Dutton & Vaughan, Inc. v. Spurney

600 So. 2d 693, 1992 La. App. LEXIS 919, 1992 WL 57340
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 26, 1992
Docket91-CA-1076
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 600 So. 2d 693 (Dutton & Vaughan, Inc. v. Spurney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dutton & Vaughan, Inc. v. Spurney, 600 So. 2d 693, 1992 La. App. LEXIS 919, 1992 WL 57340 (La. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

600 So.2d 693 (1992)

DUTTON & VAUGHAN, INC.
v.
Petr L. SPURNEY, et al.

No. 91-CA-1076.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

March 26, 1992.
Writ Denied June 26, 1992.

Robert E. Leake, Jr., Donald E. McKay, Jr., Leake & Andersson, New Orleans, for plaintiff.

Eugene R. Preaus, Preaus, Roddy & Krebs, Lawrence J. Ernst, Christovich & Kearney, New Orleans, for defendants.

Kyle Schonekas, Stone, Pigman, Walther, Wittman & Hutchinson, New Orleans, for intervenor.

Before LOBRANO and ARMSTRONG, JJ., and TREVOR G. BRYAN, Judge Pro Tem.

ARMSTRONG, Judge.

Plaintiff Dutton & Vaughan, Inc. and intervenor Barriere Construction Co., Inc. appeal claiming the trial court committed reversible error by granting summary judgment in favor of defendants, the officers and members of the Management Committee of the Louisiana World Exposition, Inc. (LWE) and their insurer.[1] They claim summary judgment is improper because the evidence on record establishes the existence of genuine issues of material fact supporting their allegations that the LWE Management Committee members' actions constituted fraud. We disagree and, therefore, affirm.

In November 1983, the LWE leased from the Missouri Pacific Railroad (MOPAC) for $2,657,944.80 the land on which it intended to construct the Fair's primary parking facility. The following month, on December 22, 1983, the demolition, excavation and construction contract for this proposed parking facility was awarded to Dutton & Vaughan (D & V) for the price of $2,753,-040.40, plus additional amounts authorized by change orders.

*694 Thereafter, pursuant to a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (CEA) between the City of New Orleans and the LWE, executed on February 11, 1984, the City furnished the LWE with $3 million "in return for LWE constructing and providing public improvements consisting of parking facilities for the ... Louisiana World Exposition..."[2] One condition stated in the CEA was the City would pay the $3 million "to the LWE after documentation [was] presented covering construction schedule and lease payment schedule (Exhibit B)..." The terms of the CEA also provided the LWE would be responsible for all subsidiary costs of the parking facilities such as garbage disposal, maintenance, repairs and insurance (flood, casualty, fire, etc.). Attached to the CEA as exhibits were both the MOPAC and D & V contracts, their ostensible costs totalling over $5 million.

As a prerequisite to delivering the funds to the LWE, the City required an invoice from the LWE in the amount of $3 million. The LWE complied by producing a blanket invoice. Upon its receipt of the $3 million, the LWE deposited the funds in its general account.

Through this lawsuit, D & V and Barriere, the subcontractor which blacktopped the MOPAC lot, seek from the officers and members of LWE's Management Committee the remainder owed under the primary parking facility construction contract, approximately $1 million, plus attorney's fees. They contend the officers and directors of the corporation are individually liable for the corporation's contractual obligation because the officers and directors intentionally misrepresented that D & V would be paid from the $3 million specifically allocated by the CEA, and wrongfully diverted those specifically allocated funds to other creditors.

On a previous appeal, a five-judge panel of this court determined that D & V and Barriere's petitions set forth a cause of action in fraud. Dutton & Vaughan, Inc. v. Spurney, 496 So.2d 1126 (La.App. 4th Cir.1986), writ den., 501 So.2d 208 (La. 1987) ["The result of the Court of Appeal judgment is correct."]. This court noted that "the fraud alleged by [D & V and Barriere] does not consist of misrepresentations regarding the use of future general revenues; it is the wrongful diversion of public funds which were specifically appropriated for parking facilities, an appropriation which [D & V] allegedly was assured would provide a separate fund of payment of its contract." 496 So.2d at 1130. Therefore, employing the appropriate standard of accepting the facts alleged in the petition as true and determining whether the law affords any relief to the plaintiff if those facts are proved at trial, this court held "the allegations that defendants wrongfully diverted funds earmarked by the City to pay for parking facilities" state a claim for fraud. 496 So.2d at 1129.

Following extensive discovery, the defendants motioned for summary judgment asserting D & V has no evidence which supports its contention that 1) the $3 million provided by the City pursuant to the CEA was dedicated for the payment of D & V's contract; 2) the LWE's failure to segregate the CEA $3 million constituted a fraud against D & V and/or 3) the officers or members of the LWE Management Committee made any of the alleged representations on which D & V claims to have relied. Included among the exhibits attached to the motion were the individual affidavits of the members of the Management Committee which asserted the affiant "made no representations to any representative of Dutton & Vaughan that any funds were allocated to payment of the Dutton & Vaughan contract" and, at the time the D & V contract was signed, the affiant believed revenues and other funding sources would provide income with which to pay *695 contractors.[3] The statement of uncontested facts also declared that none of the defendant Management Committee officials were involved in the CEA negotiations between the City and the CEA, none of them were involved in the decision to deposit the CEA $3 million into LWE's general account, and LWE paid to D & V, MOPAC and SOPAC $3,407,967.92 for parking related expenses.

D & V's opposition explained that its fraud claim is based upon the Management Committee's wrongful spending of the dedicated $3 million for purposes other than construction of MOPAC with actual or constructive knowledge that a) the State/City money was intended for payment of the parking lot construction and/or b) the representation had been made to plaintiff that said funds would be used to pay the D & V contract. It declared that it is irrelevant whether the funds were actually dedicated for the specific purpose of paying D & V's contract because it is the representations to plaintiff that funds would be used to pay its contract which constituted the fraud. The opposition brief, however, admitted that none of the Management Committee members made any misrepresentations to D & V. Rather, it charged Mike Carlson, Vice-president of Site Development for the LWE, and Vanessa Connelly, a City employee and a secretary to Erroll Williams who allegedly made the statements to H.P. Vaughan before Williams became a member of the Management Committee, as the principal persons who made the misrepresentations. The memorandum also made the vague assertion that H.P. Vaughan had general discussions with other LWE employees about the source of payment of his contract, i.e., George Reitmeyer, Ann Brown, and Martin Katz.

D & V's opposition included H.P. Vaughan's affidavit, dated May 30, 1989, which attested that D & V's MOPAC contract with LWE provided that, upon request, LWE would furnish D & V with reasonable evidence that it made financial arrangements to fulfill its payment obligations and, unless such evidence was furnished, D & V was not required to perform its work. He attested he made such a request and was informed by Michael R.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
600 So. 2d 693, 1992 La. App. LEXIS 919, 1992 WL 57340, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dutton-vaughan-inc-v-spurney-lactapp-1992.