Eastern Electric Corp. v. Shoemaker Construction Co.

652 F. Supp. 2d 599, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81044, 2009 WL 2870646
District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania·Decided September 3, 2009·No. Civil Action 08-3825·Published·Cited by 46 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

PRATTER, District Judge.

The Court here considers a second motion for entry of default judgment within *602 the context of the lengthy and complicated procedural history of this litigation among the contractors, subcontractors, and owners of a multimillion dollar condominium project in Philadelphia. Much of the procedural history of this case is irrelevant to the pending motion, so the Court presents here only so much of the procedural history as is pertinent to this particular motion.

Eastern Electric Corp. of New Jersey (“Eastern”), a subcontractor on the condominium project, filed suit in August 2008 against the general contractor (Shoemaker Construction Co.) and the project owners (1419 Tower L.P., Urban Residential, LLC, and Metropolitan Housing Partners, LLC) alleging breaches of the construction contracts. Shoemaker filed cross claims against 1419 Tower and Urban Residential (“Owners”) and filed a third-party complaint against VEF-VI — Tower 1419 Project GP, LLC (“Tower 1419”) and Christopher H. Martorella that included nearly identical claims and allegations as those in the cross claims. Shoemaker later amended its third-party complaint to join 1419-1425 Locust GP, LLC as an additional third-party defendant.

Upon request from Shoemaker, the Clerk of Court entered default on April 7, 2009 against 1419 Tower and Urban Residential for failure to appear, plead or defend. Shoemaker moved for entry of default judgment on May 8, 2009. The Court ordered 1419 Tower and Urban Residential to respond to Shoemaker’s motion on or before June 12, 2009. Neither 1419 Tower nor Urban Residential responded to the motion, and the Court granted default judgment against 1419 Tower and Urban Residential on August 21, 2009. See Doc. No. 49.

The Third-Party Defendants also failed to respond to Shoemaker’s Amended Third-Party Complaint. The Clerk of Court entered default against 1419-1425 Locust GP, LLC (“1419-1425 Locust”), 1419 Project and Christopher H. Martorella on June 10, 2009. The Court here considers Shoemaker’s motion to enter default against 1419-1425 Locust, 1419 Project and Mr. Martorella.

For the reasons set forth below, the Court grants Shoemaker’s Motion for Entry of Default Judgment on Amended Third-Party Complaint.

I. Background

The Court granted default judgment against 1419 Tower and Urban Residential on August 21, 2009. The Court’s Memorandum of that judgment recites an extensive factual background of this case, but a brief summary of the salient facts follows here in order to facilitate an understanding of this related motion.

Shoemaker and 1419 Tower, an affiliate of Urban Residential, entered into a written contract (the “Contract”) in January-2006 for the rehabilitation and conversion of an office building into a residential building (the “Project”). Amended Third-Party Compl. ¶ 7. 1419 Tower is a limited partnership whose general partners are 1419-1425 Locust GP and 1419 Project. Id. ¶¶ 2-3. According to the terms of the contract, Shoemaker was to perform construction work for the Project as dictated by the plans and specifications provided by 1419 Tower.

Before entering into the Contract with Shoemaker, 1419 Tower also entered into contracts with a number of design professionals who prepared detailed drawings and specifications for the Project. These were presented to Shoemaker for use in the construction of the Project. Amended Third-Party Compl. ¶¶ 10-15; Ball Aff. ¶ 7.

Shoemaker, in accordance with the Contract and upon review and approval by 1419 Tower, entered into a number of con *603 tracts with subcontractors. These subcontractors included Eastern, A.T. Chadwick Service Co., Inc. (“Chadwick”), James J. Gory Mechanical Contracting, Inc. (“Gory”), and Wyatt, Inc. (“Wyatt”). Amended Third-Party Compl. ¶ 17; Ball Aff. ¶ 9, Exhibits D, E, F, and G. In accordance with the terms of the subcontracts, each of the subcontractors agreed (1) to cooperate with Shoemaker regarding claims involving the Owner, (2) to be bound to Shoemaker in the same manner in which Shoemaker was bound to 1419 Tower pursuant to the Contract, and (3) to be ruled by the decisions of a court of competent jurisdiction with respect to related pass-through claims. See e.g., Ball Aff., Exhibit D ¶ 20.

Delays plagued the Project throughout 2006 and 2007. See Doe. No. 49 at 4. In early 2007, as the Project progressed, 1419 Tower was unable to process change orders. Shoemaker worked with Owner to resolve the problem. At Owner’s request, on or about April 4, 2007, Shoemaker and Urban Residential entered into a new written agreement (the “Construction Agreement” or “Sub-Job Agreement”) for the performance of the then-identified additional work and the altered work. The parties agreed that Shoemaker would use its “reasonable best efforts” to complete the low rise portion of the Project on or before July 31, 2007 and that Shoemaker would use its “best efforts” to complete the high rise portion of the Project by October 31, 2007. Amended Third-Party Compl. ¶ 29; Ball Aff. ¶ 13. In consideration of Shoemaker’s undertakings pursuant to the Sub-Job Agreement, Christopher Martorella provided his personal Guaranty of Urban Residential’s performance of its payment obligations under the Sub-Job Agreement. Amended Third-Party Compl. ¶ 29(c); Ball Supplemental Aff. ¶ 7. All of the change orders with respect to the Project on and after January 1, 2007 were issued under the Sub-Job Agreement. Amended Third-Party Compl. ¶ 29(e).

Delays continued to affect progress on the Project throughout 2007. See Doc. No. 49 at 4-5. Notwithstanding the numerous delays, Shoemaker was able to obtain individual Certificates of Occupancy (“COs”) for 33 units in the low rise portion of the building on January 17, 2008, and secured the final CO for the last unit in the high rise portion of the building on May 3, 2008. Amended Third-Party Compl. ¶ 38; Ball Aff. ¶ 17.

The drawings and specifications prepared by, or on behalf of, 1419 Tower allegedly contained material deficiencies which have caused substantial delays to the Project and disruptions to the work of Shoemaker and its subcontractors. Ball Aff. ¶ 18. Reportedly, there were numerous site conditions discovered during construction that were not shown on the drawings and specifications prepared by the Owner, and which were reportedly unforeseeable to Shoemaker at the time the Contract was signed. As a result, Shoemaker claims that its work was significantly disrupted and delayed under both the Contract and the Sub-Job Agreement. Shoemaker’s cost of performance also was greatly increased by the delays. Ball Aff. ¶ 19. Subcontractors submitted delay and disruption claims to Shoemaker, which, in turn, subsequently submitted such claims to the Owner pursuant to the terms of the respective contracts. Amended Third-Party Compl. ¶ 40; Ball Aff. 20.

The unpaid balance of the contract price is $591,136, exclusive of interest. Amended Third-Party Compl. ¶ 41; Ball Aff. ¶ 24. The remaining unpaid sums include Invoice No. 28 (dated August 15, 2008) in the amount of $358,426 and Invoice No. 29 (dated December 23, 2008) in the amount of $232,710. Ball Aff. ¶24. 1419 Tower has not objected to either of these invoices.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Eastern Electric Corp. v. Shoemaker Construction Co., 652 F. Supp. 2d 599, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81044, 2009 WL 2870646 (E.D. Pa. 2009).

652 F. Supp. 2d 599 (Eastern Electric Corp. v. Shoemaker Construction Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related