South Central Bell v. Milton J. Womack and Associates

Repair Costs - Damage - In 1991, defendant was the contractor for the construction of a
social science building on the Baton Rouge campus of Southern University. During the
construction process, there was a question about the location of the underground bank,
which housed the university's telephone cables. The phone bank interfered with the
southern edge of the building, and initially Southern officials explored the possibility of
moving the phone bank. Plaintiffs engineer, Andrew Eames, informed Southern's officials
that moving the bank would be too costly, so it was necessary for defendant to find the
exact location of the phone bank and redesign the building, in order to refrain from
damaging the bank.

Plaintiff's location contractor, Byers Engineering Co., had attempted to find the exact
location of the bank. However on August 23, 1991, Albert Dickey, plaintiff's service
technician, went to the construction site. Dickey met with Ed Ramsur, defendant's project
superintendent, and informed Ramsur the phone bank was located straight across the
southern edge of the building. On Saturday, August 24, 1991, Dickey and Eames returned
to the construction site and determined that the phone bank was not positioned in a straight
line but turned to the south. Dickey and Eames marked the location of the phone bank
with orange paint. n August 26, 1991, defendant began drilling for shafts. On September
10, 1991, while defendant was drilling for a shaft, the phone bank was severed. Defendant
stipulated at trial that it did not call the "DOTTIE" (the notification center) line in
compliance with the Louisiana "Dig Law" in order to have plaintiff and other utilities locate
and mark their lines.

Plaintiff filed a petition for damages against defendant and Cigna for the cost of repairing
the phone bank.

The trial court found for the palintiff with total damages of $28,597.10, but casting Milton J. Womack, Inc., and Cigna Property and Casualty Insurance Company, its insurer, with liability for only 30% of the damages.

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The decision was amended, and as amended, affirmed; application for rehearing denied by the Court of Appeal of Louisiana. See: 744 So.2d 635 (La.App. 1 Cir. 1998). Note: The date above reflects the date of the appellate decision and not the original trial date. Reported by EMDH.