Jаmes E. MCINTOSH and Sondra McIntosh, Appellants (Plaintiffs Below), v. MELROE COMPANY, A DIVISION OF CLARK EQUIPMENT CO., INC., a Delaware corporation, and Ruxer Farms, Inc., an Indiana Corporation, Appellees (Defendants Below).
No. 71S03-9805-CV-297.
Supreme Court of Indiana.
May 26, 2000.
729 N.E.2d 972
Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, Edgar W. Bayliff, P. Gregory Cross, Thomas C. Doehrman, Robert L. Justice, Henry J. Price, Mary Beth Ramey, Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorneys for Amicus Curiae.
Indiana Defense Lawyers Association, John D. Nell, Julie L. Michaelis, Joseph R. Alberts, Indianapolis, Indiana, Product Liability Advisory Counsel, Inc., Hugh F. Young, Jr., Reston, Virginia, Lloyd H. Milliken, Jr., Todd J. Kaiser, Nelson D. Alexander, T. Joseph Wendt, Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorneys for Amici Curiae.
ON PETITION TO TRANSFER
BOEHM, Justice.
This case deals with the validity of the provision in the Product Liability Act that bars product liability claims for injuries sustained more than ten years after the product is delivered to its “initial user or consumer.” The plaintiffs argue that this provision violates their constitutional right under
Factual and Procedural Background
The facts of this case are not in dispute. On June 9, 1993, James McIntosh was injured in an accident invоlving a Clark Bobcat skid steer loader manufactured by Melroe. McIntosh and his wife filed suit alleging that his injuries and her resulting loss of companionship were caused by a defect in the loader. Melroe responded with a motion for summary judgment based on the ten-year statute of repose, codified at
I. Article I, Section 12
Melroe contends that this case is governed by our decision in Dague v. Piper Aircraft Corp., 275 Ind. 520, 530, 418 N.E.2d 207, 213 (1981), which held that the statute of repose does not violate
A. Methodology
We agree with the dissent that the various frequently invoked constitutional talismans—constitutional text, history of the times, intent of the framers, etc.—are proper keys to the interpretation of
B. The Branches of Federal Due Process and State Article I, Section 12 Doctrine
By 1986, this Court could correctly observe that there was a “substantial line оf cases treating the ‘due process’ clause of the federal constitution and the ‘due course’ clause of the Indiana Constitution as interchangeable.” White v. State, 497 N.E.2d 893, 897 n. 4 (Ind.1986). White addressed claims of violation of state and federal constitutional rights in accepting a guilty plea to a criminal charge. For the quoted proposition, White cited three cases that addressed federal due process and state Article I, Section 12 claims as if there were no difference between them. The
The two constitutional provisions do share certain commonalities. Both prohibit state action that deprives a person of a protectable interest without a fair proceeding. See id. Both also require, as a threshold matter, that the claimant have a “protectable interest.” See id. (citing Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 570-71 (1972)); see also Sidle v. Majors, 264 Ind. 206, 223, 341 N.E.2d 763, 773-74 (1976) (“‘The inquiry, in every case, must be directed to the nature of the right alleged to have been infringed upon.’ “).
This is not to say, however, that the “open courts” or “remedies” clause of
The “substantive” due process strain declares some actions so outlandish that they cannot be accomplished by any procedure. In earlier times, this took the form of preservation of property and contractual rights. See, e.g., Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 386 (1798). It reached a highwater mark in cases invalidating progressive era and New Deal legislation, most notably the now discredited Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905), which struck down a state law limiting the work week to sixty hours. This doctrine remains today as a constitutional bar to actions that “shock the conscience,” see County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 846 (1998), despite the recognition that “guideposts for responsible decisionmaking in this uncharted area are scarce and open-ended,” Collins v. City of Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 125 (1992).
