State Highway Department v. W. L. Cobb Construction Co.

143 S.E.2d 500, 111 Ga. App. 822, 1965 Ga. App. LEXIS 1110
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided May 27, 1965·No. 41195·Published·Cited by 24 cases

Opinions

Russell, Judge.

The State Highway Department first takes the position on demurrer that a State is never suable except by its consent, Thweatt v. State, 66 Ga. 673, and that therefore it, as an arm of State government, cannot be sued on this contract without its consent. Code § 95-1505 provides: “The Highway Department may sue and be sued and may make settlement of all claims presented to it under oath.” In 81 CJS! 1114, States, § 124, citing Regents of Univ. System v. Blanton, 49 Ga. App. 602 (176 SE 673) and Regents of Univ. System v. Woodward, 49 Ga. App. 608 (176 SE 677) it is stated: “The state, in entering into contracts, lays aside some of its attributes of a sovereign, and is bound to observe the same rule of conduct in performance of its contractual relations with its citizens as it requires them to observe. The state, like an individual, is liable for its breach of contracts, although, in the absence of a statute authorizing suits against the state, the contractor cannot enforce performance or recover damages.” That the State Highway Department is subject to be sued on its contracts see also State Hwy. Dept. v. MacDougald Constr. Co., 54 Ga. App. 310 (1) (187 SE 734); Perkerson v. State Hwy. Bd., 56 Ga. App. 316 (192 SE1 475); State Hwy. Dept. v. Marsh, 214 Ga. 693 (107 SE2d 179). This ground of demurrer is without merit.

The contract in question here is substantially the same as others dealt with in State Hwy. Dept. v. Wright Contracting Co., 107 Ga. App. 758 (131 SE2d 808) and State Hwy. Dept. v. MacDougald Constr. Co., 102 Ga. App. 254 (115 SE2d 863). As to such contracts, which contain provisions for arbitration, provisions for decisions by the engineer, and provisions that such decisions shall be final, it was held in State Hwy. Dept. v. MacDougald Constr. Co., 189 Ga. 490 (6 SE2d 570) that such [826] decisions, although erroneous, are binding on the parties in the absence of fraud or such gross mistake as would necessarily imply bad faith or a failure to exercise an honest judgment. The plaintiff under these criteria alleged by amendment that the defendant, through its engineers at the site, was guilty of such fraud and gross mistake as would imply bad faith and a failure to exercise a fair and honest judgment in that after it became apparent that the failures in proof-rolling the subbase were due to a faulty design it failed and refused over a period of months to make any effort to correct the design, required plaintiff to proof-roll over and over again, and repeatedly to dig out the subgrade, turn it over to dry it out and then replace it after it was obvious that until the design was corrected such methods were useless; failed and refused to keep records of the repair work for which plaintiff was entitled to be paid and urged the failure to keep records as a reason for nonpayment; after a decision was made to pay plaintiff for certain types of work for a given period of time it then continued to refuse to measure and repay the palintiff for the same type of repair work thereafter; inaccurately reconstructed records after having refused to keep them in the first instance, and in bad faith required the plaintiff to adhere to an inadequate and erroneous design. The plaintiff alleged an indebtedness under the contract of $207,645.50. This included $47,910.25 for unclassified excavation at a bid unit price per cubic yard under § 121.08 of the Standard Specifications allowing such compensation as an item of repairs; to which the defendant demurred on the ground plaintiff did not allege the unclassified excavation had been measured for payment as required by § 121.07 or that the repairs were authorized by the engineer as required by § 121.05(a) stating that “all depressions and weak spots discovered as a result of the rolling shall be satisfactorily repaired. The repairs may consist of the removal and replacement of materials or bringing in new materials, or both, and the engineer will decide what repairs are to be made.” Section 121 deals generally with sub-grade compaction, and § 121.07 provides that as to repairs after proof-rolling, “all materials removed under this specification regardless of their nature will be measured for payment as unclassified excavation. If certain materials are laid aside or [827] stockpiled and later used again, their excavation from the stockpile and placement in the roadbed will also be measured for payment as unclassified excavation.” Section 121.02 provides for testing for subgrade compaction with a 35-ton roller and § 121.03 provides that “the surface to be rolled shall be machined at the proper grade and cross section before it is rolled. It shall be at or near optimum moisture content.”

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State Highway Department v. W. L. Cobb Construction Co., 143 S.E.2d 500, 111 Ga. App. 822, 1965 Ga. App. LEXIS 1110 (Ga. Ct. App. 1965).

143 S.E.2d 500 (State Highway Department v. W. L. Cobb Construction Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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