Regional School District 8 v. M & S Paving & Sealing, Inc.

Citations

• 206 Conn. App. 523

Syllabus

The plaintiff school district sought to recover damages from the defendant for breach of contract relating to the defendant's allegedly defective work in repairing a set of concrete stairs on the plaintiff's campus. Following the defendant's completion of its contract, the concrete of the stairs experienced significant cracking, and the plaintiff was required to hire a separate contractor, R Co., to replace the stairs. The stairs replaced by R Co. also complied with applicable building code regula- tions, which the stairs repaired by the defendant had not. The trial court found that the plaintiff could not prevail on its breach of contract claim on the basis of the building code violations, as the contract did not call for compliance with the code, but that the defendant did breach the contract on the basis of its unworkmanlike performance in the construc- tion of the stairs. The court rendered judgment for the plaintiff and awarded damages, and the defendant appealed to this court. Held: 1. The trial court did not err in concluding that the defendant breached the contract by virtue of its unworkmanlike performance: this case fell within the recognized exception to the general rule requiring expert testimony in cases alleging a breach of the implied duty to perform in a workmanlike manner, as the court did not require expert testimony to conclude that the cracks in the concrete were caused by the defendant's defective work, there was evidence presented showing that there were plain and obvious defects in the concrete, the defendant was the only party responsible for replacing the stairs, including the choice and instal- lation of the concrete, cracks began to appear less than six months after the work was completed, the cracks were significant in degree, and the defendant presented no evidence that the cracks were caused by some significant impact; moreover, the defendant's claim that the cracking could have been caused by a snowplow or other significant impact was