- A condominium association represented unit owners in a 39-unit Chicago building.
- Construction began in the early 1970s, stalled due to the original developer’s financial problems, and later resumed after the property was acquired by a new entity.
- An architectural firm designed the project and certified completion.
- The association alleged design and construction defects, including loose windows, a leaking roof, and inadequate heating and cooling systems.
- The association sought damages limited to economic loss, principally the cost of repairing defects and related loss tied to the building’s quality.
- The association alleged no personal injury and no physical damage to property other than the building itself.
- The remaining claim against the architect sounded in negligence (architectural malpractice) for defective design causing purely economic loss.

## Issues

1. Whether Illinois law permits a condominium association to sue an architect in negligence to recover purely economic losses arising from alleged design defects, absent personal injury or damage to other property.

## Decision

- The Illinois Supreme Court answered the certified question in the negative.
- The court held the association could not maintain a negligence action against the architect for purely economic loss stemming from alleged design defects.
- The matter was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the ruling.

## Legal Principles

- Under the Moorman economic loss doctrine, purely economic loss is generally not recoverable in tort when the loss reflects disappointed expectations about the quality, value, or fitness of the product or structure itself.
- The doctrine applies in the construction context to claims seeking repair costs and related economic harm where there is no personal injury and no damage to other property.
- Claims that a building or professional service failed to meet bargained-for standards are ordinarily addressed through contract and warranty remedies, which allocate economic risk and expectations.
- Illinois does not recognize a general architectural-malpractice exception allowing tort recovery for purely economic losses tied to deficient design.

## Conclusion

The court held that a condominium association’s negligence claim against an architect for repair costs and other purely economic losses from alleged design defects is barred by the Moorman economic loss doctrine, leaving contract-based remedies as the proper avenue for such losses.


2314 Lincoln Park W. Condo. Ass'n v. Mann, Gin, Ebel & Frazier, Ltd., 136 Ill. 2d 302, 555 N.E.2d 346 (Ill. 1990)