Trial Win in Contractor Dispute

Trial Win in Contractor Dispute

Dan Levin, Travis Halstead, and Christie Bredahl Gierke recently won a non-jury trial in Orlando, Florida with a final judgment in favor of CSK’s client, E&L Support Services, Inc.

The Plaintiff, Lane Construction Corporation, was a design-build contractor for a roadway construction project. The Contractor sued E&L for professional negligence arising out of alleged errors and omissions in the preparation and administration of a Mass Concrete Plan prepared for construction of a 2 million pound saddle beam intended to support a bridge/ramp for the roadway project. Upon completion of the Ramp C concrete pour, the beam developed premature cracking and structural failure known as delayed ettringite formation (“DEF”). The owner of the project, the Central Florida Expressway Authority, required the Contractor to rip and replace the beam at a cost of approximately $700,000. In turn, the Contractor filed suit against E&L for approximately $700,000, which it contends was an expense resulting solely from the poor design of the Mass Concrete Plan prepared by E&L.

At trial, CSK presented evidence of the Contractor’s material deviations of the Mass Concrete Plan through testimony of the Contractor’s own witnesses and the resident inspector retained by the Owner for on-site inspections and quality control. The Contractor argued that E&L’s plan never would have worked even if the Contractor implemented it perfectly.

The Court found the Contractor failed to prove the requisite element of proximate causation for the professional negligence claim, and entered judgment in E&L’s favor.