Roberts Contracting Company, Inc. v. Valentine-Wooten Road Public Facility Board

320 S.W.3d 1 (2009)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P agreed to build a sewer system for D by April 12, 2005. D would pay $2,088,166 to build the sewer system, which was to be accepted by the City of Jacksonville, and that, if Roberts did not complete the work on time, it would pay $400 per day until completion. D obtained all necessary easements but did not resolve disputes with two landowners until very late in the project. Those issues, along with wet weather and a contract dispute between the project engineer and County, delayed construction. P received an extension until October 20, 2005, but did not finish the job. By fall 2005, P had installed and tested the sewer lines and had installed five pump stations and the force-main pipes and related equipment. The disputes over the easements had frustrated completion. One easement was finally settled in January 2006, but the other was not resolved until May 2006. The parties disagree about whether D's failure to fulfill its obligations hindered P's ability to perform and whether D agreed to another extension until May 1, 2006. P left the job at this time. On May 16, 2006, P refused to pay the entire amount of a bill on the ground that it had not completed all of the work. The pay estimate was $104,408.30, and P had earned an additional $57,532.50, which had not yet been paid. P refused to perform further and asserted that the purportedly incomplete work was not within the scope of the contract. P claimed that its ability to perform had been hampered by D's failure to perform its obligations. P sued D for breach of contract. D denied that P had substantially performed and filed a counterclaim requesting actual damages for P's failure to complete the project. The trial court found that P had not substantially completed the project. Because D offered no admissible evidence on the amount of damages required to repair the sewer system, the court declined to award actual damages but awarded liquidated damages from May 1, 2006, until August 24, 2006, when P filed this lawsuit. Both parties appealed.