Blackmon v. Powell

132 So. 3d 1, 2013 WL 2451339, 2013 Ala. LEXIS 61
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJune 7, 2013
Docket1120442
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 132 So. 3d 1 (Blackmon v. Powell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blackmon v. Powell, 132 So. 3d 1, 2013 WL 2451339, 2013 Ala. LEXIS 61 (Ala. 2013).

Opinion

STUART, Justice.

Timmy Blackmon and Stephanie Black-mon sued Eddie Powell d/b/a Powell Plumbing Company in the Pike Circuit Court, asserting negligence, wantonness, breach of implied warranties, and breach of contract after a water-supply line that Powell had installed in their house ruptured, causing extensive flooding and water damage. The trial court entered a summary judgment in favor of Powell; the Blackmons appeal. We affirm.

I.

In approximately April 2008, Timmy, a general contractor and homebuilder, approached Powell to do the plumbing for a new house the Blackmons were building as their personal residence. Powell had previously done work for Timmy on other construction projects, and Timmy states that he selected Powell to do the plumbing in his personal house because Powell was “reliable” and he and Powell had “a good relationship.” Timmy and Powell thereafter reached an oral agreement for Powell to do the plumbing in the house; Timmy later described the terms of that agreement as follows in his deposition:

“And we had a verbal agreement— [Powell] came out and looked at it, and we had a verbal agreement for him to plumb my house. We were supposed to supply the faucets and sinks. He was supposed to supply everything from the faucets, sinks — from the faucets and sinks down, including the supply line, drain lines, waterlines, plumbing lines, sewer lines to complete — to do a complete project on my house.”

Powell does not dispute these basic elements of their agreement, agreeing that the Blackmons were to supply the fixtures and, in return for an agreed-upon sum based upon the number of connections made, he was to install the fixtures and supply whatever else was needed to connect them to the main water and sewer lines and to make them functional.

In approximately September 2008, Powell went to the Blackmons’ house to install [3]*3a vessel sink and waterfall faucet in an upstairs half-bathroom. Stephanie had purchased the sink and faucet on the Internet from separate sources, and, when Powell arrived, the Blackmons had placed the boxes containing those items in the half-bathroom where they were to be installed, as was the Blackmons’ custom for plumbing fixtures they had purchased.1 Upon opening the box containing the faucet, Powell discovered that two water-supply lines were included, and he accordingly used those supply lines during the installation to connect the hot and cold water to the faucet. After the installation was complete, Powell turned the water on to check for leaks and found none. Timmy also visually inspected the work and saw nothing wrong.

The next 18 months were apparently uneventful with regard to Powell’s plumbing installation, and the Blackmons and their guests used the sink and faucet in the upstairs half-bathroom without incident and without any signs of a problem or leakage. However, at some time on March 18, 2010, the cold-water-supply line running to the faucet broke at the point where the coupling threaded onto the base of the faucet, causing water to flood the bathroom and eventually other parts of the house. Timmy returned to the house at approximately 9:00 p.m. and, upon discovering the flooding, turned off the water-supply valve; however, at that point there was standing water throughout the house. He then telephoned Powell, who agreed to come over the next day.

Upon arriving at the house the next day, Powell tested the water pressure in the house and found it to be in the low to normal range and thus unlikely to have caused the water-supply line to rupture. Both Timmy and Powell agree that they have never seen a similar rupture in a water-supply line in all their years working as contractor and plumber, respectively, and, for all that appears, the rupture was apparently caused by some latent defect in the water-supply line that was not readily detectable. Notably, there is no evidence indicating that the rupture was attributable to any action or error committed by Powell during the installation.

On February 2, 2011, the Blackmons sued Powell, alleging that he was ultimately responsible for the damage to their house. Their complaint, as later amended, asserted claims of negligence, wantonness, breach of implied warranties, and breach of contract. The Blackmons subsequently moved the trial court to enter a summary judgment in their favor on all claims; Powell responded by also filing a motion for a summary judgment. Following an August 6, 2012, hearing on those motions, the trial court granted Powell’s motion, denied the Blackmons’ motion, and entered a judgment accordingly. The Blackmons’ subsequent motion to alter, amend, or vacate that judgment was denied by the trial court on November 26, 2012, and, on January 7, 2013, the Blackmons filed their notice of appeal to this Court.

II.

We review a summary judgment pursuant to the following standard:

“This Court’s review of a summary judgment is de novo. Williams v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 886 So.2d 72, 74 (Ala.2003). We apply the same standard of review as the trial court applied. Specifically, we must determine whether the movant has made a prima facie showing that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that the movant is [4]*4entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Rule 56(c), Ala. R. Civ. P.; Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Alabama v. Hodurski, 899 So.2d 949, 952-53 (Ala.2004). In making such a determination, we must review the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Wilson v. Brown, 496 So.2d 756, 758 (Ala.1986). Once the movant makes a prima facie showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact, the burden then shifts to the nonmovant to produce ‘substantial evidence’ as to the existence of a genuine issue of material fact. Bass v. SouthTrust Bank of Baldwin County, 538 So.2d 794, 797-98 (Ala.1989); Ala. Code 1975, § 12-21-12.”

Dow v. Alabama Democratic Party, 897 So.2d 1035, 1038-39 (Ala.2004).

III.

The trial court entered a summary-judgment in favor of Powell on all four counts alleged by the Blackmons — negligence, wantonness, breach of implied warranties, and breach of contract. With regard to the negligence and wantonness claims, the Blackmons argue that Powell acted negligently or wantonly in installing a defective water-supply line in the upstairs half-bathroom. They do not argue that Powell committed any error during the actual installation process that caused the subsequent rupture; rather, his only error, they argue, was choosing to use the apparently defective supply line that came with the faucet. See the Blackmons’ brief, p. 14 (stating that “the claims of the Black-mons are not that Mr. Powell was deficient in his workmanship, it is that the product that he agreed to install and provide and was paid for as part of the contract, namely the supply line, which he consciously and voluntarily chose to use, failed”).

In completing the work the Blackmons contracted him to do, Powell had a duty to exercise due care. See Armstrong Bus. Servs., Inc. v. AmSouth Bank, 817 So.2d 665, 679 (Ala.2001) (“At common law, a duty of due care can accompany a contractual obligation.... ”), and Waters v. American Cas. Co. of Reading, Pa., 261 Ala. 252, 258, 73 So.2d 524, 529 (1953) (“When the contract does not in terms require reasonable care in doing the act stipulated to be done, the law imposes a duty — but does not imply a contract — to exercise due care in doing the act....”).

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132 So. 3d 1, 2013 WL 2451339, 2013 Ala. LEXIS 61, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blackmon-v-powell-ala-2013.