North Harris County Junior College District v. Fleetwood Construction Co.

604 S.W.2d 247, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3640
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 25, 1980
DocketB2177
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 604 S.W.2d 247 (North Harris County Junior College District v. Fleetwood Construction Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
North Harris County Junior College District v. Fleetwood Construction Co., 604 S.W.2d 247, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3640 (Tex. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

SALAZAR, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment against North Harris County Junior College awarding to contractor Fleetwood withheld retainage, delay damages, and compensation for extra work performed because of a concealed condition. Gregory-Edwards, one of the subcontractors, also appeals from that part of the judgment which denies it attorney’s fees from Fleetwood. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Statement of the Case

On December 13, 1973, Fleetwood submitted his bid on construction of a portion of Phase I of the North Harris County Junior College project, including construction of buildings, roads and a parking lot. The bid documents included working drawings, project manuals, a soil foundation investigation report by Associated Testing Laboratories, plans and specifications and addenda and instructions to bidders. In Addendum No. 1, the College informed bidders that the contract for the other portion of Phase I had been awarded to Marathon-Mischer Company which was to supply compacted fill under the buildings to be constructed in the second contract, and a permanent road and drainage system. The College represented that the compacted fill should be in place by February 15, 1974.

Fleetwood was awarded the contract. He received from the architect a standard notice to proceed (dated January 11) which was followed by another letter from the architect (dated January 14) advising him to request an extension of time because Marathon — Mischer’s operations had not yet reached .a point at which Fleetwood could begin. Fleetwood requested the extension of time on January 16 and specifically stated that it was his understanding that the Marathon-Mischer work would be completed by February 15 as originally anticipated. He was officially notified by the architect that his start-up would be further delayed until the first week in April. Fleetwood responded, reminding the architect that he needed to begin work as soon as possible due to the automatic wage increases and daily material price changes. On March 6, Fleetwood moved equipment onto the construction site and discovered that the soil was not strong enough to support the equipment. The architects called in a soil testing laboratory (Murillo) which found the soil to be incapable of being compacted to a firm density and further found the cement stabilization required by Addendum No. 7 to be unsatisfactory in producing a firm subgrade.

On March 19, Fleetwood notified the architects that Marathon-Mischer had not yet completed its work to the point that Fleet-wood could commence its operations on the building and that it could not resume work on the parking lot and paving subgrade until the architects had reached a decision on the Murillo report. Fleetwood stated that the extensive delay was due to no fault of his and that he could not be expected to absorb the extra expense caused by the delay. In response, the architect suggested that Fleetwood wait four to six months for the soil to dry out. On April 3, Fleetwood offered to rescind the contract, asking payment for costs and losses, for the purpose of allowing the owner to rebid the project after the soil-drying period. On April 12, *251 the architect issued an authorization to proceed with cement stabilization of the roadbed according to Addendum No. 7. The subcontractor Richmond Road proceeded, unsuccessfully, and shortly thereafter the architect advised Fleetwood to stop. On May 20, Fleetwood wrote the architect, reciting the failures and delays, and listed expected extra costs and damages. On May 24, Fleetwood wrote to the College stating that he intended to perform the contract but that he was filing suit for damages and extra costs.

On June 18, Fleetwood was notified that the owner had accepted Marathon-Mischer’s building fill and that Fleetwood was to proceed with work on the buildings. Fleet-wood ordered an inspection of the fill, as required for his protection under the General Conditions of the contract (AIA Document A201). The testing laboratory (Southwestern) rejected the fill as failing to meet contract specifications. The architect was notified of the problem; he ordered Murillo and Southwestern to run side-by-side tests on the building fill. Murillo also found that the fill failed to meet contract specifications. The architects rescinded their previous order for Fleetwood to begin work on the building.

On July 11 the Board of Regents discussed the problems of the fill with Hin-shaw, the consulting structural engineer. Hinshaw prepared plans for a French drain and for recompacting of the top twelve inches of the fill. A third soil testing laboratory (McClelland) was asked to conduct additional soil tests and reported that the fill was in compliance with the contract specifications. On July 24, the architect wrote Fleetwood advising him of the McClelland report and the Board’s decision to have Fleetwood begin construction at once.

Fleetwood began construction on the fill August 1 and immediately encountered numerous problems. Because of the five and one-half month delay, Fleetwood poured concrete slabs during some of the winter months, having to keep the concrete heated or covered.

In the spring of 1975, Fleetwood hired Southwestern to test the subsoil to determine whether the roads and paving could be put in to meet specifications. Southwestern made reports in April, May, June and September of 1975, stating each time that the subsoils could not be compacted because of their saturated condition.

On November 18, 1975, Fleetwood notified the architects that he intended to engage in extra work to stabilize the six inches below the pavement and that such work was being done under protest. He began work on the subgrade, digging 2 to 3½ feet and recompacting. The subgrade was brought up to compaction standards as required by the specifications. The paving subcontractor, Richmond Road, tore up Fleetwood’s subgrade, disced and scarified two to three feet deep and put in flue dust, a form of cement stabilization.

On January 26, 1976, the College’s attorney represented to Fleetwood that the college president had advised that the items remaining to be performed under the contract were not significant. He further represented that the College would release to Fleetwood retainage for him and the subcontractors if they would agree to make no claims for delay of other additional compensation. Several subcontractors received their share of the retainage as a result of agreeing to this condition, but those who pursued their claims for damages did not.

On January 27, the architect wrote Fleet-wood, detailing the requirements for a final certificate of payment, specifically naming certain record drawings and affidavits. At that time, suit for damages (in which several of the subcontractors were intervenors) was pending in the district court. Trial was had before the court without a jury, and the court entered extensive findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Introduction

At the outset of any discussion of points on appeal, we would like to point out that in some instances it has been difficult to correlate the listed points of error with the real points raised in the discussion and ar *252 gument portions of the brief as required by Tex.R.Civ.P. 418(e).

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604 S.W.2d 247, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3640, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/north-harris-county-junior-college-district-v-fleetwood-construction-co-texapp-1980.