## Facts

- Mark Durre, as personal representative of his wife Diana Durre’s estate, sued after a tall on-premises restaurant sign fell onto their parked pickup truck at a North Platte gas station/fast-food restaurant, injuring Mark Durre and killing Diana Durre.
- The sign and steel pole structure were designed, built, and installed by Tri–City Sign Company under a 1999 city building permit; installation was completed on or about May 15, 1999.
- The sign collapsed on April 3, 2009, due to shearing of a section of the steel pole.
- About five months before the collapse, the property owner, Wilkinson Development, Inc., hired Love Signs of North Platte, L.L.C. (d/b/a Condon’s House of Signs) to replace lamps and ballasts in the sign.
- A Love Signs employee testified that he would report unsafe conditions noticed during his work, but he observed no defect in the pole structure.
- Durre alleged negligent design, construction, and maintenance of the sign (including allegations that the sign exceeded the permitted height) and failure to warn of danger.
- Durre initially sued Wilkinson (2009) and later amended to add Tri–City and Love Signs (2011).
- The district court granted summary judgment to Tri–City as barred by Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-223 (10-year statute of repose) and to Love Signs for lack of evidence of breach of any duty.
- Durre appealed the summary judgments for Tri–City and Love Signs.

## Issues

1. Whether Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-223 barred claims against Tri–City filed more than 10 years after completion of construction of an improvement to real property.
2. Whether Tri–City could be equitably estopped from invoking § 25-223 based on alleged fraudulent concealment.
3. Whether Love Signs, hired for limited sign maintenance (lamp/ballast replacement), owed a duty to discover and warn of latent structural defects in the sign’s supporting pole.

## Decision

- The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment for Tri–City.
- The court held the claims against Tri–City were barred by the 10-year construction statute of repose in § 25-223 because Tri–City’s work was completed in 1999 and Tri–City was not sued until 2011.
- The court rejected Durre’s estoppel/fraudulent concealment argument, finding no evidence of post-construction conduct by Tri–City calculated to induce Durre to delay suit.
- The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment for Love Signs.
- The court held Love Signs owed no duty to discover latent defects in the sign’s structure where its undertaking was limited to replacing lamps and ballasts and there was no evidence it assumed responsibility to inspect structural integrity.

## Legal Principles

- Nebraska’s construction statute of repose, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-223, imposes an outer time limit barring actions for personal injury and wrongful death arising from alleged deficiencies in the design or construction of improvements to real property when brought more than 10 years after the relevant act or omission.
- A statute of repose extinguishes the cause of action after the defined period and is generally not subject to judicial exceptions absent legislative authorization.
- Fraudulent concealment/equitable estoppel requires evidence of affirmative conduct intended to lull or induce inaction and reliance causing the late filing; the mere existence of an alleged defect or noncompliance is insufficient.
- Negligence liability requires a duty; a contractor performing limited maintenance does not, without a broader undertaking or assumed responsibility, owe a duty to inspect for and discover latent structural defects unrelated to the task performed.
- Summary judgment is proper when no genuine issue of material fact exists and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, viewing evidence and reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmovant.

## Conclusion

The court held that claims against the sign’s original constructor were barred by Nebraska’s 10-year construction statute of repose and that a later contractor hired only to replace sign lighting components had no duty to detect hidden structural defects, affirming summary judgment for both Tri–City and Love Signs.


Durre v. Wilkinson Dev., Inc., 285 Neb. 880, 830 N.W.2d 72 (Neb. 2013)