In the context of a procedural right to “remedy by due course of law” in a civil proceeding, as IHSAA held, the Indiana Constitution has developed a body of law essentially identical to federal due process doctrine. The same is not true in the criminal context. To be sure, we find occasional references to the nonexistent “due process clause of the state constitution,” and some broad statements such as the quoted footnote from White, supra. It is neverthеless very clear that Indiana constitutional law dealing with criminal procedural guarantees varies from the federal constitutional law embodied in the Bill of Rights and now for the most part “incorporated” by the
To presage and capsulize our conclusions under these differing lines of Section 12 doctrine, the Product Liability Act statute of repose is consistent with each. In terms of pure civil procedural due process analysis, there is no issue. The bar of the statute of repose in the Product Liability Act does not purport to regulate the procedure in the courts. Nor is the open courts requirement violated because, as Dague held, it remains the province of the General Assembly to identify legally cognizable claims for relief. If the law provides no remedy, denying a remedy is consistent with due course of law. Finally, there is no state constitutional “substаntive” due course of law violation because this legislation has been held to be, and we again hold it to be, rationally related to a legitimate legislative objective. It is debatable whether the Product Liability Act eliminated a common law remedy, but even if it did, there is no substantive constitutional requirement that bars a statute from accomplishing that.
C. The Constitution Did Not Freeze the Common Law
The McIntoshes argue that they have a constitutional right to a remedy for their injuries because the framers of the 1851 Constitution “decided not to give the
Although there is a significant split in other states5 as to whether provisions similar to our “remedy by due course” provision permit the legislature to impose a statute of repose in product liability cases, we agree with the Supreme Court of Oregon that “[t]he legislature has the authority to determine what constitutes a legally cognizable injury.” Sealey v. Hicks, 309 Or. 387, 788 P.2d 435, 439 (1990). Indeed, we believe that there is a very powerful reason that the General Assembly must have the authority to determine what injuries are legally cognizable, i.e., which injuries are wrongs for which there is a legal remedy. A contrary view implies a static common law that is inconsistent with the evolution of legal doctrine before and after 1851. Perhaps equally important, if we are to find some remedies chiseled in constitutional stone, we wander into the area of “scarce and open-ended” guideposts for identifying which remedies are of constitutional dimension, and which are not.
Presumably for these reasons, we have long held that the Genеral Assembly has the authority to modify the common
D. If “Due Course of Law” Provides No Remedy, None Is Required by the Constitution
In this case, the General Assembly has determined that injuries occurring ten years after the product was delivered to a user are not legally cognizable claims for relief. Accordingly, the McIntoshes are not entitled to a “remedy” under Section 12. See Shook Heavy & Envtl. Constr. Group v. Kokomo, 632 N.E.2d 355, 362 (Ind.1994) (“Because [plaintiff] does not have a property interest in thе award of the contract ... article I, section 12, of our constitution does not provide plaintiff with a cause of action ...“). Thus, the statute of repose ” ‘does not bar a cause of action; its effect, rather, is to prevent what might otherwise be a cause of action from ever arising.... The injured party literally has no cause of action. The harm that has been done is damnum absque injuria—a wrong for which the law affords no redress.’ ” Lamb, 302 S.E.2d at 880 (quoting Rosenberg v. Town of North Bergen, 61 N.J. 190, 293 A.2d 662, 667 (1972)); accord Sealey, 788 P.2d at 439; Freezer Storage, Inc., 382 A.2d at 720; Gibson, 406 S.E.2d at 451.
Martin v. Richey, decided last year by this Court, does not affect this analysis. See 711 N.E.2d at 1273. In that case, the plaintiff had a cause of action that accrued before the applicable statutory period had run but did not discover that she had it, and in the exercise of reasonable care could not have discovered it. We held that the application of the statute of limitations to cut off her accrued claim before it reasonably could be brought was an unreasonable and unconstitutional impairment of an existing and recognized remedy. See id. at 1284-85. Here, however, the statute extinguished any cause of action before the plaintiffs’ claim accrued. Unlike the Medical Malpractice Act as applied in Martin, under the Product Liability Act as applied here, no one with an accrued claim is in the position of having the claim but no practical means of asserting it. The legislature has provided that after the product is in use for ten years, no further claims accrue. That is not an unreasonable exercise of legislative power. It is further ameliorated by the provision that claims accruing in the last two years of the ten-year period may be brought within two years after accrual.6
Finally, the dissent concludes that
As we observed in another context, the power to create is the power to destroy. See State v. Monfort, 723 N.E.2d 407, 410 (Ind.2000). There is a fundamental difference between finding in the Indiana Constitution a requirement to preserve a specific substantive rule of law (which is the net effect of the dissent‘s position), and requiring that our courts be open to entertain claims based on established rules of law. The holding in Martin v. Richey is that a claim that exists cannot be barred before it is knowable. Here, we are dealing with a rule of law that says, in effect, that products that produce no injury for ten years are no longer subject to claims under the Product Liability Act. Whatever the wisdom of such а rule, in our view it is a matter well within the legislature‘s ability to regulate.
