First District Leaves Questions Unanswered in Construction Contracting Case
Recently, in Rojas Concrete v. Flood Testing Laboratories, Inc., the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court considered when one party to a construction project owes a duty of care to another. The project was related to the construction of the UIC Forum, a mixed use classroom, office and entertainment facility at UIC. Rojas Concrete contracted with one of the subcontractors on the project to provide and install concrete. Flood Testing Laboratories (“FTL”) contracted with UIC to monitor and test the concrete.
Rojas alleged that on several occasions during the course of the project FTL tested and approved concrete which did not conform to the project specifications. Rojas sued FTL alleging negligence and negligent misrepresentation. FTL moved to dismiss arguing that it did not owe a duty to Rojas.
The court found that FTL did not owe Rojas a duty and dismissed Rojas’ complaint. The court considered whether FTL owed Rojas a duty arising out of 1) its contract; 2) the parties’ relationship; or 3) the voluntary undertaking doctrine. First, with regard to the contractual duty issue, the court found that FTL’s contract with UIC specifically stated that it did not create a contractual duty with any of UIC’s subcontractors. Accordingly, the court found that FTL did not have a duty of care to Rojas arising out of its contract.
Next, the court considered whether FTL owed Rojas a duty based upon the parties’ relationship. The court considered several cases where a court found one party to a construction project had a duty to another without direct contractual privity. However, the court rejected Rojas’ contention that the relationship between it and FTL on the subject project constituted a special relationship giving rise to a duty. The court based its conclusion in part upon the fact that Rojas failed to raise certain arguments related to the foreseeability that it would rely on FTL’s work at the trial court level.
Finally, the court considered whether a duty of care existed as a result of a voluntary undertaking by Rojas. The voluntary undertaking doctrine requires bodily harm to apply and Rojas did not allege any bodily harm.
The court managed to skirt the real issue in this case: what level of foreseeability is required to create a duty on the part of one participant in a construction project to another? By finding that Rojas failed to raise that issue at the trial court, the First District did not answer the question of what types of activities create a duty of care on the part of one participant to a construction project to another party relying on the contractor’s work. However, this case does remind us that it is important to include language in a construction contract specifically defining the work to be performed and stating in clear terms that the performance of that work does not create a duty of care to any other party.
