Excavation Technologies, Inc. v. Columbia Gas Co. of Pennsylvania

936 A.2d 111, 2007 Pa. Super. 327, 2007 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3845, 2007 WL 3275486
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 7, 2007
Docket1237 WDA 2005
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 936 A.2d 111 (Excavation Technologies, Inc. v. Columbia Gas Co. of Pennsylvania) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Excavation Technologies, Inc. v. Columbia Gas Co. of Pennsylvania, 936 A.2d 111, 2007 Pa. Super. 327, 2007 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3845, 2007 WL 3275486 (Pa. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

OPINION BY

ORIE MELVIN J.:

¶ 1 Appellant, Excavation Technologies, Inc. (ETI), appeals from the order of the Washington County Court of Common Pleas sustaining preliminary objections filed by Appellee, Columbia Gas Company of Pennsylvania (Columbia Gas), and dismissing its complaint. ETI asks us to determine whether it has stated a viable cause of action for negligent misrepresentation under Section 552 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, as adopted by our Supreme Court in Bilt-Rite Contractors, Inc. v. Architectural Studio, 581 Pa. 454, 866 A.2d 270 (2005), despite not having suffered physical injury or property damage. We find that it has not and, therefore, affirm.

¶2 The relevant facts and procedure underlying this suit may be summarized as follows. ETI is an Ohio contractor in the business of providing excavation services. ETI was hired to perform excavation work for a waterline extension project in North Bethlehem Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania from September 11, 2002 until January 31, 2003. ETI alleges in its two count complaint, sounding in negligence and breach of contract, that pursuant to the One Call Act1 it timely requested Columbia Gas to mark any gas lines in the vicinity of the various work sites. Further, ETI alleges that Columbia Gas marked several lines improperly and, in some instances, did not mark lines at all. As a consequence, ETI struck gas lines on eleven separate dates resulting in a damage claim of $74,502.062 consisting of a total of 47 hours of downtime for its manpower and equipment.

¶ 3 Prior to the instant complaint, ETI and Columbia Gas sued and countersued each other in the Lawrence County Court of Common Pleas. In the Lawrence County court’s opinion, filed on March 11, 2004, the trial court sustained preliminary objections against ETI and dismissed its counterclaim.3 On September 9, 2004, ETI filed the instant complaint against Columbia Gas in the Washington County Court of Common Pleas. Columbia Gas filed preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer, upon which the trial court heard oral arguments. Following arguments, the trial court sustained the objections on June 30, 2005 and dismissed the complaint with prejudice finding that a claim for negligent misrepresentation cannot lie where the losses alleged are solely economic in nature. The trial court also determined that [113]*113privity did not exist between the parties. This timely appeal followed.

¶ 4 The sole issue for our consideration is whether ETI has stated a viable cause of action against Columbia Gas for purely economic damages under a negligent misrepresentation theory pursuant to Section 552(1) and (2) of the Restatement (Second) of Torts for allegedly failing to comply with its obligations under the One Call Act.4

¶ 5 Our well-settled scope and standard of review are as follows:

A preliminary objection in the nature of a demurrer is properly granted where the contested pleading is legally insufficient. Preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer require the court to resolve the issues solely on the basis of the pleadings; no testimony or other evidence outside of the complaint may be considered to dispose of the legal issues presented by the demurrer. All material facts set forth in the pleading and all inferences reasonably deducible therefrom must be admitted as true.
In determining whether the trial court properly sustained preliminary objections, the appellate court must examine the averments in the complaint, together with the documents and exhibits attached thereto, in order to evaluate the sufficiency of the facts averred. The impetus of our inquiry is to determine the legal sufficiency of the complaint and whether the pleading would permit recovery if ultimately proven. This Court will reverse the trial court’s decision regarding preliminary objections only where there has been an error of law or abuse of discretion. When sustaining the trial court’s ruling will result in the denial of claim or a dismissal of suit, preliminary objections will be sustained only where the case if free and clear of doubt.

Hess v. Fox Rothschild, LLP, 2007 PA Super 133, ¶ 18, 925 A.2d 798 (2007) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

¶ 6 ETI and their amici curiae5, contend that facility owners, such as Columbia Gas, fall within the exception to the economic loss rule set forth in Section 552 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which was adopted by our Supreme Court in Bilt-Rite, supra. Specifically, ETI submits that since Columbia Gas is under a statutory duty to provide information concerning the location of their underground lines it should be subject to liability for negligently supplying that information in the same manner as the architectural firm was held subject to liability for economic losses in Bilt Rite. Columbia Gas counters that “[ujtility companies responding as compelled by the One Call Act cannot be equated with design professionals who are engaged to prepare plans, drawings, and specifications and do so for their own pecuniary gain.” Substitute Brief of Appellee on Reargument En Banc, at 7. Furthermore, Columbia Gas along with its amicus curiae, the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, assert that the expansion of tort liability as advocated by ETI “would be contrary to the policy considerations that underlie tort law. Most significantly, im[114]*114posing liability for purely economic losses on utility companies is contrary to the One Call Act — which defines the parties’ relationship and their respective obligations and rights — and would thwart the Act’s purposes.” Id. at 7-8. We find Columbia Gas’ arguments persuasive.

¶ 7 Section 552 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, entitled “Information Negligently Supplied for the Guidance of Others,” provides, in relevant part, as follows:

(1) One who, in the course of his business, profession or employment, or in any other transaction in which he has a pecuniary interest, supplies false information for the guidance of others in their business transactions, is subject to liability for pecuniary loss caused to them by their justifiable reliance upon the information, if he fails to exercise reasonable care or competence in obtaining or communicating the information.
(2) Except as stated in Subsection (3), the liability stated in Subsection (1) is limited to loss suffered
(a) by the person or one of a limited group of persons for whose benefit and guidance he intends to supply the information or knows that the recipient intends to supply it; and
(b) through reliance upon it in a transaction that he intends the information to influence or knows that the recipient so intends or in a substantially similar transaction.

Restatement (Second) of Torts § 552 (1977).

¶ 8 In Bilt-Rite, a school district entered into a contract with an architectural firm, pursuant to which the firm designed a new school.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
936 A.2d 111, 2007 Pa. Super. 327, 2007 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3845, 2007 WL 3275486, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/excavation-technologies-inc-v-columbia-gas-co-of-pennsylvania-pasuperct-2007.