Paragon Construction Co. v. Department of Public Works

23 A.3d 732, 130 Conn. App. 211, 2011 Conn. App. LEXIS 395
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJuly 19, 2011
DocketAC 32073
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 23 A.3d 732 (Paragon Construction Co. v. Department of Public Works) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paragon Construction Co. v. Department of Public Works, 23 A.3d 732, 130 Conn. App. 211, 2011 Conn. App. LEXIS 395 (Colo. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

Opinion

ROBINSON, J.

The defendants, the department of public works and the department of correction, appeal from the judgment of the trial court denying their motion to dismiss part of the action of the plaintiff, Paragon Construction Company, which was based on the doctrine of sovereign immunity. On appeal, the defendants claim that the court improperly denied their motion to dismiss. 1 We affirm in part and reverse in part the judgment of the trial court.

The record reveals the following relevant facts and procedural history. The department of correction is the administrator of the Cheshire Correctional Center, and both the department of public works and the department of correction let out for bid and administered a project for renovation of the Cheshire Correctional Center. In July, 1999, the plaintiff entered into a public works contract with the department of public works pursuant to which the plaintiff was to act as the general contractor on the construction project at the Cheshire Correctional Center. Pursuant to the contract, the plaintiff agreed to provide services and materials for the construction project in return for the defendants’ payment of the contract amount. Subsequently, the plaintiff entered into a subcontract with MacKenzie Painting Company (MacKenzie) pursuant to which MacKenzie agreed to “de-lead” and paint certain security bars on windows at the Cheshire Correctional Center. After substantial completion of the construction project, a dispute arose between the plaintiff and the defendants over payment for additional required work and delays.

*214 On December 2, 2005, the plaintiff filed a two count complaint against the defendants seeking to collect sums allegedly due for additional required work and delays. The first count alleged a claim of breach of contract, while the second count alleged a claim of unjust enrichment. Specifically, as to the first count, the plaintiff alleged breach of contract on two different grounds, the first being based on the allegation that the plaintiff was owed $178,312 for the “de-leading” of security bars on windows, as set forth in paragraph seven of count one of the complaint, 2 and the second being based on the allegation that the defendants caused construction delays and required additional work that damaged the plaintiff to the extent of $293,023.60, as set forth in paragraph eight of count one of the complaint. 3 The defendants did not seek to dismiss the portion of the breach of contract claim that alleged breach by construction delays and additional required work. In the second count, the plaintiff alleged that the defendants were unjustly enriched as a result of their failure to pay the plaintiff for the “de-leading” of the security bars and for the delays and other additional *215 work they had required, which caused the defendants to realize an unjust economic benefit of $471,335.60. 4

On January 17, 2006, pursuant to Practice Book § 10-31 (a) (1), the defendants filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction on the basis of the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Specifically, the defendants claimed that the doctrine of sovereign immunity barred the breach of contract claim because the plaintiff failed to allege a “ ‘disputed claim’ ” under a contract with the state, as required by the statutory waiver of immunity provided in General Statutes § 4-61 (a). 5 The defendants also claimed that the unjust enrichment claim, as set forth in count two, was barred because it failed to meet the requirements in § 4-61 (a) because “the services and merchandise that the [defendants] allegedly failed to compensate the *216 [p]laintiff for were ‘not contemplated by the contract’ . . . .” The court, Hon. Jerry Wagner, judge trial referee, having construed the allegations in a manner most favorable to the plaintiff, concluded that the allegations set forth in paragraph eight of the first count, which also was incorporated in the second count, sufficiently brought each count of the complaint within the requirements of § 4-61 (a) and, accordingly, denied the motion. 6

Subsequently, through the discovery process, the defendants deposed both Albert Ridinger, the plaintiffs president, and Malcolm MacKenzie, MacKenzie’s president. On December 21, 2009, the defendants filed a second motion to dismiss, this time purportedly supplemented by “undisputed facts” established by the deposition testimony. In their motion, the defendants asserted that the plaintiffs lack of compliance with the requirements of § 4-61 (a) deprived the court of subject matter jurisdiction over that portion of count one that alleged that the Cheshire Correctional Center 7 had failed to pay the plaintiff for the “de-leading” of the security bars and the entirety of count two. 8

As to the portion of the breach of contract claim that alleges that the Cheshire Correctional Center had failed to pay the plaintiff for the “de-leading” of the security bars, the defendants argued, based on our Supreme Court’s decision in Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Peabody, N.E., Inc., 239 Conn. 93, 680 A.2d 1321 (1996), that the allegations set forth in paragraph seven of count *217 one were insufficient to meet the requirements of § 4-61 (a), because the plaintiff was required to allege either that it had paid MacKenzie $178,312 or to admit that it unconditionally was hable to MacKenzie for that amount and, therefore, was due payment from the defendants. In addition, the defendants argued that the deposition testimony of both Ridinger and Malcolm MacKenzie established that the plaintiff had not yet paid MacKenzie $178,312 or admitted that it unconditionally was hable to MacKenzie for that amount. As to the unjust enrichment claim, the defendants argued that, because the claim did not fall directly under the terms of the contract, it did not meet the requirements of § 4-61 (a).

On March 8, 2010, the court, Peck, J., denied the second motion to dismiss for two reasons. First, the court concluded that the question of whether the claim asserting that the Cheshire Correctional Center had failed to pay the plaintiff for the “de-leading” of the security bars, as set forth in paragraph seven of the breach of contract claim, met the requirements of § 4-61 (a) was inherently fact bound and, consequently, was an issue to be resolved by a fact finder. 9 Second, the court concluded that because paragraph eight of count one and as incorporated into count two contained a viable claim for delay damages against the defendants, it could not dismiss the action. Subsequently, the defendants appealed.

As a preliminary matter, we set forth the standard of review.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
23 A.3d 732, 130 Conn. App. 211, 2011 Conn. App. LEXIS 395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paragon-construction-co-v-department-of-public-works-connappct-2011.