02-04-09 Joseph Marrone, et al. v. Greer & Polman Construction, Inc., et al.
Greer & Polman Construction, Inc. v. Selective Insurance Group, Inc., et al.
A-3651-07T2
Plaintiffs sued the manufacturer and the distributor of a home siding product known as Exterior Insulation Finish System (EIFIS cladding), alleging that the cladding was defective and allowed water damage to the house. They did not claim that the cladding caused personal injury or damage to personal property. Plaintiffs, who purchased the house from the original owners eight years after construction, had no contact with the defendants and received no information about the cladding before
buying the house. We affirmed the summary judgment dismissal of their claims under the Consumer Fraud Act (CFA) and the Products Liability Act (PLA). The CFA claim was properly dismissed because there was no proof of a causal connection between defendants' alleged misrepresentations about their product to third parties and plaintiffs' decision to buy the house. The PLA claims were barred by the economic loss doctrine. Construing N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-1b(2), which defines "harm" to property as excluding harm "to the product itself," we concluded that the product purchased was the house and that plaintiffs could not sue under the PLA where a component of the purchased product caused damage to the product.
