3.8.12 Privity Is Essential to the ELR

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

Consistent with its emphasis on sanctity of contract, the Supreme Court of Arizona restricted the application of the ELR to parties in privity.

The principal function of the economic loss doctrine, in our view, is to encourage private ordering of economic relationships and to uphold the expectations of the parties by limiting a plaintiff to contractual remedies for loss of the benefit of the bargain. These concerns are not implicated when the plaintiff lacks privity and cannot pursue contractual remedies...