E. The Statute Is A Rational Means of Achieving a Legitimate Legislative Goal
Although we reject the McIntoshes’ argument that the constitution precludes the General Assembly from modifying or eliminating a common law tort, the legislature‘s authority is not without limits. Section 12 requires that legislation that deprives a person of a complete tort remedy must be a rational means to achieve a legitimate legislative goal. As elaborated in Johnson, 273 Ind. at 396, 404 N.E.2d at 599, “[T]he limitation upon patient recoveries is not arbitrary and irrational, but furthers the public purposes of the Act....”
The Product Liability Act meets both tests. The statute of repose represents a determination by the General Assembly that an injury occurring ten years after the product has been in use is not a legally cognizable “injury” that is to be remedied by the courts. This decision was based on its apparent conclusion that after a decade of use, product failures are “due to reasons not fairly laid at the manufacturer‘s door.” Estate of Shebel v. Yaskawa Elec. Am., Inc., 713 N.E.2d 275, 278 (Ind.1999). The statute also serves the public policy concerns of reliability and availability of evidence after long periods of time, and the ability of manufacturers to plan their affairs without the potential for unknown liability. Id. The statute of repose is rationally related to meeting these legitimate legislative goals. It provides certainty and finality with a bright line bar to liability ten years after a product‘s first use. It is also rationally related to the General Assembly‘s reasonable determination that, in the vast majority of cases, failure of products over ten years old is due to wear and tear or other causes not the fault of the manufacturer, and the substantial interests already identified warrant establishing a bright line after which no claim is created.
In sum, the McIntoshes do not have a vested interest in the state of the common law as it existed before the Product Liability Act was passed. The General Assembly has made the permissible legislative choice to limit product liability actions to the first ten years of a product‘s use. Accordingly, the McIntoshes’ injuries, which occurred after the ten-year statute of repose ended, were not legally cognizable injuries for which a remedy exists and the statute of repose does not violate Section 12.
II. Article I, Section 23
It is worth observing at the outset that some forms of legislative “classification” by their terms identify the class of persons to whom the legislation applies, and impose burdens upon or grant benefits to those persons. The hypothetical statute the dissent describes, limiting educational opportunities to persons under thirty years of age, is of that sort. All citizens are either over thirty or they are not. Age is an inherent characteristic in the sense of “innate,“and no one over thirty will ever again fall into the class of persons under thirty. The differentiation of persons based on innate characteristics such as age raises a host of issues not relevant here, most obviously federal equal protection considerations. Most “classifications,” however, do not define a group of persons
In Collins v. Day, 644 N.E.2d 72, 80 (Ind.1994), this Court announced a two-part test for determining a statute‘s validity under
The first inquiry under
The dissent contends that the statute violates
More broadly, the dissent contends that legislative classifications are to be invalidated under
The general business corporation law provides appraisal rights to dissenting shareholders who believe a merger does not adequately value their shares as long as the shares are not listed on a national exchange or traded on NASDAQ. See
It is simply not the case, as the dissent puts it, that “inherent characteristics of the people” differentiate the statutory treatments. It is the characteristic, inherent or not, of the underlying products with which the “people” come into contact that produce the differentiated result. To take Collins as an example, an agricultural worker and an industrial worker have no inherent characteristics. The industry in which they are employed is the basis of the distinction. An analogous relationship is true of the cigarette distributors, watercraft manufacturers, and shareholders in listed companies.
