Opinion ID: 1549541
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Denying the Plea of Limitations to the First Count and Holding the County Responsible for Repairs to the Outfall Line

Text: On this count the trial judge, sitting as the trier of fact, said in his memorandum opinion: COUNT I Count one embodies the common counts for work and materials and for money found to be due between plaintiff and defendant. It also contains a special count alleging a contract between plaintiff and defendant dated August 19, 1968 which plaintiff asserts had been fully performed. However, it goes on to state that it was required to perform additional work as permitted under the contract due to deficiencies and omissions in the specifications in that it was required to repair a forty-eight inch outfall line due to improper specifications. The defendant refused to pay the expense of the repair, thereby allegedly breaking the contract. To this count the defendant has entered the special plea of limitations as well as a defense. The limitations defense is inappropriate. Exhibit one which was entered into evidence without objection and purports to be the Specifications Proposal Contract and Bond for Contract No. 580-BS  Broadneck Wastewater Treatment Plant on page A-3 indicates [1] that it is a sealed instrument. Such being the case, this case was filed well within the twelve-year period of limitations for such a contract. [Code (1974) § 5-102 (a) (5) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article.] Even if somewhere within this weighty document there were contained a three-year limitation provision, the last payment made by the County on account of the contract was dated March 5, 1971. Suit was filed March 14, 1973, also within the three-year limitation apparently urged by defendant.... The nature of the claim arises over the fact that on or about November 19, 1969, an inspector surveying the effluent line in question which extended from the chlorine contact chamber to a manhole structure located distant therefrom some 1000 feet and near the shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay, discovered that some of the sections of pipe which were generally 16 feet in length had either pulled apart completely or had moved to such an extent that danger of separation appeared imminent. The entire line had moved twenty inches toward the outfall structure.... When this fact was called to the attention of the project engineer for Norair, he immediately directed that all work stop on the line. A meeting was held with the principals to determine what could be done. The County officials blamed the condition upon gross neglect ... on the part of the plaintiff; the plaintiff attributed the problem on design deficiencies. The court finds that plaintiff has the better of the argument. Details of the line are graphically presented on Exhibit 2, the working drawing. The outfall line was made of prestressed concrete cylinder pipe to be placed in stable soil to a point approximately 259 feet from the north face of the chlorine contact chamber. At that point, the placement was to be made for the remaining distance in unstable soil and muck typical of tidal marsh material found in the Chesapeake Bay region. Beginning four pipe sections in the stable area, the plans called for the pipe to be supported on pile `bents.' These bents consisted of a creosoted pile driven on either side of the pipe line, the plane formed by the piles being perpendicular to the center line of the pipe. This pair of piles was then notched to receive a pair of four inch by twenty inch timber wales  horizontal beams  bolted to the piles at the precise elevation for the particular station. These bottom wales would provide a stable platform to support the pipe as it was placed on grade. Shifting of the pipe in a lateral direction was to be prevented by a pair of tapered wooden chocks secured to the bottom wales in such a fashion that the tapered faces contacted the outside diameter of the pipe. Once the pipe had been placed on the lower wales, a second pair of four by sixteen inch wales were placed horizontally in contact with the top of the pipe and bolted to the piles. There was no requirement that the upper wales were to exert a compressive force upon the top of the pipe. Exhibit 2 indicated that from station 2+11 to station 8+41 the pipe sections were to be laid with the spigot ends toward the Bay. In other words, down hill. From station 8+41 to station 9+90 the Exhibit 2 called for 10 sections of pipe to be laid in the opposite direction, or up hill. This drawing was later revised, however, when a pipe laying schedule, Exhibit 4, was issued by the pipe manufacturer. The schedule was approved by the County's consulting engineer. It called for the laying to commence 4 feet six inches from center line of pipe to face of contact chamber, and `lay bells ahead up station' (`up station' would necessitate laying pipe toward the Bay  or downward, the difference in elevation between the beginning and the end being 8.45 feet  2.83 feet or 5.62 feet over the entire distance). While the plan as originally drawn, Exhibit 2, indicated the spigot end of the pipe to be laid up-station, the copy furnished the court indicates a pencilled revision showing the bell end to be laid up station consistent with the pipe laying schedule. Section 10-03 of the specification required that installation of all concrete pipe shall be in strict accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and recommendations. The specifications also required the contractor to refill all excavations as rapidly as possible after completion of the work therein, or after the excavations have served their purpose.... Pursuant to this provision only two sections of pipe were allowed to be exposed at one time. It was County policy to back-fill as rapidly as possible to avoid the hazard of anyone falling into the excavation and to protect the completed work. In the entire design of the system there was no provision whatsoever to guard against longitudinal movement, even though at the point of greatest movement unstable earth existed to an approximate depth of twenty-two feet below the finished grade of the pipe bottom. James J. Schnabel, a professional engineer and soil mechanics expert produced by plaintiff, testified that timber piles driven for pipe support were off as much as 1-1/4 inches per foot with directional movement generally toward the man hole. Specifications required that all piles be driven in the presence of the engineer and would be considered plumb if their batter did not exceed 1/4 inch per foot.... Mr. Schnabel further was of the opinion that longitudinal pressures from the method of progressive backfilling would result in cumulative movement towards the soft deposits of marsh vegetation with the sections of pipe being carried along with this force. The County argues that had plaintiff followed the usual engineering practice and worked down-station (uphill) instead of up-station (down-hill) and backfilled at a constant level throughout the length of the line after the entire line had been completed, the problem would never have arisen. That this is so, it argues, is self-evident in that once that procedure was followed, the line remained stable and no further difficulty was encountered since no other provisions were taken to prevent horizontal movement. In the first place, there was no testimony from which the court could conclude that it was customary in such projects to work from the lower to the higher elevation. Secondly, had this been done it would have been violative of the contract specifications, since the manufacturer's directions clearly called for laying the pipe up-station and as a result of this the County revised exhibit 2 to provide for working upstation. Moreover, had the pipe been laid downstation, each succeeding pipe section would have had to be supported in a sling or some such device and adjusted to proper elevation until joined to the next pipe section  a highly awkward and inefficient procedure. Plaintiff's specifications also called for immediate back filling. Additional steps were taken by the subcontractor to prevent longitudinal movement in that `dead men' [2] were placed at regular intervals and the pipe anchored to them.... Plaintiff's subcontractor initially followed the County's specifications precisely, except that upon uncovering the line it was found that some of the top wales were not in contact with the top of the pipe as called for in the plans. The County's inspector in Exhibit D, p. 6, noted that these wales were installed with top wale touching the pipe. The only possible conclusion which can be drawn from this set of circumstances is that the County's requirement for progressive back-filling created upward pressures which floated or lifted the pipe off the bottom wale before the top wale could be secured in place, since the weight of the pipe in and of itself would have kept it in place had not an extraneous lifting pressure been previously exerted. Attempt was made by defendant to attribute the shifting of the piles to the method of removal of the overburden, but the court has heard no convincing evidence of this. While it was reported that backfill was placed longitudinally with the pipe rather than transversely as suggested by the County's inspectors, there was no prohibition as to the longitudinal backfill method in the specifications. Since the subcontractor was not a designer of the structure, it could scarcely be held responsible for inherent design deficiencies which failed to guard against structure movement in a medium recognized to be unstable. Therefore, in the first count the court will award judgment to the plaintiff in the amount of $50,741.97..., there having been no contest as to the unreasonableness of this charge. (Emphasis in original.) We perceive no error of law in that opinion, nor, as to the factual matters there set forth, can we say that the judgment of the lower court ... [is] clearly erroneous.... Maryland Rule 886.