Opinion ID: 2549816
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: whether absher requires a different result

Text: The county relies on Absher Constr. Co. v. Kent Sch. Dist. No. 415, 77 Wash.App. 137, 890 P.2d 1071 (1995), for the proposition that Washington now follows a rule of strict compliance in enforcing a construction contract's claims procedures and that unequivocal conduct is required before a contract provision will be deemed waived. This citation is not well taken. In Absher, the owner had no notice of the contractor's additional work until it was already completed. The owner had no opportunity to investigate the differing site conditions and make a determination how to accommodate it. In Absher, the contractor went ahead and completed the work and then presented the bill. In the present case, MMJ was completing work expressly required by the county and under the county's daily inspection. We should not extend Absher for the proposition that an owner can direct additional work be done and then avoid paying for it if the contractor fails to submit a claim in 15 days which includes details which could not possibly yet be known. The county contends that under Absher, it is no longer relevant whether the owner has actual notice of the changed conditions and the additional work made necessary by those conditions. The county points out that the Court of Appeals in Absher wrote that [e]ven if the District had known of the concerns, those concerns were not claims under the contract. Id. at 143, 890 P.2d 1071. Based on this language, the county contends that actual notice of changed site conditions no longer has any relevance in evaluating the contractor's entitlement to compensation. However, the statement in Absher regarding what the result in that case would have been if actual notice had occurred is plainly dicta. Actual notice did not occur, and therefore the parties were not meaningfully adversed on this point. The contractor did not provide any notice to the owner, and the owner did not have the opportunity to investigate alternate arrangements and was not able to direct the contractor how to proceed. The county cannot rely on dicta from a case where actual notice was not an issue. Nor can the county effectively argue that Absher changed the rules in Washington regarding actual notice. Notably, the Absher decision did not meaningfully evaluate governing Washington precedent on that issue, such as Bignold and Lindbrook.