The dissent asserts that deference to legislative judgment is required only as to whether the legislative action is reasonably related to the inherent characteristics of the deferential class. Without any citation to authority for this proposition, the dissent says the courts are to cut the legislature no slack in their judgment as to which characteristics justify different treatment. See 729 N.E.2d at 985-94. This claim swims upstream against a host of precedent. See Indiana Dep‘t of Envtl. Management v. Chemical Waste Management, Inc., 643 N.E.2d 331, 338 (Ind.1994); Johnson, 273 Ind. at 391-92, 404 N.E.2d at 596-97; Indiana Aeronautics Comm‘n v. Ambassadair, Inc., 267 Ind. 137, 149, 368 N.E.2d 1340, 1347 (1977) (“We conclude that the great deference given to tax legislation and the classifications they may employ by the Fourteenth Amendment and Article I, Section 23 of the Indiana Constitution dictates that this statute is not constitutionally invalid....“). Indeed, just last year, citing Collins, we reaffirmed as constitutional the legislative scheme distinguishing between medical malpractice claimants and non-medical malpractice claimants as reasonably related to the goal of maintaining adequate medical treatment and containing medical malpractice insurance costs. See Martin, 711 N.E.2d at 1280-81. Even the entire structure of state government has been justified on the basis of classification of cities аnd towns that are obviously arbitrary in the sense that they draw lines at specified points along a spectrum. Yet these laws have been upheld under
Finally, Collins v. Day says, on this subject:
Article I, Section 23 of the Indiana Constitution imposes two requirements upon statutes that grant unequal privileges or immunities to differing classes of persons. First, the disparate treatment accorded by the legislation must be reasonably related to inherent characteristics which distinguish the unequally treated classes. Second, the preferential treatment must be uniformly applicable and equally available to all persons similarly situated. Finally, in determining whether a statute complies with or violates Section 23, courts must exercise substantial deference to legislative discretion.
644 N.E.2d at 80. This language contains no caveat that deference is due legislative judgments only as to the first of these. As we are often reminded, in constitutional interpretation we look to the understanding of the ratifiers. See Richardson v. State, 717 N.E.2d 32, 38 (Ind.1999); Ratliff v. Cohn, 693 N.E.2d 530, 534 (Ind.1998); Boehm, 675 N.E.2d at 318, 321; State v. Hoovler, 668 N.E.2d 1229, 1233 (Ind.1996) (“In interpreting a particular provision of the Indiana Constitution, we seek ‘the common understanding of both those who framed it and those who ratified it.‘“); Collins, 644 N.E.2d at 75-76. We take this to mean that the actual language is important because it tells us how the voters who approved the Constitution understood it, whatever the expressed intent of the framers in debates or other clues. So, too, we take Collins at its word. Our reading of Collins on this point has bеen, so far as we can determine, universally adopted by the
In sum, because the disparate treatment imposed by the statute of repose is reasonably related to the inherent characteristics of the class and does not distinguish among members of the class, the statute does not violate
Conclusion
The trial court‘s grant of summary judgment for Melroe is affirmed.
SHEPARD, C.J., concurs.
SULLIVAN, J., concurs in part and concurs in result with separate opinion.
DICKSON, J., dissents with separate opinion in which RUCKER, J., concurs.
SULLIVAN, Justice, concurring in part and concurring in result.
I agree that the ten-year statute of repose in the Indiana Product Liability Act does not violate either
In my view, the constitutionality of the Product Liability Act statute of repose under
While the constitutionality of the Product Liability Act statute of repose under
Although the Dague and Beecher precedents have not been explicitly overruled or disapproved, the question remains whether recent changes in our section 12 or section 23 jurisprudence would produce a different result today. Specifically, do our three decisions last year—Martin v. Richey, 711 N.E.2d 1273 (Ind.1999), and two related cases, Harris v. Raymond, 715 N.E.2d 388 (Ind.1999); Van Dusen v. Stotts, 712 N.E.2d 491 (Ind.1999)—holding the Medical Malpractice Act statute of limitations unconstitutional as applied require that the statute of repose be invalidated in this case?
In Martin, we held that section 12 preclude[s] the application of a two-year medical malpractice statute of limitations when a plaintiff has no meaningful opportunity to file an otherwise valid tort claim within the specified statutory time period because, given the nature of the asserted malpractice and the resulting injury or medical condition, plaintiff is unable to discover that she has a cause of action. Stated another way, the medical malpractice statute of limitations is unconstitutional as applied when plaintiff did not know or, in the exercise of reasonable diligence, could not have discovered that she had sustained an injury as a result of malpractice, because in such a case the statute of limitations would impose an impossible condition on plaintiff‘s access to courts and ability to pursue an otherwise valid tort claim.
711 N.E.2d at 1284. Martin requires that the plaintiff have “an otherwise valid tort claim,” as the foregoing quotation makes clear by twice repeating that expression. Martin also reiterates an important point made in Rendleman that “the legislature has the authority to modify or abrogate
As to section 23, Martin requires that the statute of limitations be “uniformly applicable” to all medical malpractice victims, and that, therefore, the statute could not be applied to preclude a plaintiff from filing a claim simply because she has a disease which has a long latency period and which may not manifest significant pain or debilitating symptoms until several years after the asserted misdiagnosis. Van Dusen, 712 N.E.2d at 493. Martin clearly recognizes that section 23 allows the legislature to create a statute of limitations in the Medical Malpractice Act so long as it is uniformly applicable to all medical malpractice victims. From this I conclude that section 23 is no impediment to the legislature creating a statute of repose in the Product Liability Act so long as it is uniformly applicable to all products victims. That is the case here: there is no claim that McIntosh is treated any differently under the Product Liability Act than any other product victim whose injury occurs more than ten years after delivery of the product to an initial user or consumer.
