Opinion ID: 1844436
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Clay Electric's Contract with the JEA

Text: The concurrence argues that Clay Electric's duty arises from a contractual obligation to maintain lights that had been installed by the Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA). Concurring op. at 1191. Although a streetlight maintenance contract may impose a contractual duty to the municipality, it does not automatically impose a duty to the public. Some of the courts that have declined to recognize a common law duty have done so even in the face of such a contract. See, e.g., Shafouk Nor El Din Hamza v. Bourgeois, 493 So.2d 112, 117 (La.Ct.App.1986); E. Coast Freight Lines, 50 A.2d at 254-55; Quinn v. Ga. Power Co., 51 Ga.App. 291, 180 S.E. 246, 248 (1935). While a duty may arise from a contract even where none exists at common law or pursuant to statute, we have held that in such cases the contract itself defines the extent of the duty. See Mugge v. Tampa Waterworks Co., 52 Fla. 371, 42 So. 81, 86 (1906). As has been the law of this state for nearly a hundred years, for a utility to assume a duty to the public arising from a contract with a municipality, the contract must specifically establish an intent to compensate the public in the event of a default. Mugge, 42 So. at 86. Whether a utility assumes a duty to the public when it contracts with a municipality to provide streetlights will depend on the contract's terms. This analysis is consistent with both Mugge and our subsequent decision in Woodbury v. Tampa Waterworks Co., 57 Fla. 243, 49 So. 556 (1909). In both cases, individuals who suffered fire damage sued the Tampa Waterworks Company alleging it negligently failed to furnish water for fire protection, in breach of its contract with the city. In Mugge, the plaintiff alleged that the contract between Tampa Waterworks and the City of Tampa provided that the waterworks company should assume all liabilities to persons and property arising from [the] constructi[on] or operati[on] of the [waterworks system]; [and] that said contract was made and acquiesced in by the defendant company for the benefit of citizens and property owners of the city, including the plaintiff. 42 So. at 81. In concluding that the complaint sufficiently alleged a cause of action, this Court held the contract of the water company is the measure of its duty to the property owner, and therefore of its liability. Id. at 86. Tampa Waterworks had assumed the public duty of furnishing water for extinguishing fires, according to the terms of its contract. Id. In Woodbury, the plaintiff alleged that Tampa Waterworks Company breached its contractual duty with the City of Tampa to supply water to the fire hydrants in the immediate area where a fire began, thus causing the fire to spread to plaintiff's property. This Court held that [t]he duty ... owed to the plaintiff by virtue of the public service engaged in by the defendant was to supply the hydrants near the plaintiff's property with water as legally required.... The plaintiff has no right of action for a failure to furnish water where the plaintiff's property was not located, if such failure was not a proximate cause of the burning of the plaintiff's property. Woodbury, 49 So. at 559. We have since reaffirmed both Mugge and Woodbury. In Arenado v. Florida Power & Light Co., 541 So.2d 612 (Fla. 1989), we dismissed review because the lower court's decision did not conflict with those cases. The Court stated: We now agree that Mugge and Woodbury were predicated upon special language in the Tampa Waterworks' contracts which does not exist here. `[T]he contract of the water company is the measure of its duty to the property owner.' Id. at 614 (quoting Mugge, 42 So. at 86). Thus, our unanimous decision in Arenado acknowledges that the contracts in Mugge and Woodbury were the defining source of the duty. The concurring opinion's contrary interpretation of these cases contradicts Arenado. Concurring op. at 1192-93. The district court's decision in Arenado (with thenJudge Anstead on the panel) affirmed the dismissal of a complaint on even more distressing facts. In Arenado, a collision occurred at an intersection because a downed power line had cut off electricity to the traffic signal. The decedent's family sued Florida Power and Light (FPL), alleging a duty based on FPL's contract with the City. In rejecting that argument, the court relied on H.R. Moch Co. as well as on Mugge and Woodbury. As to H.R. Moch, it quoted Cardozo's discussion of a duty based on contract: In a broad sense it is true that every city contract not improvident or wasteful, is for the benefit of the public. More than this, however, must be shown to give a right of action to a member of the public not formally a party. The benefit, as it is sometimes said, must be one that is not merely incidental and secondary.... It must be primary and immediate in such a sense and to such a degree as to bespeak the assumption of a duty to make reparation directly to the individual members of the public if the benefit is lost. Arenado, 523 So.2d at 628-29 (quoting H.R. Moch Co., 159 N.E. at 897). The court then addressed the plaintiff's argument that this Court's decisions in Mugge and Woodbury placed Florida in the minority of states that would impose liability on a utility. The court noted that [t]he contract in Mugge stated that the waterworks company should assume all liabilities to persons arising from constructing or operating the water system. Id. at 629. As already noted, this Court dismissed review, on the specific ground that the decision did not conflict with either Mugge or Woodbury. Applying Mugge and Woodbury, as interpreted in Arenado, to the facts in this case, the trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of Clay Electric because there is no contract in the record or any other evidence indicating the terms of the contract, including the rights and obligations of the parties. Johnson v. Lance, Inc., 790 So.2d 1144, 1148 (Fla. 1st DCA 2001) (Polston, J., concurring). The plaintiff has not alleged that Clay Electric's contract imposed any duty to the public or expressed an agreement to compensate the public in the event of a default. Without knowing the contract's terms, it is impossible to measure the duty, if any, that Clay Electric owes to the plaintiff. Mugge, 42 So. at 86. Therefore, the trial court did not err when it granted Clay Electric's motion for summary judgment.