Opinion ID: 1890623
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Stonebrook's Breach-of-Warranty Claim

Text: Stonebrook argues that the Court of Civil Appeals erred in reversing the trial court's judgment in favor of Stonebrook on its breach-of-warranty claim. Specifically, Stonebrook claims that the Court of Civil Appeals failed to follow the ore tenus rule. Alabama law is well settled, [w]here evidence is presented to the trial court ore tenus, we presume that the court's conclusions on issues of fact are correct, and we will not disturb them unless they are clearly erroneous, without supporting evidence, manifestly unjust, or against the great weight of the evidence. Ex parte Lamar Adver. Co., 849 So.2d 928, 929-30 (Ala.2002); American Petroleum Equip. & Constr. Inc. v. Fancher, 708 So.2d 129, 132 (Ala.1997). The Court of Civil Appeals' opinion in this case states: Stonebrook relies primarily on two passages of testimony in an effort to establish that Matthews Brothers' work did not satisfy its warranty. First, Stonebrook relies heavily on testimony by Sanford that Matthews Brothers did not have enough people on the job site on certain days when the weather was good, and therefore failed to make adequate progress toward timely completion of the job. The trial testimony, however, did not support the conclusion that that omission caused the work eventually performed by Matthews Brothers to not comply with contract specifications. Stonebrook also points to a passage from the testimony of a second contractor, [Sonny] Wadsworth, who was hired by Stonebrook after Matthews Brothers had completed its work. Specifically, Stonebrook relies on an affirmative answer by Wadsworth when asked if he had been able to correct the defective roads and whether he had been called back to perform any corrective work. Stonebrook argues that because Wadsworth was not called back to the job site, the trial court could infer that no subsequent failures occurred. [Therefore], reasons Stonebrook, Wadsworth's performance demonstrates that the job could have been performed properly in the first instance and, therefore, by comparison, Matthews Brothers' workmanship must have been inferior. We note, however, that later in his deposition, Wadsworth was asked directly whether there subsequently have been any failures in the locations in which he performed work. His response was, `I have heard that there have but I haven't been up there.' Thus, it cannot fairly be inferred that, merely because Wadsworth said earlier in his deposition that he had not been called back to the job site, he was intending to suggest that the roadway had not experienced any subsequent failures. To the contrary, the uncontroverted testimony at trial was that the roads in question never have been `right' and were to some degree still failing at the time of trial. Stonebrook also bore the burden of proof as to the cause of the roadway failures. If the failures were a result of design defects, given the soil, rain and groundwater conditions at the job site, then Matthews Brothers is not responsible for them under its warranty and would be entitled to compensation for its supplemental work in 1995. The great weight of the evidence supports the conclusion that some, if not all, of the failures in the roadway were a result of design defects, in the context of the underlying `gumbo'-type soil, the `plasticity' of which was greatly exacerbated by unusually wet conditions, including rain and water seeping out of the hills above the site. Witness after witness provided testimony to this effect.  In contrast, there is no direct testimony that any deficiency in Matthews Brothers' work caused any of the roadway failures. The only direct causation testimony at trial came from Wadsworth, who attributed the failures to the water coming out of the hill adjacent to the roadway. He testified that he was only able to make the repairs that he accomplished after he installed a French drain to catch the water and prevent it from invading the roadbed. The French drain to which he refers was not part of the design provided to Matthews Brothers by [Sanford and SBA] when Matthews Brothers performed either its original or its supplemental work on the job site. There was uncontroverted evidence that even with the significant design improvements achieved with this drain, water has continued to invade the roadbed to some degree and to percolate up through the pavement. After carefully reviewing all of the evidence of record, including but not limited to that described above, it is our conclusion that by far the great weight of the evidence is to the effect that design defects, in conjunction with the naturally occurring conditions, caused many, if not all, of the failures in the roadway. Conversely, our review of the record leads us to the conclusion that the record does not contain substantial evidence that deficiencies, if any, in the work performed by Matthews Brothers caused all of such failures. Matthews Bros. Constr. Co., 854 So.2d at 582-83 (footnote omitted; emphasis, other than last two emphases, added). The Court of Civil Appeals found that the trial court's factual findings were against the great weight of the evidence presented at trial. We agree. The great weight of the evidence at trial demonstrated that the deficiencies in Matthews Brothers' work were the result of defects in the design specifications provided by Sanford and SBA. Stonebrook also alleges that the Court of Civil Appeals misstated the law governing breach-of-warranty claims. Specifically, Stonebrook claims that by requiring Stonebrook to prove that all of the damage[ ] to the roadway [was] proximately caused by Matthews Brothers' failure to comply with contract specifications without consideration of the manner in which the work was performed, the Court of Civil Appeals is restricting Stonebrook's claim and not allowing Stonebrook to pursue damages, which are the natural and proximate consequence of a breach of warranty. (Petitioner's brief at 21.) As stated above, the Court of Civil Appeals found that there [was] no direct testimony that any deficiency in Matthews Brothers' work caused any of the roadway failures. Matthews Bros. Constr. Co., 854 So.2d at 583. To the contrary, the evidence supports the conclusion that some, if not all, of the failures in the roadway were a result of [Sanford and SBA's] design defects. Matthews Bros. Constr. Co., 854 So.2d at 582. Because Stonebrook failed to prove that the warranty was breached, we need not determine whether the Court of Civil Appeals misstated the law regarding causation.