Because I do not believe that either Martin or its companion cases altered the established precedents of Dague and Beecher, I conclude that those preсedents dictate that the Product Liability Act‘s statute of repose violates neither
DICKSON, Justice, dissenting
This case presented us with an opportunity to restore to Indiana‘s jurisprudence important principles of our state constitution. By doing so, we could have vividly exemplified the Rule of Law notwithstanding the allure of pragmatic commercial interests. We should hold that the ten-year statute of repose provision in the Indiana Products Liability Act violates both the Right to Remedy and the Equal Privileges and Immunities Clauses of the Indiana Constitution.
Right to Remedy Clause
Within the Bill of Rights of the Indiana Constitution, Section 12 provides in relevant part: All courts shall be open; and every person, for injury done to him in his person, property, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law.1 The majority today holds that the statute of repose in the Indiana Products Liability Act, which denies remedy to citizens injured by defective products that happen to be more than ten years old,2 does not violate this provision. Noting prior cases that have considered the Due Course of Law Clause of the Indiana Constitution analogous to the Due Process Clause of the
Our standard of review of state constitutional claims is well established. Proper interpretation аnd application of a particu-
The framers emphatically declared, and the ratifiers approved, that “every person for injury done to him in his person, property, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law.”
Indiana first adopted a “remedy by due course of law” provision as part of its original Constitution in 1816.3 This provision was retained with only slight modification (replacing “lands, goods” with “property“) when our present Constitution was adopted in 1851. When Section 12 was adopted in 1851 (and when adopted in its initial form in 1816), the only source of federal due process protection was that provided in the
When the framers of our constitution adopted
Thirty-seven other state constitutions6 also include a “remedies” provision.7 These provisions trace their roots to chapter 40 of the Magna Carta: “To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny, or delay right or justice.”8 It is this assurance of access to justice that is embodied in our Right to Remedy Clause.
Applying our well-established methodology of constitutional interpretation, I conclude that Section 12 provides separate and distinct protections and is not coextensive with federal due process jurisprudence. I am also convinced that Section 12 ensures not only that procedures must comply with due course of law, but further that both the text and the history provide strong support for understanding
The legislature has the authority to modify or abrogate common law rights as long as such change does not interfere with constitutional rights.9 Martin v. Richey, 711 N.E.2d 1273, 1283 (Ind.1999); State v. Rendleman, 603 N.E.2d 1333, 1336 (Ind.1992). Although constitutional rights may be subjected to legislative restraints and burdens necessitated by the State‘s exercise of its police power to promote the peace, safety, and well-being of the public, this police power is not unlimited: “[T]here is within each provision of our Bill of Rights a cluster of essential values which the legislature may qualify but not alienate.” Price v. State, 622 N.E.2d 954, 960 (Ind.1993). “A right is impermissibly alienated when the State materially burdens one of the core values which it em-
While legislative qualifications of this right may be enacted under the police power, the total abrogation of an injured person‘s right to remedy is an unacceptable material burden.10 The statute of repose provision in the Products Liability Act is no mere qualification. It does not merely limit the time within which to as-
I would find that the Products Liability Act repose provision,
Equal Privileges and Immunities
To summarize, we hold that
Article I, Section 23 of the Indiana Constitution imposes two requirements upon statutes that grant unequal privileges or immunities to differing classes of persons. First, the disparate treatment accorded by the legislation must be reasonably related to inherent characteristics which distinguish the unequally treated classes. Second, the preferential treatment must be uniformly applicable and equally available to all persons similarly situated. Finally, in determining whether a statute complies with or violates Section 23, courts must exercise substantial deference to legislative discretion.
Collins, 644 N.E.2d at 80. As we explained in Collins, the first requirement actually consists of two sub-elements: (1) “such classification must be based upon distinctive, inherent characteristics which rationally distinguish the unequally treated class;”12 and (2) “the disparate treatment accorded by the legislation must be reasonably related to such distinguishing characteristics.”13 644 N.E.2d at 79.
