Delta Construction Co. of Jackson v. City of Jackson

198 So. 2d 592
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1967
Docket44227
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 198 So. 2d 592 (Delta Construction Co. of Jackson v. City of Jackson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Delta Construction Co. of Jackson v. City of Jackson, 198 So. 2d 592 (Mich. 1967).

Opinion

198 So.2d 592 (1967)

DELTA CONSTRUCTION COMPANY OF JACKSON, Mississippi
v.
CITY OF JACKSON, Mississippi, Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, E.B. Cavallo and Associates, and Michael Baker, Jr., Inc.

No. 44227.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

January 30, 1967.
Suggestion of Error Overruled in Part and Sustained in Part May 15, 1967.

*594 Cox, Dunn & Clark, Jackson, for appellant.

Brunini, Everett, Grantham & Quin, Crisler, Crisler & Bowling, E.W. Stennett, Robert E. Perry, Jackson, for appellees.

RODGERS, Justice:

The Delta Construction Company of Jackson, Mississippi, hereinafter called "Contractor," filed a suit against the City of Jackson, Mississippi, Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, E.B. Cavallo and Associates *595 and Michael Baker, Jr., Incorporated. For brevity, the City of Jackson and the Jackson Municipal Airport will be referred to as "Owners," E.B. Cavallo and Associates and Michael Baker, Jr., Incorporated, will be referred to as "Engineers."

The suit was originally filed in the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, in which the First National Bank of Jackson, Mississippi, and the Deposit Guaranty Bank & Trust Company of Jackson, Mississippi, were made parties by attachment. The chancery court entered an order transferring the suit to the circuit court. After the Contractor had filed its declaration in the circuit court, the Owners and Engineers filed separate demurrers to the declaration. The circuit court sustained the demurrers, and the Contractor amended its declaration. The former demurrers were again considered in the light of the amended declaration, and the court again sustained the demurrers and dismissed the cause of action. The Contractor appealed to this Court.

It now becomes necessary to detail the admitted facts and contentions of the parties. The declaration alleged that the Contractor-appellant entered into a contract with the Owners for the construction of a certain part of the Jackson Municipal Airport. A copy of the contract was filed with the declaration as Exhibit A. It was alleged that the work of the Contractor was finally accepted and approved "as having been satisfactorily completed on August 25, 1961." The Contractor charges, however, that the Owners failed to pay to the Contractor the sum of $191,425.60 for 26+% additional unclassified excavation and certain other claims rejected by the Engineers. The claims are detailed as follows:

1. Owners paid the Contractor $1,553.02 less than was admitted to be due it on December 14, 1961.

2. After being released on January 20, 1961, from further maintenance responsibility, the Contractor was required to repair erosion damage to a certain area, at a cost to the Contractor of $4,095.77, for which the Contractor was entitled to be paid as "extra work."

3. Contractor was wrongfully required to install 225 lineal feet of intercepter ditches at a cost of $16,336.46. This was extra work required of the Contractor.

4. Contractor was required to pay $5,457.33 for grubbing within the construction limits, not set out in the contract.

5. Contractor was required to move 40,571 cubic yards of dirt under bid item No. B-152 more than called for by the contract bid.

6. Contractor claims that because of the over-run of unclassified excavation under its bid item No. B-152, the excavation exceeded 25% of its bid, and the Contractor is entitled to "a fair and reasonable price and profit for the extra work" in the sum of $191,425.60.

7. Contractor claims legal interest from due date on all items.

The Contractor attached as exhibits to the declaration: (A) A copy of the contract between the parties; and (B) a copy of the letter dated October 20, 1961, outlining the various claims of the Contractor with itemized cost for each claim, and previous letters written before the extra work was performed asserting claims for damages.

The main contention of the Contractor is directed toward the recovery of cost for the alleged over-run of unclassified excavation, bid item B-152 of the contract. It is charged that the Contractor bid twenty-four cents per cubic yard for material to be moved, based upon a representation made by the Engineers on their drawing and plans submitted for the Owners, acting through the Engineers, showing this figure to be 2,316,060 cubic yards at twenty-four cents per cubic yard, or the sum of $555,854.40. It is said that this calculation was shown to *596 be a studied Engineers' calculation based upon facts known to them, but that said calculation of yardage on which the Contractor's bid was based was grossly and negligently misrepresented to the extent that such item of unclassified excavation in fact turned out to be 2,935,000 cubic yards, which was an increase of more than twenty-five per cent and involved the extra cost to the Contractor amounting to $191,425.60.

The Owners, the City of Jackson and the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, demurred to the declaration upon the grounds that: (1) The declaration states no cause of action against them; (2) there is a misjoinder of actions because the declaration sounds in tort against the Engineers and a breach of contract against the Owners; (3) there is no common charge of negligence or breach of contract against all of the defendants; (4) the suit seeks to hold the Owners liable for negligence of the Engineers, but the Owners are immune to such suits under Mississippi Code Annotated section 7545-16 (Supp. 1964); (5) the suit is based on a cost-plus claim for extra work, rather than the applicable contract unit price when no supplemental agreement was first executed by the parties; (6) the contract provided that the Engineers would decide all of the disputed questions of fact and the Engineers so acted on all of the claims, and, hence, their action is final; (7) since all claims were denied by the City Council of the City of Jackson, the Contractor's only remedy was to appeal to the circuit court and the Contractor cannot now, under the provisions of Mississippi Code Annotated section 1195 (Supp. 1964), bring suit; and (8) the Contractor is bound by the contract sued on, and moreover the City and the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority are not liable therefor under the law.

The defendants, E.V. Cavallo and Associates and Michael Baker, Jr., Incorporated, filed a demurrer to the declaration and asserted that the Contractor was not entitled to recover against them because of the first five grounds asserted by the Owners, and, in addition, (6) no separate relief is requested by the declaration as to the two classes of defendants; (7) the contract expressly prohibits an action against the Engineers for negligence on estimates and calculations as to the excavations; and (8) the entire suit is contrary to the written agreement, and the Contractor is estopped to assert the inconsistent claims.

The appellants have appealed from the judgment of the trial court dismissing the suit for failure of the Contractor to plead after the demurrers were sustained.

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Bluebook (online)
198 So. 2d 592, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/delta-construction-co-of-jackson-v-city-of-jackson-miss-1967.