Ammann & Whitney v. Edgarton & Edgarton

12 Misc. 2d 119, 175 N.Y.S.2d 536, 1957 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3620
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 25, 1957
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 12 Misc. 2d 119 (Ammann & Whitney v. Edgarton & Edgarton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ammann & Whitney v. Edgarton & Edgarton, 12 Misc. 2d 119, 175 N.Y.S.2d 536, 1957 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3620 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1957).

Opinion

Henry A. Hudson, J.

This motion is made by the third-party defendant, Western Foundation Corporation, to dismiss the third-party complaint served upon it by the defendant, Edgarton and Edgarton. The motion is made under rule 106 of the Rules of Civil Practice upon the sole ground that the third-party complaint on its face fails to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. Upon such a motion, all of the allegations of the third-party complaint must be assumed to be true for the purposes of the motion. Of course, allegations which are immaterial or irrelevant, for the purpose of proving the cause of action and all allegations which are conclusions of law or of fact can be disregarded.

The third-party defendant, Western Foundation Corporation, in its brief has elected to rely upon the assumption that the third-party plaintiff is attempting to set up a cause of action based upon negligent misrepresentation and has exhaustively briefed the law on this subject urging that the third-party complaint should be dismissed because it does not set forth a proper cause [121]*121of action for negligent misrepresentation. The third-party plaintiff would seem to go along with this theory as its brief is dedicated to establishing the fact that the complaint does set forth a good cause of action for negligent misrepresentation.

An examination of the third-party complaint will, I believe, reveal that the third-party plaintiff has attempted to set up in one cause of action, allegations which might well be intended to support several causes of action. A great many of the allegations are eonclusory in nature and would appear to be completely immaterial and irrelevant if addressed to one or more of the theories which are attempted to be asserted. No facts are alleged from which the nature of the cause of action relied upon can be ascertained or from which the court could determine the theory upon which the third-party plaintiff is actually proceeding.

By reference to the contract and other exhibits, which are annexed to the complaint in the action, all of which are made a part of the third-party complaint by reference, and by an examination of the statements in the brief of the third-party plaintiff as to the relationship of the parties, it is possible to reconstruct the part each played in the complete transaction covered by the two causes of action set out in the third-party complaint.

In order to determine the motion it is first necessary to understand this relationship. The plaintiff, Ammann and Whitney, is a firm of consulting engineers of New York City. They were engaged by the defendant, Edgarton and Edgarton, a firm of architects and engineers, who were engaged as general architects, in preparing the plans and specifications for the construction of the Syracuse War Memorial Building in the city of Syracuse, New York. The plaintiff, as consulting engineers, was engaged by the defendant under written contract to design and supervise the structural items of the building. The written contract provided for payment of compensation including compensation for extra work which might be necessary. The plaintiff’s complaint sets forth four causes of action; the first to recover a balance of $7,075.99 due for work on the original plans; the second to recover the sum of $10,900 due for extra work alleged to have been done in revising the plans in 1949; the third to recover the sum of $3,592.96 for extra work in revising the plans in 1950; and the fourth to recover for all of such services on a quantum meruit basis. The owner of the Syracuse War Memorial Building, by which the defendant was employed, was the County of Onondaga. The original complaint and the contract between the plaintiff and defendant are made a part of the third-party complaint by paragraph <£ 7 ” thereof and the [122]*122original complaint includes by reference, the contract between the plaintiff and defendant and also certain correspondence between them, which is annexed thereto. From the original complaint, paragraph “ 10 ”, it would appear that in July, 1949, the County of Onondaga received and opened bids for the construction of the War Memorial Building in accordance with the plans prepared by the plaintiff and defendant. It is impossible to ascertain from anything contained in the pleadings whether a contract was let as a result. The inference must be drawn that it was not as changes were made in which the plaintiff and the defendant participated, at the instance of the defendant, and it appears that in September, 1949 bids were again received, opened and accepted for the construction of the War Memorial Building. There is nothing in the pleadings to indicate who the contractor or subcontractors were but it is set out in the brief of the defendant, third-party plaintiff, that the general contractor was one W. E. 0 ’Neil Construction Co. and that the third-party defendant, Western Foundation Corporation, was a subcontractor. These statements in the brief of the third-party plaintiff cannot serve to supply deficiencies in the third-party complaint but at least they clarify the relationship of the various parties. It is clear that there is no contractual relationship between the plaintiff or defendant and the Western Foundation Corporation by reason of the respective parts played by them in the construction of the War Memorial Building. There are no allegations in the third-party complaint of any contractual liability or relationship, or of any facts the proof of which would establish by inference that the Western Foundation Corporation was under any obligation or responsibility to furnish the plaintiff or the defendant any advice or information relative to the preparation of the plans and specifications for the War Memorial Building.

It is next necessary to consider the effect of the allegations of the third-party plaintiff in the first cause of action set forth in the third-party complaint. As pointed out, there is but one cause of action asserted against the Western Foundation Corporation. Included therein are allegations of warranties and guarantees, of false and untrue statements, of negligent claims and imprudent acts, all of which are asserted to have been done for the purpose of inducing the defendant, third-party plaintiff, to change the plans and specifications for the War Memorial Building. In the first place, in the absence of any allegation of any contractual or other legal relationship between the third-party plaintiff and defendant, these allegations would appear to me to be completely immaterial and irrelevant. . The allegations [123]*123are clearly insufficient to set forth any cause of action for breach of warranty or fraud. The allegations are so conclusory and general in nature and so lacking in facts that they do not, in my opinion, justify any inference or assumption that the defendant, third-party plaintiff, was justified in relying in any manner whatsoever upon any of the alleged representations, if in fact, such representations were made. In addition to this the allegations of the first cause of action included in many of the same paragraphs, the conclusion not only that the third-party defendant, Western Foundation Corporation was negligent in representing the adequacy and economy of the compressed concrete piles but also that they were negligent in failing to properly install the compressed concrete piles. Clearly the plaintiff and defendant could not be damaged in any manner by the Western Foundation Corporation’s negligent acts in completing its work as a subcontractor. Nowhere in the third-party complaint does it even appear that Western Foundation Corporation was a subcontractor.

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Bluebook (online)
12 Misc. 2d 119, 175 N.Y.S.2d 536, 1957 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ammann-whitney-v-edgarton-edgarton-nysupct-1957.