Question

Seventeen years ago, Susan designed a corrugated steel culvert for a rural road. Her work was accepted and paid for by the county engineering department. Last winter, the culvert collapsed as a loading logging truck passed over. Although there were no injuries, there was damage to the truck and the roadway, and the county tried unsuccessfully to collect on Susan's company's bond. The judge denied the claim on the basis that the work was done too long ago. This defense is known as:________.
(a) privity of contract
(b) duplicity of liability
(c) statute of limitations
(d) caveat emptor
(c) statute of limitations

Answer 1

Answer:

C. Statute of limitations.

Explanation:

Statute of limitations are laws which states the time limit of when legal proceedings must be initiated between concerned parties from the date in which alleged offence was perpetrated.

In statue of limitations, the time limit for somebody is wronged to initiate legal action is not fixed in all jurisdiction. It means that depending on the nature of the alleged offense under statute of limitation, time allowed to institute legal actions varies.

Example of statue of limitation is that for certain states, the time limit to initiate legal case say on fraud is two years. It means that one must bring up the case in a court of law within the stipulated two years period. Once the two year grace elapse, one can no longer sue for fraud in the court of law.

Although there is no time limit for certain offence like murder case, sex offence with minor etc.

As in the case above, the judge threw away the case because according to the law of statute of limitation, a party that is wronged can only sue the wrong doer within the stipulated time as spelt out within the jurisdiction where the alleged offence was committed.