Contractor Liability Under Ten-Year Warranty Statute

A lower court found a defendant liable for damages arising from the collapse of a building under construction, determining that the contractor, despite not being strictly a building contractor under the relevant law, had assumed the responsibilities of a builder through the contract terms, leading to the collapse due to faulty construction work. The high court quashed the decision, ruling that liability for building defects under the ten-year warranty statute applies exclusively to those formally qualified as building contractors ("constructeurs"), and since the contract in question did not require the specific duties of a qualified builder, the defendant could only be held liable under the general law of contract or tort, not under the specialized ten-year guarantee, thereby necessitating a re-examination of the basis for liability.