Standard Structural Steel Co. v. Debron Corp.

• Decision Date: 29 August 1980
• Docket Number: Civ. No. H-76-253.
• Citation: 515 F. Supp. 803
• Parties: STANDARD STRUCTURAL STEEL CO. v. DEBRON CORPORATION, et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut

515 F. Supp. 803

STANDARD STRUCTURAL STEEL CO. v. DEBRON CORPORATION, et al.

Civ. No. H-76-253.

United States District Court, D. Connecticut.

August 29, 1980.

Arthur Weinstein, Michael Kulick, Hartford, Conn., for plaintiff.

Peter Ryan, Darien, Conn., James A. Pemberton, Jr., King & King, Washington, D. C., Henry Ide, Bailey & Wechsler, Hartford, Conn., for defendant.

EXCERPTS FROM MEMORANDUM OF DECISION^*

BLUMENFELD, District Judge.

This is an action for breach of contract, with jurisdiction properly founded upon diversity of citizenship, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1). The plaintiff, Standard Structural Steel Co. (Standard), is, among other things, an erector of structural steel. The defendant Debron Corporation (Debron) at all relevant times operated a division known as Indiana Bridge, which fabricates structural steel at its plant in Muncie, Indiana.¹ The defendant Commercial Union Insurance Co. (Commercial) issued a performance bond, as well as a labor and materials payment bond, in connection with the contract at issue here and is being sued thereon after allegedly refusing Standard's demand for payment. Debron and Commercial have in turn filed various counterclaims against Standard.²

After more than three years of discovery and occasional unsuccessful settlement efforts, a court trial of this action began on January 23, 1980. The trial consumed 27 days, extending over nearly six months, and concluded on July 2, 1980. Thousands of exhibits were received in evidence, though most without objection. The subject matter of the trial was highly technical, often requiring extended explanations by the parties' witnesses. As if the case was not thus sufficiently complicated, the court's task was made even more difficult by the fact that a trial not of one case but of more than 200 mini-cases was necessary. At last, however, the time for a decision on the merits is at hand. A recitation of the background facts provides an appropriate starting point.

I. BACKGROUND

In May 1973, Standard received from the Gilbane Building Co. (Gilbane) an invitation to bid on the fabrication and erection of structural steel for a Land Level Submarine Construction Facility (Inshore) at the Groton, Connecticut headquarters of Electric Boat Division (EB), General Dynamics Corp. Gilbane was preparing its own bid to become general contractor for the project, a huge structure along the Thames River that was to measure approximately 480 feet in length by 260 feet in width by 135 feet in height. The facility was intended for use in the construction of Trident submarines, the largest class of submarines then approved by Congress. Not surprisingly, therefore, the federal government took great interest in the project and assigned it top-priority status.

One cannot appreciate the massive nature of this job without understanding, as well, the structure's inner dimensions and capacities. EB's plans and specifications called for a truss-and-column structure composed of two sections — a crane bay approximately 80 feet wide and a fabrication or service bay about 180 feet wide. The smaller bay was to house two cranes, each weighing 280 tons and having a 280-ton capacity. These cranes, which were each to be supported by two rails that ran the length of the building at an elevation exceeding 100 feet, would eventually be used to assemble the hull and other heavy parts of a submarine. The fabrication bay would be used to assemble smaller parts; these would in turn be transported to the crane bay, made into larger parts, and then assembled in the submarine.

Now fully erected, the structure, designed to carry such heavy loads, is supported by ten box columns about ten feet square and 135 feet in height each, as well as five additional columns adjacent to a pre-existing building that are also 135 feet high but are made of 36-inch frames ten feet wide. Large box trusses, up to 25 feet deep, stabilize the top-heavy load created by the weight of the cranes in the smaller bay. The roof system is supported by a series of intermediate trusses framing into these heavy trusses and, in turn, a structural system of lighter joists to pick up the roof decking. The facility can house a 9,000-ton submarine, some 50 feet in diameter and more than 400 feet in length.

