CH Leavell & Co. v. Glantz Contracting Corp. of La., Inc.

322 F. Supp. 779, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14906
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 25, 1971
DocketCiv. A. 67-1011, 68-1705 and 69-725
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 322 F. Supp. 779 (CH Leavell & Co. v. Glantz Contracting Corp. of La., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
CH Leavell & Co. v. Glantz Contracting Corp. of La., Inc., 322 F. Supp. 779, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14906 (E.D. La. 1971).

Opinion

RUBIN, District Judge:

A motion for summary judgment here raises the question whether a contract between a building owner and its architects constitutes a stipulation pour autrui in favor of the contractor engaged to construct the building, and whether the architect is impliedly a party to the owner’s agreement with the construction contractor.

The Board 1 wanted to build an exhibition facility, to be called Rivergate. It agreed with Architects 2 to provide professional services to the Board in connection with this project. Two years later the Board engaged Leavell 3 as general contractor to construct River-gate.

Leavell claims that it suffered damages because of unreasonable delays occasioned by improperly prepared plans, late delivery of plans and working drawings, untimely change orders and improperly issued correction data, and other contractual violations attributable to the Board and the Architects, and sued both of them for $5,100,000 plus interest, attorneys’ fees, and court costs. The suit against the Board has been settled. The Architects now move for dismissal of the claims against them or for summary judgment in their favor.

The three-page contract between the' Board and the Architects is basically the standard agreement issued by the AIA. 4 It provides that, for a fee of 6% of the construction costs, the Architects will provide the usual professional services. 5

Leavell’s contract with the Board bound it to construct the entire international exhibition facility, in accordance with the plans and specifications “to the entire satisfaction of the * * * Board.” This contract states that the Architects “are the representatives of the [Board] 6 duly authorized to interpret compliance with plans and specifications, supervise the work, approve monthly estimates and to render such services of a general administrative nature as the [Board] may request.” 7 The Architects’ status is discussed in Sec. 43 of the “General Conditions” of the contract between Leavell and the Board:

a) The Architect shall have general supervision and direction of the work. He is the agent of the Owner only to the extent provided in the Contract documents and when in special instances he is authorized by the Owner so to act; in such instances, he shall show the Contractor written authority upon request. He has the authority to stop the work whenever such stoppage may be necessary to insure the proper execution of the contract.
*782 b) It is agreed and understood that the Architect shall supervise the work to the best of his ability and judgment and that he shall use his best endeavors to see that the drawings and specifications are strictly adhered to and complied with by the Contractor, but under no consideration shall the Architect be responsible for bad workmanship and inferior or improper materials that may have been incorporated in the work by the Contractor.
c) In case of the termination of the employment of the Architect, the Owner shall appoint a capable and reputable Architect, against whom the Contractor makes no reasonable objection; whose status under the contract shall be that of the former Architect. 8

1. IS THERE A CONTRACT BE- ■ TWEEN THE ARCHITECT AND LEAVELL?

There is no single contract signed by both the Architect and Leavell. Leavell argues, however, that the lengthy document signed by it and the Board, together with the Architects’ contract with the Board, and the working relationship between the Architects and the Board, combine to create a sort of tripartite contractual interrelationship. The contract signed by the Board and by Leavell is relied on to establish duties on the part of the Architects toward Leavell as well as toward the Board.

But nothing to this effeet appears on the face of the contract with Leavell, nor can it be reasonably inferred from that contract that the Architects were undertaking a contractual obligation to Leavell. The Architects did not sign the contract, nor are the Architects named as a party to it. The Architects are referred to in that agreement as the Board’s agent (to the limited extent of their authority) just as, in other connections, the Board’s full time manager, the Engineer, is referred to as the Board’s employee. The purpose of the reference to the Architects in Leavell’s contract was to define the scope and the limits of Architects’ authority as the Board’s agent, not to declare the personal responsibility of the Architects, either to the Board for the contractor’s work (a responsibility expressly negated) or to Leavell (a responsibility so impliedly excluded that it was not thought necessary to deny it). The Board is given authority “to terminate” the employment of the Architects. Of course the Architects’ duties on behalf of the Board involve work with Leavell, so Leavell may make reasonable objection to the person substituted, but the decision to continue the employment of the Architects, or to end it, is the Board’s.

Indeed, for the Architects to contract with Leavell would have constituted a breach of the duty they owed the Board, “to guard the Owner against defects and deficiencies in the work of contractors.” The contract between the Architects and the Board established what the contract between the Board and Leavell confirmed, that the Architects are “the agent of the Owner” with respect to the administration and supervision of the construction. The Architects’ status in that agreement is that of “representatives of the Engineer,” that is, of the Director of Engineering of the Board. In the administration of the construction contract, they act for their disclosed principal. It is this agency relationship that distinguishes this case from the case of Visintine & Co. v. New York, C. & St. L. R. Co., 169 Ohio St. 505, 160 N.E.2d 311 (1959), cited by Leavell. In that case, a contractor was held to be a third-party beneficiary and hence entitled to maintain an action on a contract between the State (with whom it had contracted) and several railroad compa *783 nies to perform certain construction work that was sequentially prior to the work the contractor had agreed to do. The railroad companies in that case were not agents of the State, but were debtors of the State, owing to it an obligation of performance in proper sequence, which inured, or would have inured, to the benefit of the contractor-beneficiary.

In Thomas G. Snavely Co. v. Brown Construction Co., 16 Ohio Misc. 50, 239 N.E.2d 759 (Ohio Common Pleas, 1968), a subcontractor sued the owner, the general contractor with whom he had contracted, and another contractor for damages resulting from increased cost caused by failure to observe construction schedules set out in the contracts. The subcontractor was held to be a third-party beneficiary.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
322 F. Supp. 779, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14906, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ch-leavell-co-v-glantz-contracting-corp-of-la-inc-laed-1971.