Airline Construction, Inc. v. Ted Hicks & Associates, Inc.

506 So. 2d 554, 1987 La. App. LEXIS 8889
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 4, 1987
DocketNo. CA 85 1573
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 506 So. 2d 554 (Airline Construction, Inc. v. Ted Hicks & Associates, 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
Airline Construction, Inc. v. Ted Hicks & Associates, Inc., 506 So. 2d 554, 1987 La. App. LEXIS 8889 (La. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

JOHN S. COVINGTON, Judge.

The State of Louisiana, through the Military Department, Louisiana National Guard (Guard) suspensively appealed the October 23, 1985 judgment awarding Airline Construction Company, Inc. (Airline) a sum of money for loss of profit and another sum as attorney’s fees for handling the instant suit and a previous suit, later referred to, and three-fourths of the costs of [555]*555the instant suit. Airline answered the Guard’s appeal, asking for damages for frivolous appeal and an increase in the attorney’s fees awarded by the court below. Ted Hicks & Associates, Inc. (Hicks) did not appeal the judgment which condemned Hicks to pay Airline attorney’s fees of $3,332.50 and one-fourth of the costs of the instant suit.

This case is a sequel to Ted Hicks & Associates, Inc. v. Stroud, 434 So.2d 1157 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1983). We will not reiterate the facts leading to that litigation except to the extent necessary for a proper understanding of the instant suit.

In Stroud, decided June 28, 1983, we reversed the lower court’s judgment which enjoined Airline from acting under a construction contract awarded it by the Guard on September 9, 1982 and which declared the contract null and void.

After the Stroud decision became final the parties to that suit entered into negotiations for the purpose of resolving issues of buy-out and/or take-over of the contract awarded to Hicks by the Guard, after Airline appealed but before we rendered our decision. Part of the work which Hicks contracted to do had been done by June 28, 1983. When negotiations failed, Airline filed suit against Hicks and the Guard, alleging wrongful use of the injunctive process, breach of contract, loss of profits, and attorney’s fees.

Following a two day bench trial on October 16 and 17, 1985, the lower court held the Guard liable for breach of contract and held Hicks wrongfully used the injunctive process. The trial judge rejected Airline’s claim, for failure of proof, that it had lost business because of its reduced bonding capacity while the Stroud litigation was running its course. The court also rejected, for failure of proof, Airline’s contentions that it was entitled to reimbursement for builder's risk insurance and its attempt to buy out the unperformed portion of the contract the Guard entered into with Hicks. The court also made a specific finding that Airline had attempted, without success, to mitigate its damages by negotiating to take over the Hicks contract.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

We summarize and restate defendant-appellant-Guard’s confusing statement of “errors of the trial court” as follows:

The trial court erred by: (1) admitting as evidence Plaintiff’s Exhibits 14 and 15 without first giving defendants’ counsel an opportunity to view them; (2) holding that the Stroud litigation was res judicata and refusing to “admit any evidence, testimony or facts from [it] ..., especially in regard to ... (a) the validity of [the] September 9, 1982 [contract] between [the Guard and Airline] ..., (b) [lack of contractual capacity of Airline], (c) ... not allowing] Colonel ... D’Abadie, a defendant and ... witness in ... [Stroud] to correct his own testimony in the transcript ...”; and (3) awarding attorney’s fees.

VALIDITY OF AIRLINE’S CONTRACT

The question of the validity of the September 9, 1982 contract between the Guard and Airline is encompassed in the Guard’s second assignment of error.

Maj. Gen. Stroud, the Adjutant General of Louisiana, Col. Dabadie, the Guard, and Airline were named as defendants in Hicks’ suit for injunction and declaration of status. In reversing the lower court’s judgment, we held, in Stroud, that the Guard did not act arbitrarily or abuse its discretion in awarding the contract to Airline. 434 So.2d at 1159. Stroud is finished business. As Judge Marshall stated, in another context, in Sears, Sucsy & Co. v. Insurance Company of North America, 392 F.Supp. 398, 413 (N.D.Ill.; 1974): “At some point, however, all the parties are entitled to say enough — the question has been decided.” The issue of the validity of the contract between Airline and the Guard was decided, laid to rest, in Stroud and we will not disinter it because the Guard, for reasons best known to it and its counsel, the Attorney General’s Office, “did not participate in the appeal” of the Stroud suit. Counsel for the Guard indicated some degree of unconcern about the pending appeal by letter to the Guard dated October [556]*55620, 1982 (Plaintiffs Exhibit # 5), stating in part that:

[HJowever, the appeal is not suspen-sive and cannot affect the good faith awarding of the contract to Ted Hicks & Associates.
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... [I]t is our advise [sic] that the contract be awarded to the lowest bidder according to the [trial] court judgment, Ted Hicks and Associates. (Brackets supplied.)

Adjutant General Stroud informed Hicks, by letter dated October 4, 1982, that “the Louisiana National Guard cannot and will not take further action in this matter until the judgment of the [trial court] is final.” (Hicks Exhibit # 1). Col. Dabadie’s October 26, 1982 letter (Plaintiff's exhibit # 6) to the Attorney General’s Office stated the contract was being awarded Hicks on the basis of the recommendation of that office. The Guard’s second assignment of error is devoid of merit.

PLAINTIFF’S EXHIBITS 14 and 15

Almost six months before the trial began the Pre-Trial Order was signed and the trial dates fixed. Counsel for the Guard, in the appellate brief, asserts “these exhibits were secreted from the State during discovery which occurred just three days prior to trial” and that they “were not shown to opposing counsel prior to being admitted into evidence.” Appel-lee’s counsel responded to that accusation by stating:

Plaintiff acceded to a request for its records for review by the State two or three days prior to trial, when it was under no obligation to do so. Unless provided for in the pretrial order, all discovery was to have been completed prior to the pretrial conference_ [T]he State had more than ample time before the pretrial conference to ... complete its discovery. The State ... only hours before trial, requested record upon record, which were made available.... [T]he complained of exhibits ... were submitted for counsel’s review and counsel had the opportunity to examine the documents and [,] if appropriate, to enter a timely objection, which counsel did not do....
(Emphasis by plaintiff-appellee.) (Brackets supplied.)

The pretrial order which was signed on April 23, 1985 listed as a plaintiff's exhibit “all computations to determine profit and overhead” and “accounting for losses and damages occasioned plaintiff for failure of ... Louisiana National Guard, to comply with its formal contract with plaintiff.” On October 9, 1985, the trial judge signed an order permitting plaintiff to amend the pretrial order by naming as a “may call” witness Michael W. Boies, the C.P.A. who made the computations referred to in the pre-trial order and which were introduced into evidence as Plaintiff Exhibits 14 and 15; Boies was testifying on the basis of those exhibits when the Guard’s counsel objected to them on the grounds that she allegedly had never seen them.

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506 So. 2d 554, 1987 La. App. LEXIS 8889, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/airline-construction-inc-v-ted-hicks-associates-inc-lactapp-1987.