SANBORN ELEC. COMPANY v. Bloomington Athletic Club

433 N.E.2d 81, 1982 Ind. App. LEXIS 1121
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 31, 1982
Docket1-981A268
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 433 N.E.2d 81 (SANBORN ELEC. COMPANY v. Bloomington Athletic Club) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
SANBORN ELEC. COMPANY v. Bloomington Athletic Club, 433 N.E.2d 81, 1982 Ind. App. LEXIS 1121 (Ind. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

RATLIFF, Presiding Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Defendant-appellant Sanborn Electric Company (Sanborn) brings this appeal from the judgment by Monroe Superior Court II in favor of plaintiff-appellee Bloomington Athletic Club (BAC) and appellee City of Bloomington (the city) in BAC’s suit for damages for breach of a construction contract. We affirm.

FACTS

In 1978 Sanborn and BAC entered into a contract for the construction of eight racquetball courts at BAC’s facility. The agreement included a warranty for material and labor which limited Sanborn’s liability to correcting defective conditions covered by the warranty. The warranty expressly provided that the wall and ceiling panels would not dent or spall from racquet hits and that the exposed wall and ceiling panel joints would be chemically bonded and sanded. The particle board panels were covered with a two-part epoxy finish. The contract price for the construction of the courts was $126,250.

Bloomington Athletic Club opened its courts for play in November 1978. Shortly thereafter the epoxy finish on the wall and ceiling panels began to spall at the seams, chip, and delaminate. In January 1979 Sanborn sent a representative to BAC to repair the damaged areas, but this repair work did not prevent further failure of the panel surfaces. Representatives of Sanborn and BAC conferred about the problem, and, on March 30, 1979, pursuant to BAC’s request, Sanborn submitted a repair proposal. Bloomington Athletic Club rejected the proposal as just another proposal to patch the damaged areas, and, on May 2, 1979, BAC filed an action for breach of contract. San-born answered and counterclaimed for $38,-502.96, with interest, which was the balance due on the contract. Sanborn also sought foreclosure of its mechanic’s lien which it had filed against the property. The city was also named a counterdefendant because it was the owner of part of the real estate *84 underlying BAC’s facility at the time the notice of intention to hold the mechanic’s lien was filed. After a bench trial, the court entered judgment in favor of BAC on its claim and against Sanborn on its counterclaim. The trial court found BAC’s damages, based on the cost of repairing the defects, to be $96,000, against which it set off the unpaid balance of the contract, for a net award of $57,497.04.

ISSUES

Sanborn frames the issues in this appeal as follows:

“1. Whether the Trial Court has erred in finding that the Sanborn Electric Company’s (Sanborn) court system cannot be repaired consistent with the proper performance standards.
“2. Whether the Trial Court erred in finding that Sanborn’s repair proposal would not produce compliance with the Sanborn warranties.
“3. Whether the Trial Court erred in finding that the evidence revealed no method to adequately repair the Sanborn court system.
“4. Whether the Trial Court erred in concluding that Sanborn was given a reasonable opportunity to repair the court system and that the limitation of remedies failed of its essential purpose.
“5. Whether the Trial Court erred in finding that the cost of repair of the defects in the court system is $96,000.
“6. Whether the Trial Court erred in its conclusion that Bloomington Athletic Club’s (BAC) damages are to be measured by the cost of remedial work rather than the difference of value between the facility as actually constructed and as it should have been constructed pursuant to the contract.
“7. Whether the Trial Court erred in its conclusion that Sanborn’s mechanic’s lien is extinguished.”

Appellant’s Brief at 1.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

Issue One

Bloomington Athletic Club argues that Sanborn’s first issue, whether the trial court erred in finding that Sanborn’s court system cannot be repaired consistent with the proper performance standards, has been waived for failure to raise it in the motion to correct errors. We disagree because Sanborn’s first assignment of error in its motion adequately raises this question.

Bloomington Athletic Club also maintains that Sanborn’s first issue is based on a mischaracterization of Finding No. 16, which reads as follows:

“(16) That Defendant’s repair proposal will not produce compliance with the sample and the warranties, that the defects constitute a failure of the court system as a whole and the evidence reveals no method of repair which will comply with the sample and warranties, other than by replacement of the existing court system with a different court system;

Record at 129.

We agree with BAC that the trial court’s finding that Sanborn’s “repair proposal will not produce compliance with the sample and warranties” is not the same as saying that Sanborn’s “court system cannot be repaired consistent with the proper performance standards.” The latter statement is much broader and is not limited to San-born’s proposed method of repair. No other finding by the trial court indicates the court determined that the racquetball court system could not be repaired consistently with the proper performance standards. Accordingly, Issue One presents nothing for us to review.

Issues Two and Three

Sanborn, apparently referring to Finding No. 16, asserts that the trial court erred in finding that Sanborn’s repair proposal would not produce compliance with the warranties. Bloomington Athletic Club urges us to find a waiver of this issue, as well, on the ground that Sanborn failed to argue this issue in its brief and failed to specify in what respect the trial court’s finding is erroneous. Although Sanborn *85 has devoted but one page to its discussion of Issues Two and Three, we find that Sanborn has sufficiently argued this question under its discussion of Issue One to permit us to address the matter on its merits.

Sanborn also asserts that the trial court erred by stating in Finding No. 13 that no methods of repair, other than that recommended on March 30, 1979, have been proposed by Sanborn. Sanborn maintains that this finding indicates the trial court ignored Sanborn’s subsequent repair proposal of October 19, 1979, which was transmitted to BAC’s attorneys on October 24, 1979. However, we find no reference to any such error in Sanborn’s motion to correct errors, and the matter is, therefore, waived. Hockelberg v. Farm Bureau Insurance Co., (1980) Ind.App., 407 N.E.2d 1160; Indiana Motorcycle Association v. Hudson, (1980) Ind.App., 399 N.E.2d 775

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Bluebook (online)
433 N.E.2d 81, 1982 Ind. App. LEXIS 1121, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanborn-elec-company-v-bloomington-athletic-club-indctapp-1982.