Hallar Enterprises, Inc. v. Hartman

583 So. 2d 883, 1991 La. App. LEXIS 1909, 1991 WL 119714
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 27, 1991
Docket90 CA 0914
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 583 So. 2d 883 (Hallar Enterprises, Inc. v. Hartman) 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
Hallar Enterprises, Inc. v. Hartman, 583 So. 2d 883, 1991 La. App. LEXIS 1909, 1991 WL 119714 (La. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

583 So.2d 883 (1991)

HALLAR ENTERPRISES, INC.
v.
David S. HARTMAN, Jr. and Hartman Enterprises, Inc.

No. 90 CA 0914.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

June 27, 1991.

*884 F. Charles Marionneaux, Plaquemine, for plaintiff.

Charles A. Schutte, Jr., Baton Rouge, for defendant Commercial Union Ins. Co.

Maurice P. Mathieu, Houma, for defendants David S. Hartman and Hartman Enterprises, Inc.

Jess J. Waguespack, Napoleonville, for defendants Hartman and Hartman Enterprises, Inc.

Before LOTTINGER, SHORTESS and CARTER, JJ.

LOTTINGER, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment in a suit for breach of contract for the resurfacing of a limestone road with hot mix asphalt. The plaintiff, Hallar Enterprises, Inc. (Hallar), sued the defendants, David S. Hartman, Jr. and Hartman Enterprises, Inc. (Hartman), when a private road owned by Hallar failed shortly after it was resurfaced by Hartman. Hartman filed a third party demand against its insurer, Commercial Union Insurance Company (CU), after CU denied coverage and refused to provide Hartman with a defense. Hallar later added CU as a defendant in the main demand.

After a trial on the merits the trial court found that Hartman was not responsible for the failure of the road, and that CU had a duty to defend Hartman pursuant to its insurance policy. A judgment was rendered in favor of Hartman and CU on the main demand, and in favor of Hartman on the third party demand, dismissing Hallar's suit and awarding attorney's fees to Hartman from CU. Hallar and CU both appeal from this judgment.

FACTS

The road at issue is a one thousand foot long private road that connects La. Highway 70 with a well site near Pierre Part, Louisiana. It was originally constructed by an oil company in 1980 and surfaced with limestone to facilitate the drilling of an oil well. Soon after the road was constructed, Mr. Albert Aucoin, the mineral lessor, took over the maintenance of the road and regularly graded it by dragging a rail over it. After several months of drilling, the well was plugged and abandoned by the oil company.

Sometime in 1981, Mr. Aucoin formed Hallar Enterprises, Inc. Hallar reworked the well and began operating it as a saltwater injection well[1] in February 1982. To *885 counteract the effects of subsidence, Hallar added four additional truckloads of limestone to the road shortly after it began operations. Thereafter, Hallar continuously maintained the road as Mr. Aucoin had by regularly grading it with a rail.

In October of 1984, Mr. Aucoin, acting on behalf of Hallar, contacted Mr. Hartman about surfacing the road with asphalt. Mr. Aucoin told Mr. Hartman that the primary reason he wanted the road surfaced was to cut down on the dust. He told Mr. Hartman that he had never had any problems with the road since it was built and that it had a good base. He estimated that an average of twelve to fourteen heavy trucks used the road daily and that the road withstood this traffic with no problems. He indicated to Mr. Hartman that there were never any pothole or subsidence problems with the road since it was constructed.

Relying on a visual inspection of the road, and Mr. Aucoin's representations as to the volume and weight of the traffic using the road for over two years and its history of a complete absence of potholes or subsidence, Mr. Hartman concluded that the base of the road was sufficient to support the asphalt overlay without any additional work besides grading and shaping. Mr. Aucoin asked if soil cement[2] was needed, and Mr. Hartman replied that soil cement is not used on limestone roads.

Mr. Hartman then agreed to grade and shape the existing road base and overlay it with three inches of asphaltic concrete. The job was completed in October of 1984, and within several months the road began to fail. The experts who testified at trial all agreed that the cause of the failure was an insufficient base under the asphalt. They were all of the opinion that the asphalt itself met the pertinent specifications and was properly put down.

All of the experts testified that from an engineering point of view,[3] it was never appropriate to overlay a road without testing the base by taking core samples. They agreed that it was impossible to determine the sufficiency of the base by a visual inspection of the surface alone. They also testified that it was usually not the contractor's responsibility, but rather the owner's or road building authority's responsibility to hire an engineer or otherwise test the sufficiency of the base.

All three experts also agreed that given the condition of the base and the volume and type of traffic using the road, it must have been failing, i.e. continually subsiding and developing potholes, prior to being overlaid with asphalt. They testified that if this was not apparent from a visual inspection it was because the road was continuously graded, and in effect continuously repaired, so that the defects were not obvious.

THE MAIN DEMAND: HARTMAN'S LIABILITY TO HALLAR

After a trial on the merits the trial court held that Hartman was not responsible for the failure of the road because he did not build or agree to strengthen the base, because Mr. Aucoin represented that the base was adequate, and because there were no apparent defects in the base. The trial court further found that Mr. Aucoin had enough knowledge about road building to retain the services of an engineer if he desired one.

Hallar appeals, relying on La.Civ.Code art. 2762 and several cases interpreting it. This article provides:

If a building, which an architect or other workman has undertaken to make by the job, should fall to ruin either in whole or in part, on account of the badness of the workmanship, the architect or *886 undertaker shall bear the loss if the building falls to ruin in the course of ten years, if it be a stone or brick building, and of five years if it be built in wood or with frames filled with bricks.

Although this article refers only to a "building," the jurisprudence has extended its application to include the surfacing of streets and parking lots with asphalt. Hanna-Abington Alexandria, Inc. v. Budd Construction Company, 487 So.2d 743 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1986); Don Siebarth Pontiac, Inc. v. Asphalt Road Building and Resurfacing, Inc., 407 So.2d 42 (La. App. 3rd Cir.1981); Town of Winnsboro v. Barnard & Burk, Inc., 294 So.2d 867 (La. App. 2nd Cir.), writ denied, 295 So.2d 445 (La.1974).

With respect to defects in the soil, or as in this case a defect in the existing base of the road to be overlaid, article 2762 imposes liability upon a contractor only for building upon a site that he knew or should have known was defective. The contractor is liable only for failing to correct or disclose obvious or apparent soil defects and not latent or hidden defects. Wurst v. Pruyn, 250 La. 1109, 202 So.2d 268 (La.1967). In Wurst, the Supreme Court held:

While undertakers and architects under Article 2762 are held harmless for "defects in the soil", it is latent defects in the soil which are meant.
....

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Bluebook (online)
583 So. 2d 883, 1991 La. App. LEXIS 1909, 1991 WL 119714, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hallar-enterprises-inc-v-hartman-lactapp-1991.