Opinion ID: 202362
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Isbitski's Dealings with Timberpeg

Text: 9 Timberpeg markets and sells designs and its own brand of packages for the construction of timberframe homes. A Timberpeg package consists of the materials used for the construction of a home's timberframe and exterior building envelope (including windows, exterior doors, insulation, siding, exterior trim, and cedar roof shakes). Timberpeg does not erect the packages it sells; instead, a customer must hire a builder or contractor to assemble and erect the package. 10 Timberpeg provides architectural design services for customers, and has a staff of architects and designers who can create all the necessary designs and architectural plans to build a home. Timberpeg's business model is not based on selling design services or architectural plans. Rather, Timberpeg makes its money on the sale of its packages of construction material based on its architectural plans. Timberpeg provides architectural design services as a way to facilitate the sale of its packages. 11 Sometime in 1999 or perhaps earlier, Isbitski approached Timberpeg to consider the purchase of a Timberpeg package. Isbitski, working with a Timberpeg employee, filled out a design information sheet about what he wanted the house to look like. The actual design information sheet is not in the record. On November 15, 1999, Isbitski and Timberpeg entered into a Deposit Agreement for TIMBERPEG Preliminary Plans and Drawings. Under this deposit agreement, Isbitski paid a $2500 deposit to Timberpeg, in exchange for which Timberpeg would and did create preliminary architectural plans and construction plans for the house. The preliminary architectural plans would consist of a basement plan, floor plans, four elevations (external, vertical views of the house from different angles showing exterior features such as window and door locations, roof pitches, and ceiling heights), and a building cross section. After Isbitski's approval of the preliminary plans, Isbitski would receive construction plans, including foundation plans and details of Timberpeg's standard construction techniques. According to the contract, the construction plans could be used for planning the construction process, ordering materials, obtaining contractor bids, and securing a building permit. Final plans, which included the complete frame drawings, would not be prepared as part of the deposit agreement, but would be prepared as part of the final contract for the purchase of a Timberpeg package. Timberpeg, in all, provided Isbitski with two versions of the preliminary plans and then construction plans. No final plans were ever provided. 12 Under the contract, Isbitski represented to Timberpeg that any house plans, specifications, drawings or sketches of any kind (the `Drawings') provided to [Timberpeg were] the result of an original design (the `Design'), represented that he (Isbitski) was the sole owner of the Design and has exclusive rights, including copyright, in and to the Design as represented in the Drawings, and agreed to indemnify and hold harmless Timberpeg from use of the drawings and design. Timberpeg would own the copyright in the Preliminary Plans, Construction Plans, specifications, drawings, and other material (the `Plans'). Isbitski could use the plans solely in connection with the evaluation and construction of one (1) Package purchased from [Timberpeg], and 13 [a]ny other use of the Plans, including, but not limited to, the following, is an unauthorized appropriation of copyright by Customer and a breach of this Agreement: a) the copying of all or any part of the Plans; b) the utilization or partial utilization of the Plans for the construction of a similar building or structure; or c) any transfer or delivery of the Plans to another person without written authorization from [Timberpeg]. 14 Isbitski was under no obligation to purchase a Timberpeg package after seeing the preliminary plans or even the construction plans. If he chose to purchase a package, the $2500 deposit would be credited against the price of the package. If he chose not to purchase a package, Isbitski would have to return the plans, and Timberpeg would return the deposit minus a fee for design time, billed at $49 per hour, and other incidental costs. 15 Timberpeg created a first set of preliminary plans on December 29, 1999 and gave them to Isbitski. These plans showed the design of a house with a timberframed main portion and a wing that would be stick built. The record does not contain this first set of plans, and these plans were never registered with the Copyright Office. 16 In early 2001, Isbitski met again with Timberpeg, saying that he was unsatisfied with the first set of preliminary plans. Timberpeg completed a new design for Isbitski on April 20, 2001 based on [its] interpretation of Mr. Isbitski's rough ideas and preferences. The plans were given to Isbitski. Timberpeg registered these plans with the Copyright Office on May 18, 2001. The registration certificate shows that these second preliminary plans were registered as an architectural work. It is only this second, registered set of preliminary plans that is at issue here. 17 Based on these plans, Isbitski applied for a building permit from the Town of Salisbury. As part of the permitting process, in April 2001, Isbitski submitted the second preliminary plans to the Town of Salisbury, where they were placed in a public file. 18 The second set of preliminary plans contained elevations and floor plans. The plans showed a two-floor main house connected via a covered breezeway to a three-car garage with a lofted space above it. The first floor of the main house was nine feet tall; the second floor was eight feet tall. The main house consisted, broadly speaking, of two major portions. One portion — the portion which would be timberframed — was backwards-L-shaped. A great room (with two-floor ceilings on the northern end of the house), kitchen, breakfast room, and dining room were on the first floor, and a den was on the lofted second floor (which occupied only the southern portion of the house). The plans for this portion of the house did not contain a complete design of the timberframe, but the floor plans did show where the vertical posts would connect to the foundation and the location of at least some of the internal horizontal beams. The timberframing in this portion of the house used a particular style featuring common rafters with principal purlins (horizontal timbers supporting the rafters). The roof in this portion was oriented north-to-south, 2 with a particular pitch (roof angle) referred to as a twelve-by-twelve pitch. 19 The exact dimensions of the timberframed portion of the main house were 44 feet by 28 feet, with a 14-foot-by-8-foot section cut out in the northwest corner to form the L shape, where a screen porch would be located. There was also a bump-out in the kitchen on the western side of the house — an approximately eight-foot portion of the western wall containing windows that jutted out one foot beyond the rest of the wall. The timberframed portion of the house also featured a central switchback staircase located in the center of the timberframed portion of the home. In addition to labels denoting the various rooms, the floor plan showed the location of various fixtures, including a kitchen sink (located at the bump-out), a stove, and a fireplace. 20 The second major component of the main house — containing bedrooms, bathrooms, and the foyer — was connected to the eastern side of the timberframed portion, and was to be stick-built. The roof in this portion of the house was oriented east-to-west, and had a pitch of nine-by-twelve. There was a covered porch on the northern part of this portion, which connected to the covered breezeway and the three-car garage. 21 In May 2001, Isbitski asked Timberpeg to modify its preliminary plans so that they reflected a timberframe in a bent style rather than the style previously used (which is variously referred to in the record as a purlin style or a purlin with common rafters style). He gave Timberpeg a picture clipped from a magazine showing a bent frame (this was the same picture he later gave to VTW). No modifications were undertaken until the construction plans were drafted. 22 Later, in August 2001, Isbitski asked Timberpeg for a set of foundation plans showing the location of various support posts and steel girders, so he could start pouring the concrete foundation. Timberpeg agreed, but asked Isbitski to send in $1500 to cover past due and future design fees. Timberpeg asserts that it continued to assume that Isbitski would eventually buy a package from Timberpeg. On September 20, 2001, Timberpeg sent its construction plans, reflecting a timberframe in a bent-frame style (although not containing a complete frame design), and the foundation plan. This third set of plans, which reflected the bent frame, was never registered with the Copyright Office. Sometime thereafter, Isbitski poured the foundation of the home and also began construction of the three-car garage.