Potashnick v. United States

105 F. Supp. 837, 123 Ct. Cl. 197
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJuly 15, 1952
Docket49238
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 105 F. Supp. 837 (Potashnick v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Potashnick v. United States, 105 F. Supp. 837, 123 Ct. Cl. 197 (cc 1952).

Opinion

LITTLETON, Judge.

The facts material to the claims presented in this action are set forth in the findings. Shortly after October 14, 1942, the District Engineer, U. S. Engineer Office, Vicksburg, Mississippi, issued an invitation for bids for certain excavation, grading, drainage and paving of runways and taxi ways necessary for the construction of an airport at Hot Springs, Arkansas. Prior to the invitation for bids, the defendant’s engineers in charge of the project prepared certain specifications and drawings for the work. Also, before the invitation for bids was issued, the defendant’s engineers made a thorough examination of the site, and made core borings over the entire areas of the work to be included in a contract for an airport, runways, etc., as planned at that time. These borings were made for the purpose of obtaining information and data as to the nature and character of the subsurface conditions of the area, to be furnished to bidders for their use in making their bids for the work involved. The information disclosed and obtained as a result of these borings was carefully recorded by the engineers performing this work for the U. S. Engineer’s Office in boring-log field books. Subsequently, the U. S. Engineer’s Office prepared a drawing, to be furnished to bidders for this work, containing information relating to the subsurface conditions of the area of the work and the subsurface materials which the bidders would encounter in the performance of such work. This drawing and the information shown thereon constituted a representation by defendant of the subsurface conditions at the site of the work. This drawing containing the boring data recorded thereon by defendant was attached to the plans, specifications and contract drawings, furnished to plaintiff and other bidders with the invitation for bids. As shown in findings 9, 16, 17 and 20, the information obtained by defendant’s engineers when making the core borings was not truthfully recorded by the U. S. Engineer’s Office on the core-boring data drawing, with the result that plaintiff was' misled concerning the actual conditions encountered by the engineers who made the core borings in the area of the work between Stations 20 and 45.

The record shows that plaintiff relied upon the representations made by defendant on the boring-data drawing in making his bid for the work. The explorations made by defendant’s engineers in this area between Stations 20 and 45, consisted of boring down to certain elevations when the borings were discontinued because the material encountered was too hard to penetrate with the drilling equipment used in making the borings. The subsurface material so encountered consisted of rock known in the area as blue granite which is very difficult and expensive to excavate by blasting. The information thus obtained by the engineers was noted in the field books in which the boring data were recorded, but when the U. S. Engineer’s Office prepared the boring-data drawing, for use by bidders, the information obtained by the engineers and recorded in the field books was not shown on this contract drawing nor was it indicated in the specifications. The boring-data drawing disclosed the subsurface material at the bottom of the holes in the area between Stations 20 and 45 simply as sandstone. Sandstone was encountered in other areas but plaintiff had' no- difficulty in excavating such material. In all other areas of the contract work, except between Stations 20 and 45, above referred to, the boring data recorded on the contract drawing correctly disclosed the subsurface conditions, and in such areas plaintiff encountered no difficulty and found that the character of the subsurface materials encountered in all areas, except between Stations 20 and 45, was as had been represented by defendant on the boring-data drawing (finding 23). However, in- the area between Stations 20 and 45, where- the defendant untruthfully represented the subsurface conditions encountered by the engineers- who-made the borings and where- plaintiff encountered -blue granite- rock, the evidence clearly establishes that plaintiff' sustained a loss of $104,719.35, including a- reasonable profit of $35,040.77 which- plaintiff' would *839 have made if the subsurface materials had been as represented by defendant on the boring-data drawing.

