Timothy Murphy, Cara Passaro, and Bailey Stubbe were defending a Contractor hired by a City to perform the Earthwork for the public streets in a residential development project. The Developer/Plaintiff brought claims against the City and the Contractor, claiming that the Earthwork was defective and alleging damages in excess of $6 million. However, the City’s Project Engineer had signed-off on the Contractor’s work and the City accepted it.
The Court determined that the Contractor did not owe a duty to the Developer to perform work in a good and workmanlike manner, and where the Developer was not a party to or a third-party beneficiary of the City’s contract with the Contractor, that there was no legally recognized relationship between the Contractor and the Developer sufficient to create a duty, forcing the dismissal of the Developer’s claims. The Plaintiff/Developer opted not to appeal the Court’s ruling.
