Injured young school teacher cannot sue over defective wall

Katie Martineau Caron, an art teacher at Cranbrook, was severely injured when a portable room partition weighing about 2,000 pounds fell on her.  She attempted to sue the architects who designed the classroom addition, incorporating the PRPs, alleging that the manner of use and incorporation of the PRPs was negligent.  Ultimately, her right to recover depended on whether the PRPs were an "improvement to real property" because if they were, the statute of limitations had run.  Normally, an improvement to real property must be permanent and affixed to the land.

In this case, the court held that even though the panels were removeable and not affixed, they were more in the nature of a fixture and therefore the young teacher could not pursue a negligence claim against the architect.