The Products Liability Act‘s repose provision states that “a product liability action must be commenced ... within ten years after the delivery of the product to the initial user or consumer.”14
I believe that the majority‘s misapplication of Collins begins with its focus upon unequal treatment of different classes of products, rather than upon unequally treated classes of people. When a statute is challenged as violating
Perhaps because it focuses upon products rather than people, the majority bypasses the required threshold question as to whether the legislative classification is based upon distinctive, inherent characteristics that rationally distinguish the unequally treated classes. This is sub-element (1) of the first of the two Collins requirements. The majority fails to consider this prerequisite question. It is only when the classification is based upon inherent distinctions that the analysis can proceed to evaluate whether the disparate treatment is reasonably related to the characteristics distinguishing the classifications.
Despite the legislature‘s acknowledged power to properly classify in order to legislate effectively, the Indiana Constitution demands more than simply a rational relationship between the legislative goal and the classification. While we generally do not question the legislature in its policymaking role, “[l]egislative classification becomes a judicial question ... where the lines drawn appear arbitrary or manifestly unreasonable.” Collins, 644 N.E.2d at 80 (quoting Chaffin, 261 Ind. at 701, 310 N.E.2d at 869). A classification “must furnish a reason for and justify the making of the class; that is, the reason for the classification must inhere in the subject-matter, and rest upon some reason which is natural and substantial, and not artificial.” Bedford Quarries Co. v. Bough, 168 Ind. 671, 674, 80 N.E. 529, 529 (1907). Similarly, we have explained:
[W]hile some classification of the subjects of legislative action is necessary, and a reasonable classification based upon actual differences which inhere in the different subjects and embrace all within the class and the reason for the classification will be upheld, a classification, to be valid, must be based on substantial distinctions which make one class so different from another as to suggest the necessity for different legislation with respect thereto. An artificial, arbitrary, and unreasonable classification, as by designating certain individuals by name or description out of a larger number whose situation and needs dо not differ from theirs, is forbidden by the constitution.
Davis Constr. Co. v. Board of Comm‘rs, 192 Ind. 144, 150, 132 N.E. 629, 631 (1921) (emphasis added). See also Sperry & Hutchinson Co. v. State, 188 Ind. 173, 181, 122 N.E. 584, 587 (1919); Railroad Comm‘n of Ind. v. Grand Trunk W. R. Co., 179 Ind. 255, 262, 100 N.E. 852, 854 (1913); Bedford Quarries, 168 Ind. at 674, 80 N.E. at 529-30. It is not sufficient simply to identify the characteristics of the members of the group that will receive the benefit:
The law requires something more than a mere designation of characteristics which will serve to divide into groups. Arbitrary selection or mere identification cannot be justified by calling it classification. The characteristics which can serve as a basis of a valid classification must be such as to show an inherent difference in situation and subject-matter of the subjects placed in different classes which peculiarly requires and necessitates different or exclusive legislation with respect to them.
... The Legislature cannot take what might be termed a natural class of persons, split that class in two, and then arbitrarily designate the dissevered factions of the original unit as two classes, and thereupon enact different rules for the government of each.
Fountain Park Co. v. Hensler, 199 Ind. 95, 101-03, 155 N.E. 465, 467 (1927) (emphasis added) (citations omitted). Thus, a legislative classification violates
The unequal treatment provided by the repose provision of the Products Liability Act is wholly unrelated to any distinctive, inherent characteristics that rationally distinguish the unequally treated classes of people. In other words, there is nothing that naturally inheres in the group of people designated for unequal treatment that separates them into distinctive classes. The parties who are injured by defective products more than ten years old do not necessarily differ from the parties who are injured by such products that are only nine years old. The ten-year product age line does not distinguish classes of people based upon their inherent characteristics. Using such a line as a basis to treat unequally different classes of people clearly violates both the language and the spirit of
One further point is significant. Although Collins notes that courts evaluating a
When this Court in Collins reviewed the history of
Conclusion
The Indiana Constitution guarantees that injured citizens have the right to remedy, and it prohibits the legislature from dividing people into unequally treated classes that are not based on inherent, natural distinctions. All people should have equal access to seek remedy for injuries they suffer, and those responsible should be held accountable. The interests of justice demand nothing less. This Court should hold that the repose provision violates the Indiana Constitution.
RUCKER, J., concurs.