Battistello v. Fuller

10 Mass. App. Dec. 154
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedNovember 30, 1955
DocketNo. 13664
StatusPublished

This text of 10 Mass. App. Dec. 154 (Battistello v. Fuller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts District Court, Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Battistello v. Fuller, 10 Mass. App. Dec. 154 (Mass. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

Sgarzi, J.

This is an action of contract tried before (Grover, S. /.) to recover damages of $143.45 for breach of an oral contract to construct a foundation for a building. The defendant’s answer is a general denial and allegation of payment.

There was evidence that the plaintiff owned a lot of land in North Attleboro upon which he planned to build a store building of cinder block construction. The building was to be 35 feet by 50 feet in size but he had no plans or drawings. He did not employ a general contractor to construct the building but engaged various persons to perform separate portions of the work, each of them working independently of the other.

[155]*155He engaged the city engineer to set up the batter boards and to indicate by bench marks upon them where the top line of the foundation should be. He engaged an excavating contractor to dig a trench for the foundation and engaged the defendant to setup forms and to supervise the pouring of the concrete which was ordered by the defendant but paid for by the plaintiff. The defendant did not have enough forms to build the entire foundation at one time so lie set them up to pour one half of the foundation and when that had hardened he removed the forms and set them up to do the other half. The work was done over a period of several days and the defendant claimed that the concrete was poured to the level of the bench marks, although there was no evidence that he checked the top of the foundation with any instrument to determine whether it was of uniform height. When the defendant had completed his work he presented his bill for $205.00 to the plaintiff who paid it.

The plaintiff next engaged a mason to lay the cinder blocks upon the foundation for the exterior walls of the building. He did not notice anything wrong with the level of the foundation until he had almost reached the top of the wall when he discovered that the north wall was too high and tried to compensate for the error by pressing the last few courses of cinder blocks.

When the mason finished his work the plaintiff engaged a carpenter to put on the roof. By using a transit the carpenter found that one side of the avail -was about 4 J/2 inches from true level and the condition had to be remedied at a cost of $143.45.

While there was no direct evidence as to the exact cause of the discrepancy in the level it was established that the ground was hard gravel and not filled land, and there was no evidence that any settlement had occurred.

[156]*156Upon cross examination the defendant stated that the wall was off and that he was responsible.

The defendant seasonably filed the following requests for rulings of law:

1. The plaintiff’s declaration is defective and cannot support any verdict for him in this action, because the allegations are vague and uncertain and violate Clause sixth of M. G. L. (Ter, Ed.) Ch. 231 Sec. 7 “Causes of action in contract and tort shall not be joined except when they arise out of the same subject matter, and in such case they shall be stated in separate counts »**»****”
2. On all the evidence the plaintiff has failed to prove the express term or terms of any contract between the parties and the breach thereof which would entitle him to recover damages from the defendant.
3. On all the evidence the contract or agreement of the parties was made at a time when plaintiff’s engineer and excavating contractor had completed excavation, location of the trench for the foundation, determined the elevation for the foundation and had placed boards at the corners of the proposed building, and indicated the elevation by markings, and that any agreement between the parties was made with reference to the existing conditions.
4. On all the evidence and the law the express undertaking of the defendant related to the circumstances in existence at the time they were made, and defendant was bound to set up his forms and to furnish labor and materials (except the cement) in accordance with the markings on the batter boards.
5. On all the evidence the plaintiff did not rely upon the skill and judgment of the defendant in any matters pertaining to grade, elevation, cement, etc. all of which plaintiff furnished to the defendant, but merely employed defendant to furnish his forms, labor, and such material as was required to build a foundation on his premises and was not furnished by plaintiff.
6.On all the evidence the defendant fully performed aji of [157]*157the things by him to have been performed on January 28, 1952, upon which date the plaintiff accepted the foundation constructed by defendant and paid defendant in full.
7. On all the evidence and the 1 aw, if defendant fully performed his obligation as agreed upon by the parties, the law will not imply a promise to pay plaintiff the expense of building up one side of the building to support the roof at a level.
8. In the absence of an express warranty there can be no warranty of fitness for the purpose implied by law where there was no reliance upon the defendant’s skill and judgment as to the subject matter of the suit on the plaintiff’s part.
9. Even if a warranty of fitness for the purpose intended by the plaintiff can be found in the premises, not every flaw' in the construction can be found to be a breach of such implied warranty' (if any) especially where with a comparatively minor correction the foundation in all respects can be found to support the building contemplated and it can be and is used for the purpose for which it is built.
10. There is no rule of res ipsa loquitur which is satisfied by evidence that the foundation constructed by the defendant W'as "off” about 4(3 inches on one side, which discovery was made by the contractor who put on the roof of the building.
11. Where each of many contractors contributed to the excavation, engineering, cement w'ork, masonry and carpentry, among other things, proof that plaintiff was put to slight extra expense to correct the plumb line of the roof of the building, without expressly proving some act or acts of negligence on the part of the defendant.

The trial judge disposed of the above requests in the following manner:

x. No action taken as no motion applicable to the declaration was made before trial and the defendant went to trial on the declaration as it stands.
[158]*1582, to 7. inclusive. No action taken. See Rule 27.
8. to 11, inclusive. No action taken, as not applicable to the facts found as set forth below.

The court found the following facts:

"The plaintiff, being the owner of certain premises on the easterly side of Route 1, in North Attleboro and desiring to have constructed thereon a store building, jo x 35 feet, contracted with an engineer to set the necessary batter boards and established thereon bench marks determining the top line of a foundation to be made of poured concrete. This was done and crayon bench marks made on the batter boards.

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Bluebook (online)
10 Mass. App. Dec. 154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/battistello-v-fuller-massdistctapp-1955.