Donnelly Const. Co. v. Oberg/Hunt/Gilleland

677 P.2d 1292, 139 Ariz. 184
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 8, 1984
Docket17056-PR
StatusPublished
Cited by145 cases

This text of 677 P.2d 1292 (Donnelly Const. Co. v. Oberg/Hunt/Gilleland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Donnelly Const. Co. v. Oberg/Hunt/Gilleland, 677 P.2d 1292, 139 Ariz. 184 (Ark. 1984).

Opinion

139 Ariz. 184 (1984)
677 P.2d 1292

DONNELLY CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, an Arizona corporation, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
OBERG/HUNT/GILLELAND, Architects, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 17056-PR.

Supreme Court of Arizona, In Banc.

February 8, 1984.

*185 O'Connor, Cavanagh, Anderson, Westover, Killingsworth & Beshears, P.C. by Larry L. Smith and Charles J. Muchmore, Phoenix, for plaintiff-appellant.

Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, by Jefferson L. Lankford, Phoenix, for defendants-appellees.

GORDON, Vice Chief Justice:

In June of 1976, the Board of Supervisors of Coconino County solicited bids on behalf of Page School District Number Eight for improvements to the Page School complex. The site improvements included the construction of retaining walls and sidewalks, grading and filling, and the installation of a sprinkler system. Among the documents available to the bidders was a site plan, including engineering site specifications, prepared by Oberg/Hunt/Gilleland [hereinafter "O/H/G"], a firm of architects. Plaintiff, Donnelly Construction Company, relied on the plans, specifications, and information contained in the site plan to prepare its bid on the improvements. Donnelly's bid was accepted and a contract with the county board of supervisors was entered on July 6, 1976. Upon beginning work, Donnelly found the plans *186 and specifications prepared by O/H/G to be in substantial error. The errors resulted in increased costs of construction to Donnelly.

After substantially completing the work, Donnelly sued the Page School District[1] and O/H/G for its increased costs. Donnelly asserted three claims against O/H/G: negligence, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of the implied warranty that O/H/G's plans and specifications were accurate. O/H/G filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Ariz.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) claiming that Donnelly's complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. O/H/G supported its motion with arguments that the claims were barred (a) because all of O/H/G's actions were quasi-judicial in nature and deserving of immunity and (b) because there was no contractual privity between Donnelly and O/H/G. Without recitation of its reasoning, the trial court granted the motion to dismiss. Donnelly appealed to Division One of the Court of Appeals which reversed and remanded to the trial court.[2]Donnelly Construction Co. v. Obert/Hunt/Gilleland, 139 Ariz. 190, 677 P.2d 1298 (App. 1983). O/H/G petitioned this Court to review the decision. Having found the holding of Division One in this matter to be in direct conflict with case law from Division Two, we accepted jurisdiction, pursuant to Ariz. Const. art. 6, § 5(3) and Ariz.R.Civ.App.P. 23, to resolve the conflict. Although we agree with Division One of the Court of Appeals that the trial court's granting of O/H/G's motion to dismiss was error, we vacate its opinion in the instant case.

In our review of the granting of the motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, this Court must assume the truth of Donnelly's allegations. Parks v. Macro-Dynamics, Inc., 121 Ariz. 517, 591 P.2d 1005 (App. 1979). We can uphold the dismissal only if Donnelly could not be entitled to relief under any facts susceptible of proof under the claims stated. Sun World Corp. v. Pennysaver, Inc., 130 Ariz. 585, 637 P.2d 1088 (App. 1981). As noted above, O/H/G offered two arguments that Donnelly's complaint stated no claim. These arguments will be examined seriately.

IMMUNITY FOR QUASI-JUDICIAL FUNCTIONS

O/H/G's first basis for their motion to dismiss was that their duties were quasi-judicial in nature and that they therefore had immunity against actions such as the one brought by Donnelly. In Craviolini v. Scholer & Fuller Associated Architects, 89 Ariz. 24, 357 P.2d 611 (1960), this Court held that an architect who is empowered to resolve disputes between an owner and a contractor acts, in resolving such disputes, in a quasi-judicial capacity and that, to allay the architect's fears of being mulcted in damages, he or she has immunity against actions arising from performance of those duties. However, we find Craviolini to be inapposite to the case before us. Donnelly's claims against O/H/G all stem from allegedly negligently prepared plans and specifications, not from O/H/G's resolution of any dispute between Donnelly and the Coconino Board of Supervisors or the Page School District. As we made clear in Craviolini, the immunity

"attaches to every act done in the judicial capacity, but to no other. Thus the architect has no immunity as an architect * * *. If the tortious conduct with which he is charged * * * is remote from and in no way associated with the performance of his arbitrator's function, he is liable for it in accordance with the usual principles of tort law."

Id. at 28, 357 P.2d at 614 (emphasis in original). The grant of the motion to dismiss *187 cannot be upheld on the basis of immunity.

PRIVITY OF CONTRACT

O/H/G's second basis for the motion to dismiss was that, absent privity of contract, they owed no duty and could not be liable to a contractor such as Donnelly. This argument was premised on Blecick v. School District No. 18 of Cochise County, 2 Ariz. App. 115, 406 P.2d 750 (1965). In Blecick, Division Two of the Court of Appeals was confronted with a fact situation similar to the one currently before us. There, the plaintiff was a contractor who had entered into a building contract with the defendant school district's Board of Trustees to construct school rooms at an elementary school. During construction, changes in the architects' plans and specifications had to be made. The changes resulted in added cost to the contractor who sued the school district and the architects. The trial court dismissed the complaint against the architects for failure to state a claim. The Court of Appeals affirmed. Although stating the issue in tort terminology ("Is an architect liable to a contractor for the preparation of defective plans and specifications?" Id. at 119, 406 P.2d at 754), the Court of Appeals discussed it in contract language ("There is no privity between [the contractor] and the architects by virtue of the [contract between the owner and the architects] nor are [the contractors] third-party beneficiaries thereof." Id. at 120, 406 P.2d at 755) and held that the contractor could not hold the architect liable for having negligently drawn the plans and specifications. Insofar as Blecick stands for the proposition that an architect cannot be sued in tort by a contractor for negligent preparation of plans and specifications, it must be overruled.

There is no requirement of privity in this state to maintain an action in tort. See, e.g., O.S. Stapley Co. v. Miller, 103 Ariz. 556, 559, 447 P.2d 248

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Bluebook (online)
677 P.2d 1292, 139 Ariz. 184, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/donnelly-const-co-v-oberghuntgilleland-ariz-1984.