The record in this case shows that defendant concealed from plaintiff material information relating to subsurface conditions and gave plaintiff erroneous and misleading information on the boring-data drawing upon which plaintiff relied in making his bid. The representations made by defendant on the core-boring data drawing were a warranty, and the knowledge and concealment from plaintiff of facts and information relating to the true character of the subsurface conditions in the area involved amounted to a misrepresentation, and constituted a breach of warranty and of the contract. In these circumstances the plaintiff is entitled to recover the damages actually sustained by him which, as stated above, we have found to be $104,719.35. United States v. Atlantic Dredging Co., 253 U. S. 1, 7, 11, 40 S.Ct. 423, 64 L.Ed. 735; Hollerbach v. United States, 233 U. S. 165, 172, 34 S.Ct. 553, 58 L.Ed. 898; Christie v. United States, 237 U. S. 234, 241, 242, 35 S.Ct. 565, 59 L.Ed. 933; Virginia Engineering Co. v. United States, 101 Ct.Cl. 516, 533; Ruff v. United States, 96 Ct.Cl. 148, 162, 163; Dunbar & Sullivan Dredging Co. v. United States, 65 Ct.Cl. 567.

‘[2] The defendant argues that plaintiff may not recover because it did not follow the administrative procedure outlined in Article 4 of the contract entitled “Changed Conditions.” Finding 14. Under the facts in this case we are of the opinion that Article 4 does not apply, and plaintiff is not precluded from recovering the damages sustained by reason of the defendant’s misrepresentation and breach of warranty concerning subsurface condition of the contract work. Article 4 contemplates the encountering by the -contractor or the discovery by the Government during the progress of the work, subsurface and/or latent conditions at the site unknown by either the Government or the contractor at the time of the •making of the contract. In this case the defendant knew, but the plaintiff did not know, the nature and the character of the ■subsurface -conditions in the area between Stations 20 and 45. The plaintiff did not discover that defendant had in fact misrepresented the true nature of the subsurface conditions between Stations 20 and 45 until July 1945, at the hearing of plaintiff’s appeal before the War Department Board of Contract Appeals. Finding 20. It was at this hearing that the boring-data field books were made available to the plaintiff.

The fact that plaintiff might have presented to the contracting officer a claim under Article 4, along with the claim which it did submit that it had incurred excess costs and sustained losses because he had encountered subsurface materials which he did not anticipate, should not preclude the plaintiff from recovering his loss and damages here by reason of defendant’s breach of the contract.

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

Related

Hardwick Bros. v. United States
41 Cont. Cas. Fed. 76,972 (Federal Claims, 1996)
Granite Construction Co. v. United States
37 Cont. Cas. Fed. 76,240 (Court of Claims, 1991)
Baltimore Contractors, Inc. v. United States
34 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,267 (Court of Claims, 1987)
Portable Rock Production Co. v. United States
31 Cont. Cas. Fed. 72,053 (Court of Claims, 1984)
Schmelig Construction Co. v. Missouri State Highway Commission
543 S.W.2d 265 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1976)
Aerojet-General Corp. v. United States
467 F.2d 1293 (Court of Claims, 1972)
J. A. Thompson & Son, Inc. v. State
465 P.2d 148 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1970)
Evans Reamer & MacHine Company v. The United States
386 F.2d 873 (Court of Claims, 1968)
J. A. Terteling & Sons, Inc. v. The United States
390 F.2d 926 (Court of Claims, 1968)
Kaiser Industries Corporation v. The United States
340 F.2d 322 (Court of Claims, 1965)
Utah Construction & Mining Co. v. United States
339 F.2d 606 (Court of Claims, 1964)
Helene Curtis Industries, Inc. v. The United States
312 F.2d 774 (Court of Claims, 1963)
Helene Curtis Industries, Inc. v. United States
160 Ct. Cl. 437 (Court of Claims, 1963)
Flippin Materials Co. v. United States
312 F.2d 408 (Court of Claims, 1963)
State Highway Department v. MacDougald Construction Co.
115 S.E.2d 863 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1960)
Arcole Midwest Corp. v. United States
113 F. Supp. 278 (Court of Claims, 1953)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
105 F. Supp. 837, 123 Ct. Cl. 197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/potashnick-v-united-states-cc-1952.