Allen County Public Library v. Shambaugh & Son, L.P., Hamilton Hunter Builders, Inc., W.A. Sheets & Sons, Inc., and MSKTD & Associates, Inc.

2 N.E.3d 132, 2014 WL 297344, 2014 Ind. App. LEXIS 26
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided January 28, 2014·No. 02A04-1302-PL-78·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

OPINION ON REHEARING

BARNES, Judge.

Shambaugh & Son, L.P., Hamilton Hunter Builders, Inc., WA. Sheets & Sons, Inc., and MSKTD & Associates, Inc., (collectively "the Defendants") petition for rehearing following our decision in Allen County Public Library v. Shambaugh & Son, LP. et al., 997 N.E.2d 48 (Ind.Ct.App.2013). 1 We grant rehearing to acknowledge and address some of the Defendants' rehearing arguments, but we reaffirm our original decision in all respects.

To summarize, this case concerns an effort by the Allen County Public Library ("the Library") to recoup from the Defendants the costs of cleaning up diesel fuel that leaked from underground pipes that were installed by the Defendants as part of a project to expand and renovate the main Library branch building. The Library collected $5,000 from Great American Insurance Group toward the cleanup costs under a "Builders Risk Plus" insurance policy the Library took out specifically for the renovation and addition project. App. p. 360. However, the Library alleges *133 that the total cost of remediating the diesel fuel has already exceeded $490,000 and will continue to increase. The Defendants assert that the Library could only look to the $5,000 in pollution cleanup coverage from Great American to cover the remediation costs.

In our original opinion, we analyzed whether the Library had waived any right to seek payment from the Defendants under the following provision, Section 11.3.7, found in the standard American Institute of Architects ("AIA") construction contract entered into by the parties:

Waivers of Subrogation. The Owner and Contractor waive all rights against each other and against the Construction Manager, Architect, Owner's other Contractors and own forces described in Article 6, if any, and the subcontractors, sub-subcontractors, consultants, agents and employees of any of them, for damages caused by fire or other perils to the extent covered by property insurance obtained pursuant to this Paragraph 11.3 or other property insurance applicable to the Work, except such rights as the Owner and Contractor may have to the proceeds of such insurance held by the Owner as fiduciary... .

Id. at 317. Relying primarily upon Midwestern Indemnity Company v. Systems Builders, Inc., 801 N.E.2d 661 (Ind.Ct.App.2004), trans. denied, we held: Shambaugh, 997 N.E2d at 55-56. We also stated, "To be clear, the Library is alleging the diesel fuel leak spread beyond the strict confines of the library construction project and seeped into the surrounding land, and that the Library has incurred and will continue to incur significant costs associated with remediating that seepage from the land." Id. at 53-54.

[The Library is not precluded by Seetion 11.8.7 of the standard AIA contract from seeking recovery for pollution cleanup costs for property contaminated by the Defendants' allegedly faulty construction that is outside the scope of "the Work" for which the Defendants were contracted to perform. Namely, the Defendants may be required to reimburse the Library for cleanup costs of the land outside of the library building itself.

On rehearing, one of the contentions raised by the Defendants is that, in fact, only "Work" property was damaged by the diesel fuel leak and, in fact, no "non-Work" property was damaged or contaminated and, therefore, the waiver of subrogation provision of Section 11.3.7 of the contract applied to bar the Library's claims. This argument was not made in the Defendants' original briefs, even though one of the Library's main arguments was that the fuel leak did in fact damage "non-Work" property. See Appellant's Br. pp. 12-14. Indeed, the Defendants did not make this argument before the trial court, either. It is a cardinal rule of appellate procedure that a party cannot raise an argument for the first time in a rehearing petition. Seq, e.g., Clark County Drainage Bd. v. Isgrigg, 966 N.E.2d 678, 679-80 (Ind.Ct.App.2012).

In any event, we did review the record citations provided by the Defendants with respect to the argument that no "non-Work" property was contaminated by the diesel fuel. Without going into great detail, given that the Defendants did not make this argument in their original briefs, it is our opinion that there is at a minimum an outstanding genuine issue of fact as to the scope of the diesel fuel contamination and whether it exceeded the boundaries of "the Work" the Defendants were contracted to perform. The seope of contamination is unclear in the present record, and as summary judgment mov-ants it was the Defendants' burden to establish that no "non-Work" property was *134 contaminated. See Haegert v. McMullan, 953 N.E.2d 1223, 1283 (Ind.Ct.App.2011) (stating general rule that "a moving party bears the burden of proving the non-existence of a genuine issue of material fact"). The seope of contamination may be litigated on remand and, if it is determined that no "non-Work" property was contaminated, then the Library would not be entitled to any recovery from the Defendants because the waiver of subrogation provision would apply.

The second argument made on rehearing that we address is that the Midwestern case upon which we relied represents a "minority view" interpretation of the AIA contract's waiver of subrogation provision and that we should instead adopt the "majority view" interpretation. Again, as with the "Work" versus "non-Work" issue, none of the Defendants made any argument in their original appellate briefs that Midwestern was incorrectly decided, despite the Library's heavy reliance upon the case in its brief. Instead, the Defendants attempted to argue that Midwestern was distinguishable from the present case or, in fact, was supportive of their position. That is the argument we considered and rejected in our original opinion. The Defendants now argue that we should abandon Midwestern-too little, too late, the issue is waived.

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Allen County Public Library v. Shambaugh & Son, L.P., Hamilton Hunter Builders, Inc., W.A. Sheets & Sons, Inc., and MSKTD & Associates, Inc., 2 N.E.3d 132, 2014 WL 297344, 2014 Ind. App. LEXIS 26 (Ind. Ct. App. 2014).

2 N.E.3d 132 (Allen County Public Library v. Shambaugh & Son, L.P., Hamilton Hunter Builders, Inc., W.A. Sheets & Sons, Inc., and MSKTD & Associates, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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