Gaggero

We find a landfill is an “improvement” within the meaning of the 10-year statute of repose provided by Code of Civil Procedure section 337.15. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s summary judgment entered in favor of defendant and respondent County of San Diego (the county), which owned and operated a landfill from 1959 through 1969, when it sold the landfill to a private party.

Section 337.15 required any action based on alleged defects in the design, construction or operation of the landfill be brought within 10 years after the county ceased ownership and operation of the landfill. Because plaintiffs and appellants Stephen Gaggero and Sue Gaggero, individually and as trustees of the Gagerro Family Trust (collectively Gaggeros), and The Good Earth Nursery, Inc., did not file their complaint, which alleges the county is responsible for subsidence on the site of the landfill, until 2000, their complaint is time-barred.

FACTUAL SUMMARY

The county opened the Fallbrook landfill in 1959 and closed it in 1967. In 1969 Hollis Warner and Bernice Warner bought the landfill from the county in an “as is” transaction.

The Gaggeros bought the landfill from the Warners in 1974…