Court Opinion

ID: 9644313
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:52:51.005185+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:11.415412
License: Public Domain

HOLLAND, District Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
The distinction between incidental replacement as distinguished from capital investment should be adhered to and applied. The trial court and the auditor applied this rule too liberally, looking to the character of the work to be done. The rule applied by the trial court was that if the trucks were totally used up, and their use destroyed in a particular work, that such use of the trucks made the furnishing thereof a lienable item. While full regard should be given to the heavy and burdensome character of the levee work, the trial court did not limit the consideration of the incidental feature of the replacement to such heavy work normally done, but included automobile parts totally consumed and used, when the work was negligently, carelessly, and recklessly done.
The true rule should be that the automobile parts which were furnished are protected by the surety bond when they are furnished as incidental to upkeep, and their use is entirely consumed in the performance of the contract, hazardous, burdensome, heavy, and dangerous though such work may be, and in its nature destructive of equipment, but only when such contract work is carried on normally and without negligence. The trucks were constantly overloaded, and this overloading, with the dumping of the dirt into the trucks, produced undue wear and tear upon the truck bodies. The case on direct appeal should be reversed and remanded for a computation of the amounts lienable in accordance here-, with.
As to the cross-appeal, I agree with the decision of the majority.