A-A-A Foundations, Inc. v. Elite Homes, Inc.

217 So. 2d 666, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5406
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 6, 1969
DocketNo. 3283
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 217 So. 2d 666 (A-A-A Foundations, Inc. v. Elite Homes, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A-A-A Foundations, Inc. v. Elite Homes, Inc., 217 So. 2d 666, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5406 (La. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

CHASEZ, Judge.

This suit was initiated by A-A-A Foundations, Inc., appellee, hereinafter referred to as Triple A, against Elite Homes, Inc., appellant, hereinafter referred to as Elite Homes, to recover the sum of $1,296.00, [667]*667allegedly due for certain materials and labor. Judgment was rendered in favor of Triple A and Elite Homes now brings this appeal.

Triple A is a domestic corporation engaged in the business of driving foundation pilings for building construction sites. Elite Homes is a domestic corporation engaged in the business of house and building construction. Triple A .contends that during the month of April, 1966, it was contacted by Elite Homes for an estimate regarding foundation work to be done at a job site in Jefferson Parish. Prior to this contact Triple A had driven a test piling at this same job site and had billed Elite Homes for the work, in the sum of $1,800. The record indicates that this $1,800 charge was paid by a check written on the account of Vultan, Inc. a corporation later shown to be the owner of the land on which the construction site was located.

Triple A alleges that shortly after it submitted the job estimate it was recontacted by Elite Homes and asked to begin the job at the price quoted in the estimate, $11,520. Subsequently during the pile-driving operations it alleges that it was directed to make a change in the materials it was using, by an officer of Elite Homes who was present at the job site. Later when it billed Elite Homes for the job it included on its invoice, submitted in duplicate, extra chárges of $1,296.00 for the materials ordered substituted at the job site and $580.00 for other additional materials furnished by agreement of both parties.

The duplicate invoices were returned, along with a check for $12,100.00, a sum representing the original $11,520.00 estimate plus the second extra charge of $580.00. The name Elite Homes Inc., the addressee on the invoice, had been scratched out and replaced by the name Elite Land Co., Inc. The $1,296.00 charge for the extra materials ordered at the job site had also been scratched out. One copy of the invoice bore this handwritten notation at the bottom, “Our agreement called for 8' concrete you delivered 8' concrete— no extra was asked for, or delivered.” The other copy of the invoice had this notation “our agreement called for 8' concrete and 8' is what was delivered — according to this invoice it would be 1 O' can & concrete which we do not have.”

Elite did not defend this suit below with the argument that extra materials were not used at the job site. Rather it based its defense on the contention that it was not the corporation which had entered into an agreement of any sort with the plaintiff. It alleged that the agreement for the foundation work was at all times between Triple A and Elite Land Company, Inc., or some other corporation, thus it was in no way liable to Triple A for the $1,296.00 sum at issue in this suit.

Mr. Jerome O. Wilson, president of Triple A, testified for plaintiff at the trial below. He stated that he received a telephone call on April 17, 1966 from a Mr. Joe Fritscher, who requested an estimate for a foundation job for Elite Homes. He quoted Fritscher a price estimate for the job and later Fritscher telephoned back an acceptance of this job estimate. Wilson stated that the job contract was never reduced to writing and he had no written figures other than those sent to Elite Homes in the billing invoice.

Wilson testified that his firm also drove the test piling on the job site and billed Elite Homes $1,800.00 for this work. The billing invoice was mailed directly to Elite Homes, and payment in full was received in the form of a check written on the account of Vultan, Inc. Wilson stated that this test pile job was also initated at the request of Mr. Joe Fritscher who identified himself with Elite Homes.

Wilson stated further that during the actual pile-driving operations on the main job he received a telephone call from the foreman at the site, Mr. Henry Dierker, and as a result of this conversation Triple A substituted ten foot concrete cans for the eight foot cans which had been originally [668]*668ordered by Mr. Fritscher. It was this substitution of materials which resulted in the extra charge of $1,296.00 reflected on the invoices sent to Elite Homes.

Henry Dierker also testified at the trial below. He made the following statements which we find most pertinent to the issues in this case:

“Q. Mr. Dierker, were you an employee of AAA Foundation, Inc.?
A. In March and April of 1966 I was.
Q. In what capacity were you employed?
A. Pile driving superintendent.
O. Were you the pile driving superintendent for AAA Foundation on the job located at Sena Street and Transcontinental Drive?
A. I was.
O. On May 19, 1966 did pile driving activities begin at that site?
A. I wouldn’t know the exact date, but I guess around that time.
Q. Were eight foot cans delivered to the job site?
A. They were.
Q. Were eight foot cans used on that job site?
A. We started to use eight foot cans, but we drove three pilings with eight foot cans. And Mr. Fritscher he identified himself as the owner or the man in charge of the job, and the architect told me to drive them down below the sand. I drove three pieces below the sand and they started to collapse in so I refused to drive any more. We dug around them and put some props on them so the sand wouldn’t fall into the can because if it did we wouldn’t be able to pour the concrete. And Mr. Fritscher and the architect told me don’t drive no more pilings with those cans, to get larger cans, and that’s when I talked to Mr. Wilson about it. We went across the river and got ten foot cans off of a job, another job and substituted them for the eight foot cans. All this was done when this gentleman right here, who identified himself as the owner (indicating) or the architect, I forget his name, I don’t see him in the Courtroom, Mr. West something. They insisted that I drive them below the ground, and you can’t drive a can below the ground because the sand will all fall into the can, and you can’t pour concrete with sand in a can, and it’s impossible to get out. Water is simple to get out because we can pump it out. I can’t drive a can below the surface of the ground.
Also on this particular job at ground level eight foot cans would have been sufficient. But they filled it in with sand about two foot and that raised the ground level up. And I believe that’s where the trouble came in with the cans. That was the reason the cans were too short. They wanted to drive the cans down to the original ground level and they added two feet of sand more and naturally they needed a larger can.
Q. Now, the architect you mentioned was that the engineer by the name of Wethern?
A. That’s the gentleman.
Q. Now, at whose request did you stop driving the piles?
A. This gentleman right here (indicating) and the man that you mentioned.
Q. And he told you to get larger cans ?

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Bluebook (online)
217 So. 2d 666, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5406, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/a-a-a-foundations-inc-v-elite-homes-inc-lactapp-1969.