After receiving Gilbane's invitation to bid on this massive project and examining a set of contract drawings, a representative of Standard contacted Albert O. Muehlenbrock, Vice-President of the Mississippi Valley Division (Mississippi Valley) of Debron, with whom Standard had previously done business, to inquire whether Mississippi Valley would be interested in fabricating the steel required for the job. Because Standard had to submit a bid to Gilbane quickly, Muehlenbrock came to the Hartford area, where Standard's headquarters are located, to view the drawings and meet with Standard's representatives. At the meeting, which occurred on or about May 26, 1973, Muehlenbrock expressed interest in fabricating the job and, accordingly, in preparing a bid. The meeting then progressed to a general discussion of various fabrication and erection needs, including the size and manner in which pieces should be fabricated, the means for delivering those pieces to the jobsite, and the number of bolts that would be required for the project. A subsequent meeting was held on June 26, 1973 in St. Louis, where Mississippi Valley was located, to coordinate fabrication and erection requirements — essentially, to cover all bases.

Standard proceeded to prepare its bid for Gilbane, incorporating Mississippi Valley's bid for fabrication and other information supplied to it by Mississippi Valley. EB thereafter awarded the general contractor's position to Gilbane, which in turn sub-contracted with Standard on November 13, 1973 for fabrication and erection. (Exh. P-2). Standard then honored Debron's request that it sub-contract with Indiana Bridge, rather than with Mississippi Valley, for fabrication of the structural steel that would be needed for erection. This subcontract (hereinafter referred to simply as the "contract"), which Standard now claims was breached in a multitude of respects, was entered into on January 4, 1974. (Exh. P-1).

The contract required Indiana Bridge, among other things, "to complete the detailing ... of all Structural Steel" to be used in the Groton project, a process through which concept sketches, shop detail drawings, and erection drawings would eventually be produced. These drawings aid the fabricator and erector in performing the work required of them. Indiana Bridge hired the St. Louis firm of Lopinot and Weber, Inc. (L & W) to prepare the necessary drawings; Standard then forwarded to L & W the contract drawings prepared by EB's consulting engineer so that L & W could begin work. (Exh. D-16).³ After numerous discussions and revisions, a set of detail and erection drawings were approved by the owner's engineer, who issued them to Indiana Bridge so that fabrication could begin.

Fabrication of some minor steel, the slabs for the base of the columns, was commenced in May or June of 1974. Other non-critical or minor members were fabricated in late June and early July. Major components were not begun until August, September, and October. In the meantime, L & W was awaiting certain critical design information from EB's engineer on the truss-to-column connections for the structure, as well as on the internal connections for the major trusses. This information was not received until late July of 1974, stretching L & W's work on the detail drawings into late October and delaying fabrication of certain major components.

During the same period, a logistical problem developed in Groton. The original bid documents indicated that a staging area would be provided to the erector at a Central Vermont Railway pier across the Thames River and about one mile north of the jobsite. Standard later learned from Gilbane, however, that the pier would not satisfy its needs, and so a search for a new staging area was begun. Ultimately, Standard and Gilbane settled on a site in Elizabethport, New Jersey for this purpose. Indiana Bridge was then instructed to ship the fabricated steel to Elizabethport by rail, rather than to the pier along the Thames as had originally been contemplated. Standard assumed responsibility for unloading the railroad cars at Elizabethport and trucking the steel to Groton; it contracted with Standard Container Corp. (Standard Container) to perform these functions.

Erection of the EB facility began on or about January 10, 1975, and it was not long before Standard began experiencing erection difficulties in the field. These problems varied in nature: in the two-week period between January 23 and February 6, 1975 alone, Standard claims to have found material missing from the jobsite, material damaged in transit, material delivered out of sequence, pieces improperly marked, gusset plates improperly assembled, holes of improper size, and bolts difficult to tighten. Each of the alleged difficulties was recorded on an individual "error notification sheet," which briefly described the problem, usually indicated the date on which the problem was either discovered or corrected, and assigned a number to the alleged error.

By February 17, 1975, Standard's field personnel had written 30 of these error sheets, and there was no let-up in sight. On February 25, Michael D. Conte, Standard's general erection manager, called Franklyn Ford, Indiana Bridge's chief engineer at the time, to discuss the claimed errors and the corrective work that allegedly had been necessitated by many of them. This was followed up on the same day with a letter from Conte enclosing the first 30 error sheets. (Exh. P-2437). A meeting had previously been held in Muncie on February 6 to discuss erection difficulties, and another was scheduled for February 27 for the same purpose. Standard's minutes of these meetings are found in a...