Altman v. John Mourier Construction
Plaintiffs, homeowners Brian Altman et al.,[1] filed suit against home designer/builder, defendant John Mourier Construction, Inc. (JMC), alleging that design defects and construction defects of their homes allowed water intrusion causing damage. Plaintiffs alleged theories of strict products liability (design defect), breach of express and implied warranty, breach of contract, and negligence. By special verdicts, the jury rejected the strict liability and warranty claims, finding the houses did not fail to perform “structurally†as an ordinary consumer would have expected or as represented. The jury nevertheless found JMC breached contracts and was negligent in the design or construction of the houses. The jury awarded plaintiffs damages for negligence and breach of contract.
In a bifurcated bench trial, the trial court awarded plaintiffs some but not all of their investigative costs as damages for successfully prosecuting a tort claim in a construction defect case pursuant to Stearman v. Centex Homes (2000) 78 Cal.App.4th 611 (Stearman).
JMC appeals from the judgment, arguing evidentiary error, insufficiency of the evidence, inconsistency of the verdicts, and duplicative damages. JMC also appeals from the trial court’s refusal to offset the judgment by an amount plaintiffs received from subcontractors’ good faith settlements. (Code Civ. Proc., § 877.)[2]
Plaintiffs separately appeal from the trial court’s partial denial of investigative costs.
We reverse that portion of the judgment that awarded damages for breach of contract, because there was no substantial evidence of contract. We affirm the trial court’s ruling regarding investigative costs. We otherwise affirm the judgment.
Comments on Altman v. John Mourier Construction