Alabama Statute of Repose: 10-Year Rule and Exceptions

Alabama’s statute of repose for product liability sets a hard ten-year ceiling on suing the original seller of a product, measured from the date the product was first put to use by an end user. Inside that window, a separate one-year limitation period runs from the date of injury. Miss either deadline and the case is barred, even if the other one still has time on it. Both rules live in Alabama Code § 6-5-502.¹

The Ten-Year Repose Clock

No product liability action against an original seller can be filed more than ten years after the product was first put to use by an end user.¹ A statute of repose is different from a statute of limitations. A limitations clock starts when someone gets hurt. A repose clock starts when the product enters use, whether anyone has been injured yet or not. When the ten years run out, the door closes on claims against the original seller regardless of what happens afterward.

The trigger is the end user, not the factory. The clock does not begin when the product is manufactured, shipped, or sold to a distributor. It begins when someone who did not buy the product for resale, and did not buy it to use as a component in another product, actually starts using it.¹ That detail matters for component parts especially. A bearing manufactured in 2020 and installed in a machine that isn’t sold to an end user until 2023 has its repose clock start in 2023.

An example makes the effect concrete. If a product was first used on January 1, 2016, and injures you on February 1, 2026, the ten-year repose period has already expired. You have no claim against the original seller, even though you just got hurt and the one-year period from your injury date has barely started.

The One-Year Filing Period

Within the ten-year window, a product liability action against an original seller must be filed within one year from the date personal injury, death, or property damage occurs.¹ Each element of the claim accrues at the time the injury or damage happens, not when you later figure out that a defective product was the cause.

One year is shorter than Alabama’s general limitations period for personal injury, which gives plaintiffs two years under § 6-2-38.² If your claim against the seller is a “product liability action” as defined by § 6-5-501, the one-year rule governs. Assuming two years applies is a common way to lose an otherwise viable case.

Both Deadlines Must Be Met

Meeting one deadline does not excuse missing the other. A plaintiff has to satisfy both the one-year limitations period and the ten-year repose period.

Two examples show how each side of the trap works:

You are injured today by a product that has been in use for eleven years. You are inside the one-year window, but the ten-year repose period expired a year ago. The claim is barred.
You are injured by a three-year-old product but wait fourteen months to file. You are well inside the repose period, but past the one-year limitations period. The claim is barred.

Exception for Latent Injuries From Toxic Exposure

The statute makes room for injuries that are not immediately apparent and that come from prolonged exposure rather than a sudden event. If the injury or property damage is latent or not reasonably discoverable when it occurs, and it resulted from ingesting or being exposed to a toxic, harmful, or injury-producing substance, element, or particle (including radiation) over a period of time, the one-year clock starts on the date the injury is discovered or reasonably should have been discovered.¹

This exception is narrower than it looks. It does not rescue every hidden or delayed injury. The harm must come from prolonged exposure to a substance, not from a sudden mechanical failure that happened to occur years after the product went into use. A defective machine that unexpectedly injures a worker years later would not qualify, because the injury is a sudden event, not the result of gradual exposure.

Exception for Government-Ordered Safety Actions

A different exception applies when a federal or state agency has ordered the original seller to recall a product, repair it, add warnings, or inspect products already in use, and the seller fails to comply. If someone is injured because of that failure, they can file a product liability action within one year from the date the injury, death, or property damage occurs.¹

Two conditions have to line up. There must be a valid product liability claim tied to the seller’s failure to take the required safety action, and a government agency must actually have imposed the requirement. A voluntary manufacturer recall, without an agency order behind it, does not trigger this provision.

The latent-injury discovery rule applies here too. If the harm from the seller’s noncompliance is latent and results from prolonged toxic exposure rather than a sudden event, the one-year clock starts from the date of discovery.¹

This exception carries its own outer limit. The action must be filed within ten years of the date the government agency imposed the safety requirement, not within ten years of the product’s first use.¹ So the window can extend past the original ten-year repose date, but only by resetting the ceiling to run from the government order.

Written Agreements to Extend the Deadline

The statute lets an original seller waive or extend the ten-year repose period through an express written agreement.¹ The writing has to specifically address the repose deadline in subsection (c). Oral promises or vague language about extending “any applicable deadlines” will not carry the weight.

These agreements are uncommon in practice. Sellers rarely have reason to lengthen their own exposure. They surface most often when settlement talks are active and the repose date is approaching.

No Tolling for Minors or Incapacity

Alabama’s general personal injury statute of limitations typically pauses for minors and resumes when they turn 19. Section 6-5-502 contains no comparable tolling provision. Nothing in the statute’s text suspends or extends the ten-year repose period for minors, incapacitated plaintiffs, or other legal disabilities.¹

For families with injured children, this creates a real trap. The two-year period under § 6-2-38 may toll until the child reaches 19, but the ten-year repose clock in § 6-5-502 does not wait. If the product has been in use more than ten years by the time the child is old enough to sue on their own, the repose window has closed.

Who Counts as an Original Seller

The deadlines in § 6-5-502 apply to claims against an “original seller,” which the statute defines as any person, company, partnership, or other business entity that sells or distributes a manufactured product before or at the time the product first reaches an end user.³ Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers all fit, as long as they were in the chain of commerce before the product reached an actual user.

The definition excludes anyone who bought the product for resale in unused condition or for use as a component in another product. Those intermediate buyers are not the target of the statute, and their purchases do not start the repose clock.

What Counts as a Product Liability Action

The statute defines a “product liability action” broadly. It covers any lawsuit brought by an individual for personal injury, death, or property damage caused by the way a product was designed, manufactured, assembled, tested, packaged, labeled, marketed, or accompanied by warnings and instructions.³ The deadlines apply across every recognized theory, from negligence to breach of implied warranty to claims under the Alabama Extended Manufacturer’s Liability Doctrine.

Two limits are worth noting. The statute applies only to lawsuits filed by natural persons, and it does not reach claims for contribution or indemnity between defendants.

Construction Products and Real Property

Products that become permanent fixtures or improvements to real property may fall under a different repose statute. Alabama imposes a seven-year statute of repose for civil actions against architects, engineers, and builders, measured from substantial completion of construction. That period runs independently from the ten-year product liability repose period. Whether a defective building component triggers § 6-5-502 or the construction repose statute depends on what the claim is and who the defendant is. A product liability claim against the manufacturer of a defective pipe would likely fall under § 6-5-502; a claim against the builder who installed it might fall under the construction repose statute instead.

1
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-5-502 – Limitation Periods for Product Liability Actions
2
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-2-38 – Commencement of Actions
3
Justia. Alabama Code 6-5-501 – Definitions