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Lassiter v. Cecil8/21/2001
Appeal by plaintiffs from judgment entered 6 December 1999 by Judge Sanford L. Steelman, Jr. in Superior Court, Davidson County. Heard in the Court of Appeals 27 March 2001.
Plaintiffs signed a fee construction contract with defendant Castle Construction Company, Inc. (Castle) on 10 June 1996 to build a house on plaintiffs' land. Defendant Ronald Jeffrey Cecil (Cecil) signed the contract as president of Castle. The contract provided that Cecil, as Castle's representative, would personally oversee and provide general supervision in connection with the construction project. Construction began immediately, and plaintiffs paid defendants every month as billed. Then, in December 1996, plaintiffs withheld several thousand dollars from their payment because of obvious defects in the construction of the house. Defendants demanded the remainder of the payment and, when plaintiffs refused to pay, defendants ceased all work on the house.
Plaintiffs filed their complaint on 20 February 1997, alleging that Castle had breached the fee construction contract through numerous faults and defects in the construction, and alleging that Castle had been negligent in constructing the house. Plaintiffs also sought attorney's fees and costs as provided for in the fee construction contract. Plaintiffs amended their complaint with leave of the trial court on 18 August 1998, adding Cecil to their claim of negligence.
At trial, plaintiffs sought to introduce evidence of plaintiff Eva C. Lassiter's (Eva's) emotional distress arising from the difficulties in constructing the house. The trial court denied plaintiffs' request, holding that plaintiffs had not adequately pled a claim for emotional distress.
At the close of plaintiffs' evidence, defendants moved for directed verdicts on all claims. The trial court granted defendants' motion for a directed verdict on the claim of negligence against Castle, but denied defendants' motions on the remaining claims of breach of contract against Castle and negligence against Cecil.
During defendants' presentation of evidence, Cecil testified that the fee construction contract was a contract between plaintiffs and Castle, and that Cecil was involved only in his capacity as president of Castle. Cecil acknowledged, however, that he had been the construction superintendent for plaintiffs' house, and that he also had done some work as a laborer for Castle's framing subcontractor.
At the close of all the evidence, the jury returned verdicts finding Castle liable for breach of contract and finding Cecil liable for negligence. Upon defendants' motion, the trial court granted judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the issue of Cecil's negligence.
Plaintiffs waived their right to jury trial on the issue of reasonable attorney's fees and expenses under the fee construction contract. The trial court accordingly awarded plaintiffs $22,794.75 in attorney's fees and $16,740.06 in expert witness fees and deposition costs, as well as the filing fees and service fees for all subpoenas issued by plaintiffs.
Plaintiffs appeal, assigning error to the trial court's (1) exclusion of evidence of Eva's emotional distress, (2) grant of judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the issue of Cecil's negligence, and (3) award to plaintiffs of only $16,740.06 in costs.
I.
Plaintiffs assert that they were entitled to present evidence of Eva's emotional distress as a component of damages both for breach of contract and for negligence. However, neither plaintiffs' original complaint, nor their amended complaint, includes any mention of emotional distress or of personal injury of any type.
I
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