A. Copeland Enterprises, Inc. v. Harimaw, Inc.

528 So. 2d 707, 1988 WL 51505
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 16, 1988
Docket88-CA-22
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 528 So. 2d 707 (A. Copeland Enterprises, Inc. v. Harimaw, 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. Copeland Enterprises, Inc. v. Harimaw, Inc., 528 So. 2d 707, 1988 WL 51505 (La. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

528 So.2d 707 (1988)

A. COPELAND ENTERPRISES, INC., d/b/a Popeye's Famous Fried Chicken & Biscuits, Inc., d/b/a New Orleans Spice Company
v.
HARIMAW, INC.

No. 88-CA-22.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

May 16, 1988.
Writ Denied October 7, 1988.

*708 Aubrey B. Hirsch, Jr., Peter J. Butler, Butler, Heebe & Hirsch, New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellant, A. Copeland Enterprises, Inc.

Francis P. Accardo, James B. Irwin, Montgomery, Barnett, Brown, Read, Hammond & Mintz, New Orleans, for defendant-appellee, Harimaw, Inc.

Before KLIEBERT, BOWES and GRISBAUM, JJ.

BOWES, Judge.

Plaintiff, A. Copeland Enterprises, Inc. (hereinafter ACE), appeals a judgment of the District Court in its favor in the amount of $15,000, against Harimaw, Inc. (hereinafter Harimaw). ACE disputes the amount of that judgment, contending that it is insufficient to recompense it for expenses incurred in repairing the building in question; ACE also appeals the denial of the trial court of attorney's fees. We revise the judgment, and, as revised, affirm the main award made, but remand for additional evidence regarding attorney fees.

ACE is engaged in the fast food chicken business, marketing "Popeye's" chicken through nationwide franchises. New Orleans Spice Company (hereinafter "Spice Plant") is a division of ACE, chiefly involved in the preparation and supply of the proprietary spices and batter mixes which are unique to the ACE products. ACE also owns several "Copeland's Restaurants" in the area, all of which receive their food-product supply from a central commissary in the New Orleans region (hereinafter this portion of the business will be referred to as the "Commissary").

In 1984, both the Spice Plant and the Commissary divisions of ACE were in need of relocation to larger quarters. Miles Parker, the director of the Spice Plant, contacted Ed Carlson, affiliated with the real estate division of ACE, to request that he locate suitable property. A building under construction situated at 1000 Harimaw Court East in Jefferson Parish became the focus of ACE's and Carlson's search. The property was owned by Harimaw, Inc., which was constructing the building through its contractor, National Lumber Company, and Louis Haeuser was president. The building initially was intended by Harimaw to be leased rather than sold. However, in April, 1984, an agreement was reached between Harimaw and ACE wherein Harimaw accepted ACE's offer of $850,000 to purchase the property subject to Harimaw completing construction of the "shell" building in accordance with the (then-existing) plans and specifications.

*709 The sale was completed and executed on September 13, 1984.

ACE had determined to use the southern half of the structure for the Spice Plant and the other half for the Commissary. ACE completed the Spice Plant side of the building and the Spice Plant became operational. Shortly thereafter, ACE undertook modifications to the northern portion of the building, which was designated for the Commissary. The work began on January 1, 1985.

Hope Enterprises (hereinafter Hope) was the general contractor for this portion of the job. Boes Iron Works (hereinafter Boes—and of no relation to the writer of this opinion) was the subcontractor hired to perform miscellaneous steel work on the project. In the third week of January, ACE claims it discovered for the first time (a fact disputed by Harimaw) that the trusses which constituted the steel structure of the building were some fifty years old. ACE also contends they were heavily rusted, but painted over, with corrosion present. Manny Soto, president of Hope, immediately notified ACE's architect, Thomas Harang, of the problem. Harang retained a structural engineer, Walter Zehner, to examine the structure. On January 18, 1985, Messrs. Soto, Zehner, Harang and Hank Smith (formerly the partner of Harang) met to inspect the trusses. It was decided that no further work should be done until the trusses were analyzed and any problems corrected. On January 23, Zehner advised Harang that the existing roof trusses did not have sufficient structural strength to carry the existing roof loads, not including any new loads which would be caused by the addition of mechanical equipment. The letter continued:

"Also, several of the trusses have rusted badly reducing the effective section sizes which has resulted in a possible dangerous situation. It is strongly recommended that no work be done in the roof area until this situation is rectified."

Time, at this point, became a problem. The old location of the Commissary had to be vacated by March 1, 1985 by order of the Jefferson Parish Council (there were several parish and state zoning and health ordinances involved). Furthermore, the Spice Plant, which had already moved into its half of the building, could maintain only a two-week supply of its products because of their perishable nature. The Spice Plant would have to be closed, not only to enable the repair work to be completed, but because of the possible danger referred to in Zehner's letter. The work, therefore, had to be completed in an abbreviated period of time, with time being, literally, of the essence. Considering this obvious fact, we find it strange that ACE had not yet notified Harimaw of their findings when they obviously intended to get Harimaw to replace or repair the trusses and/or hold them liable for the cost and delayed doing so until February 7th.

Zehner was requested to devise a plan to correct the problem with the trusses and, on February 1st, those designs were reviewed by Messrs. Harang, Parker and Soto. Three bids were obtained by subcontractors to install steel beams underneath each truss, which was the method chosen to correct the problem. Of the three bids, only one, that of Boes Iron Works, met the time deadlines required by ACE.

On February 7th, ACE advised Harimaw, through its president and owner, Louis Haeuser, of the problem by a hand-delivered letter, which generally described the proposed repairs and costs thereof, and demanded that immediate action, within the next twenty-four hours, be taken to correct the problems. Harimaw's response was instantaneous. That same afternoon of February 7th, Louis Haeuser, his son and business associate Dan Haeuser, and Tom Gilbert, Harimaw's architect, inspected the property and, the next morning, returned with an engineer, an architect, and a photographer. The engineer, Gabriel Masson, felt that it was necessary to inspect each truss individually, and began doing this. Even so, on February 8th, Harimaw, through its counsel, replied to the demand by a letter to ACE, also hand-delivered, to Parker, denying the charges that the trusses were defective with one exception:

*710 "One truss needs reinforcement, a fact which Mr. Haeuser learned at 1:00 p.m. today, when he inspected the premises involved. He is ready, willing and able to reinforce the truss promptly."

Upon receipt of the letter from Haeuser on February 8th, and without further delay or negotiation, ACE began immediately its own installation of the supporting steel beams, in accordance with Zehner's plans. However, in a letter dated the next day, February 9th, Haeuser's counsel notified ACE that Haeuser had just received Zehner's report, which was not furnished him until he specifically requested it; that Zehner's report was being furnished to Haeuser's engineer, who was going to start immediately on a field survey of each truss beginning Monday, February 11th, and that

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Bluebook (online)
528 So. 2d 707, 1988 WL 51505, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/a-copeland-enterprises-inc-v-harimaw-inc-lactapp-1988.