Court Opinion

ID: 9699675
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:45:52.416467+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:40:59.551060
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
KLEIN, J.:
¶ 1 I respectfully dissent. It is clear under Pennsylvania’s One Call Act (the Act) that in order for Columbia Gas to do business it had the obligation to supply proper information with regard to marking its gas lines. Therefore, I would find that ETI has stated a viable cause of action for *122negligent misrepresentation, pursuant to section 552(3) of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, where its claim is solely for economic damages due to Columbia’s mis/mal-feasance under the Act. In short: (1) Columbia had a statutory public duty under the Act to supply information to the One Call Center; (2) the information was procured to benefit a class of persons (i.e., contractors) such as ETI; and (3) ETI suffered losses as a result of Columbia’s breach of its statutory duty. See Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 552(3).
¶ 2 In addition, permitting ETI to proceed with its claim for economic damages not only furthers the public policy underlying the Act, but also increases the incentive for a utility company to comply with its statutory duty of providing accurate information in the course of its business so that designated third parties can justifiably rely on that information. Accordingly, I would reverse the order sustaining Columbia Gas’s preliminary objections based upon a negligence cause of action and dismissing ETI’s complaint.
¶ 3 The following facts are clear: Columbia Gas had a statutory duty as a “facility owner” under the Act to supply proper and complete information with regard to demarcation of its gas lines; it admittedly breached that duty by improperly marking and failing to mark some of those lines; and ETI, an excavator/contractor under the Act, suffered damages from Columbia Gas’s negligence. Despite these facts, the majority concludes that ETI should be barred from recovering economic damages based upon the following reasons: under the economic loss doctrine, purely economic claims are not recoverable in tort actions; a public utility is not a professional information provider; the Restatement (Second) of Torts, Section 552, is inapplicable to the instant case because a facility owner under the Act does not engage in supplying information to others for pecuniary gain, and does not have any other interest or relationship to the parties involved in the transaction which necessitates a contractor’s/excavator’s work; the Act, itself, does not provide for a private cause of action for negligence; and the risks and damages suffered by contractors/excavators are not the type the Act seeks to prevent.
¶ 4 The purpose of the economic loss doctrine, which is heavily relied upon by the majority, is to “maintain[] the separate spheres of the law of contract [warranty] and tort.” New York State Electric & Gas Corp. v. Westinghouse Electric Corp., 387 Pa.Super. 537, 564 A.2d 919, 925 (1989). The doctrine was first espoused in product liability cases in the context of commercial sales. Over the years, exceptions to the doctrine have been created by our courts. See e.g., New York State & Gas Corp., supra (plaintiff was precluded from recovering economic damages as result of defective design of defendant’s product (turbines on a ship) supplied to plaintiff; however, plaintiff could recover damages to its “other property” arising out of defendant’s negligent manufacturing of original product); Waterware Corp. v. Ametek/US Gauge Division, 51 Pa. D. & C.4th 201, 2001 WL 1112975 (Com.Pl. Phila. County 2001) (plaintiff could not recover economic damages for defendant’s defective sensors, but could recover for costs of replacing other component parts of sewer system damaged on account of defective sensors).
¶ 5 Further exceptions to the economic loss doctrine have been adopted in our Commonwealth in an effort to respond to the reality that negligent misrepresentation claims often arise in the context of non-contractual relationships where there is no pecuniary gain — such as the case here. Rather, in many instances, the de*123fendant has a recognized legal duty (such as by statute) to provide information to a plaintiff and the latter suffers purely economic losses as a result of the former negligently supplying that information. Section 552 is a necessary vehicle used to curtail a plaintiffs negligence in failing to adhere to recognized legal duties.
¶ 6 One of the majority’s main reasons for disallowing ETI’s negligence claim is a primary reason why I believe ETI should be permitted to state a cause of action for economic damages for Columbia Gas’s negligence — namely, that Columbia’s duty under the Act is protective in nature to both the public and the facility owner’s lines. The breach of such a widespread public duty, which has the potential to negatively affect countless people, should be reason alone to permit recovery when that entity has caused substantial economic damages.
¶ 7 The majority also reasons that “[n]o-where in the Act does it state that there is a right to recover economic damages (in the form of cost overruns in its contract with the project’s owner) for failure to comply with the duties imposed by the Act,” Majority Opinion, at 118, but, rather the Act specifies that its provisions “shall not affect any civil remedies for personal injury or property damage, except as otherwise specifically provide for in this act.” Id. (emphasis in original). The majority would construe this bolded language as the legislature’s intent to limit any civil damages to just those enumerated, personal injury or property damage. I disagree.
¶ 8 The Act specifies that one of the factors to be considered when assessing fines against a non-complying facility owner is “the degree of threat to the public safety and inconvenience caused by the party’s noncompliance.” 73 P.S. § 182.2(c)(3) (emphasis added). Thus, the drafters of the Act did in fact contemplate the reality that a facility owner’s non-compliance would create public inconvenience and that such owners should be sanctioned for creating these losses. Moreover, while not further defined in the Act, I would interpret this bolded phrase to encompass a contractor’s/excavator’s disruption of work and loss of manpower — precisely those damages alleged in ETI’s complaint.
¶ 9 The Act also delineates that the public inconvenience factor is to be considered, for purposes of imposing fines, in addition to the amount of personal and property damage caused as a result of noncompliance under the Act. 73 P.S. § 182.2(c)(2). Thus, unlike the majority’s narrow reading of the statute, it is apparent that the Act does not treat the factors under subsection (c)(2) & (3) as mutually exclusive — they both are to be considered as bases for sanctions when an owner has not complied with the Act.
¶ 10 In sum, under the Act Columbia Gas was required to mark its underground gas lines. Admittedly, Columbia marked several lines improperly and in some eases failed to mark fines at all. As a result of ETI striking the fines several times, it incurred more than $74,000 in economic damages due to downtime of personnel and equipment. Because limiting ETI’s right to recover economic damages in this instance would promote careless or indifferent compliance with the Act, contrary to the legislative purpose of imposing a statutory duty for utility companies such as Columbia Gas and the intent behind Restatement § 552(3), I must dissent.