BLUE RIBBON STEEL BUILDINGS, INC. v. Struthers

557 P.2d 1350, 276 Or. 1199, 1976 Ore. LEXIS 758
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 30, 1976
DocketTrial Court 75-755, Supreme Court 24440
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 557 P.2d 1350 (BLUE RIBBON STEEL BUILDINGS, INC. v. Struthers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
BLUE RIBBON STEEL BUILDINGS, INC. v. Struthers, 557 P.2d 1350, 276 Or. 1199, 1976 Ore. LEXIS 758 (Or. 1976).

Opinion

*1201 BOHANNON, J.

(Pro Tempore).

This is an action at law brought by plaintiff, Blue Ribbon Steel Buildings, Inc., to recover the balance due on a contract to construct a metal, pole-type-warehouse building for the defendant, John Struthers. The building was constructed adjacent and connected to defendant’s existing furniture store building at Dillard, Oregon. The plaintiff was paid all but the last $2,800 due on the contract which sum was withheld by defendant on account of leaks alleged to exist in the roof where the new building joined the old. Defendant also contended that the concrete slab floor required by the contract and installed by plaintiff was not constructed in a workmanlike manner and by counterclaim sought recovery of damages from plaintiff in the sum of $11,000 on account of alleged defects in the floor.

Sometime before this case was tried the warehouse burned down due to some unknown cause not related to this action.

The cause was tried before a jury which returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff. Thereafter, judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff and against the defendant in the sum of $2,800 plus attorney fees in the sum of $1,250 together with costs and disbursements.

Thereafter, defendant filed a motion for an order setting aside the judgment, setting aside the verdict and either entering judgment in favor of the defendant or in the alternative allowing a new trial. The motion was denied.

Defendant appeals, assigning error in three particulars which will be discussed in turn as follows:

First Assignment of Error

Defendant contends the trial court erred in sustaining plaintiff’s objection to, and in striking, defendant’s testimony relating to defendant’s alleged cooperation with plaintiff in the installation of the concrete floor.

*1202 During defendant’s case, the defendant Struthers sought to show by his testimony that, during the construction of the fill upon which the concrete floor for the building was to be poured, he discovered the fill was higher than the floor of the existing building and that since the fill was already in place he made no objection. Struthers’ testimony was as follows:

"Q. [By attorney for defendant:] * * * Was there anything unusual that happened with the pouring or preparation of pouring with the warehouse floor as relates to the causeway and the showroom in the levels of them?
"A. I don’t think I (Pause) —
"Q. What about — did you want to have a step?
"A. Oh, oh, I follow you, yeah. There is — the warehouse is — sits 11 inches higher. Okay. This building (Indicating) sits 11 inches higher than this building (Indicating) so therefore this — this is really a ramp (Indicating). I mean, there’s an 11-inch drop between the 40 feet between the building.
"Q. Was that intended at the outset?
"A. No.
"Q. When was it called to your attention that the warehouse would be higher than the showroom?
"A. After the fill had already been put in.
"Q. All right. What options were left open to you?
"A. Well, I could either accept it or have them start carting off this dirt that they put in.
"MR. BARNES: Objection. Move to strike not only this question and this answer but the previous question and the previous answer, [on] the ground [it] would be [a violation of the] parole [sic] evidence rule.
"THE COURT: I think I understand what you are saying.
"MR. BARNES: Perhaps I mistated [sic] myself and haven’t stated the grounds clearly. What I’m trying to get at is we have in evidence the contract which shows the position of the two buildings. This evidence is contradictory with a written contract that’s been offered. * * * *
"MR. HEILING: No, but that’s not the part we are bringing out, Your Honor. We want — it has been *1203 mentioned in the Plaintiffs case in chief that they think this is all a crank complaint by Mr. Struthers to get out of paying the bill, and what we want to show is that he has been doing what he can to cooperate.
* * * *
"THE COURT: Well, one doesn’t meet the other as I see it. * * *”

The testimony that defendant sought to counter by the foregoing came from the testimony of Robert C. Fredeen, president of Blue Ribbon Steel Buildings, Inc., who testified without objection as part of plaintiff’s case-in-chief as follows:

"Q. * * * What did you determine at that time —
«íJí jJí % ifc
"Q. — (Continued) in your own mind about the balance of the funds that were due to you?
"A. Well, the reason I personally didn’t go down is because at that time I just felt that I was kind of getting the runaround, kind of just dragging on and dragging on, and every time we would dun him for the money then something else would come up, still leaking, or then it got into concrete, and I just thought he was — frankly I thought he was just trying to get me out of my dollars.”

We agree with the trial court that the proferred testimony to which objection was sustained does not rebut the testimony of Fredeen. Assuming that Struthers had the right to object to the fact that the fill for the new building was higher than the floor of his old building and did not object, the fact that he did not object does not reasonably rebut Fredeen’s testimony that after the building was completed Struthers was making complaints which Fredeen thought were not justified.

We find no merit to this assignment of error.

Second Assignment of Error

Defendant contends the trial court erred in admitting testimony of Dyke Alders as to a purported out-of-court statement by one of defendant’s witnesses.

*1204 As part of defendant’s case-in-chief on the counterclaim, defendant called one Melvin Gregory, who was experienced in concrete construction. Mr. Gregory testified among other things that in June of 1974 at defendant’s request he inspected the concrete slab constructed by plaintiff and that he shot grades on the slab with a transit. He further testified that he found variations in the surface of the slab ranging from three-eighths to an inch and a quarter. He also testified that he had inspected the slab about a week before the trial, at which time he said he found an inch and a quarter variance in the surface of the slab.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
557 P.2d 1350, 276 Or. 1199, 1976 Ore. LEXIS 758, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blue-ribbon-steel-buildings-inc-v-struthers-or-1976.